A method, performed at an electronic device having a touch-sensitive surface and executing a software application with an application state, comprising: displaying one or more views of a plurality of views of the software application, the plurality of views includes a first plurality of gesture recognizers, each gesture recognizer of the first plurality of gesture recognizers has a state, and a respective gesture recognizer of the first plurality of gesture recognizers has a corresponding delegate that at least partially determines state transitions of the respective gesture recognizer; detecting one or more touches, on the touch-sensitive surface, each having a touch position that falls within one or more of the displayed views; processing a respective touch of the one or more touches at one or more gesture recognizers of the one or more displayed views that include the touch position of the respective touch, including the respective gesture recognizer, including: after detecting the one or more touches, executing the delegate corresponding to the respective gesture recognizer to obtain a receive touch value based on the application state, wherein the receive touch value determines whether the respective gesture recognizer is allowed to receive the respective touch; receiving the respective touch at the respective gesture recognizer in accordance with the receive touch value; and when enabled by the delegate corresponding to the respective gesture recognizer and the respective touch is consistent with a gesture definition, or a part thereof, of one or more gesture definitions of the respective gesture recognizer, transitioning the state of the respective gesture recognizer; and conditionally sending one or more action messages corresponding to the respective touch to the software application in accordance with the respective gesture recognizer determining that the respective touch matches the gesture definition and in accordance with one or more values that determine the behavior of the respective gesture recognizer, including the receive touch value, determined by the delegate corresponding to the respective gesture recognizer, and executing the software application in accordance with the one or more action messages. displaying one or more views of a plurality of views of the software application, the plurality of views includes a first plurality of gesture recognizers, each gesture recognizer of the first plurality of gesture recognizers has a state, and a respective gesture recognizer of the first plurality of gesture recognizers has a corresponding delegate that at least partially determines state transitions of the respective gesture recognizer; detecting one or more touches, on the touch-sensitive surface, each having a touch position that falls within one or more of the displayed views; processing a respective touch of the one or more touches at one or more gesture recognizers of the one or more displayed views that include the touch position of the respective touch, including the respective gesture recognizer, including: after detecting the one or more touches, executing the delegate corresponding to the respective gesture recognizer to obtain a receive touch value based on the application state, wherein the receive touch value determines whether the respective gesture recognizer is allowed to receive the respective touch; receiving the respective touch at the respective gesture recognizer in accordance with the receive touch value; and when enabled by the delegate corresponding to the respective gesture recognizer and the respective touch is consistent with a gesture definition, or a part thereof, of one or more gesture definitions of the respective gesture recognizer, transitioning the state of the respective gesture recognizer; and after detecting the one or more touches, executing the delegate corresponding to the respective gesture recognizer to obtain a receive touch value based on the application state, wherein the receive touch value determines whether the respective gesture recognizer is allowed to receive the respective touch; receiving the respective touch at the respective gesture recognizer in accordance with the receive touch value; and when enabled by the delegate corresponding to the respective gesture recognizer and the respective touch is consistent with a gesture definition, or a part thereof, of one or more gesture definitions of the respective gesture recognizer, transitioning the state of the respective gesture recognizer; and conditionally sending one or more action messages corresponding to the respective touch to the software application in accordance with the respective gesture recognizer determining that the respective touch matches the gesture definition and in accordance with one or more values that determine the behavior of the respective gesture recognizer, including the receive touch value, determined by the delegate corresponding to the respective gesture recognizer, and executing the software application in accordance with the one or more action messages.