ios – How to style NavigationLink when pressed?

I’m a beginner and i’ve been trying to build a safari app extension as my first project.
I’m trying to customize the look of NavigationLink rows inside a list when pressed.

Right now, pressing each row looks like this:

It gets that dark gray highlight, and i want to change it to something smoother.

The code for that view is divided in two files, the HomeView and the FolderRowView. I’ll add both for context:

// HomeView snippet

    var body: some View {
        NavigationStack {
            VStack(alignment: .leading, spacing: 8) {
                
                HStack {
                    Text("Explore")
                        .font(.title2)
                    
                    Spacer()
                    
                    SortButton(isAscending: $isAscending) // Now properly updates sorting
                }
                
                SearchBar(text: $searchText)
                    .padding(.vertical, 2)

                //below is the list with the NavigationLink
                List(filteredFolders) { folder in
                    NavigationLink(destination: DummyFolderDetailView(folder: folder)) {
                        FolderRowView(folder: folder)
                    }
                }
                .clipShape(RoundedRectangle(cornerRadius: 8))
                .navigationTitle("Folders")
            }
        }
    }

// Component FolderRowView

struct FolderRowView: View {
    let folder: Folder
    @State private var isHovering = false
    
    var body: some View {
        HStack {
            // Folder Icon
            Image(systemName: "folder.fill")
                .resizable()
                .scaledToFit()
                .frame(width: 18, height: 18)
                .foregroundStyle(.gray)
            
            Spacer()
            
            // Folder Name
            Text(folder.name)
                .font(.body)
                .frame(maxWidth: .infinity, alignment: .leading)
            
            // Chevron Icon
            Image(systemName: "chevron.right")
                .foregroundColor(.gray)
        }
        .padding(.vertical, 6)
        .padding(.horizontal, 10) // Added horizontal padding for space around content
        .background(isHovering ? Color.gray.opacity(0.1) : Color.clear) // Optional background change on hover
        .scaleEffect(isHovering ? 1.05 : 1.0) // Zoom-in effect
        .cornerRadius(8)
        .animation(.easeInOut(duration: 0.2), value: isHovering) // Smooth animation
        .onHover { hovering in
            isHovering = hovering
        }
        .contextMenu { //(...)

So as you can see i already successfully added on hover styling and animation to the rows by working inside the component file.
I realize that customizing the on press style is a bit more complicated than that!

I tried:

• .onTapGesture with @State private var isPressed = false in the component file, which showed up on press correctly, but interfered with the NavigationLink click in a way the action was no longer actioning 🙂

• Made a third component file CustomStyle containing view struct PressableStyle: ButtonStyle that was then added as a modifier to the NavigationLink as .buttonStyle(PressableStyle()) but it didn’t really do anything..

• ChatGPT suggested i try creating a component view FolderRowLink that calls the FolderRowView, nests it inside a button, and embeds a hidden NavigationLink triggered by the button. Then in the HomeView i’d only have to call that FolderRowLink view in the list. I tried this but it has the same result as the first approach, where the new on press style shows up but clicking doesn’t action.

I understand the highlight color applied by default in the on press is the accentColor, but i’ve ran into some issues with it where .foregroundStyle(.accent) calls my Assets.xcassets AccentColor, but .foregroundStyle(Color.accentColor) calls a dark gray (the one showing on press by default) and adding style modifiers to the NavigationLink doesn’t work either.

Overall i guess i just want to know whether styling this is possible, and how do you guys do it?