Systems, methods and computer program products for facilitating the recognition of user air swipe gestures are disclosed. Such systems, methods and computer program products provide a two-stage gesture recognition approach that combines desirable aspects of object manipulation gestures and symbolic gestures in order to create an interaction that is both reliable and intuitive for users of a computing system. In a first position-based stage, the user moves the cursor into a swipe activation zone. Second, in a motion-based stage, the user swipes their hand from the activation zone past a swipe gate within a certain amount of time to complete the interaction. GUI feedback is provided following the first stage to let the user know that the swipe interaction is available, and after the second stage to let the user know that the swipe is completed.