diff --git a/Libraries/Components/Navigation/NavigatorIOS.ios.js b/Libraries/Components/Navigation/NavigatorIOS.ios.js
index 226de91f14d..ad653000833 100644
--- a/Libraries/Components/Navigation/NavigatorIOS.ios.js
+++ b/Libraries/Components/Navigation/NavigatorIOS.ios.js
@@ -308,6 +308,15 @@ var NavigatorIOS = React.createClass({
      */
     translucent: PropTypes.bool,
 
+    /**
+     * A Boolean value that indicates whether the interactive pop gesture is enabled. Useful
+     * for enabling/disabling the back swipe navigation gesture. If this prop is not provided,
+     * the default behavior is for the back swipe gesture to be enabled when the navigation bar
+     * is shown and disabled when the navigation bar is hidden. Once you've provided
+     * the interactivePopGestureEnabled prop, you can never restore the default behavior.
+     */
+    interactivePopGestureEnabled: PropTypes.bool,
+
   },
 
   navigator: (undefined: ?Object),
@@ -686,7 +695,8 @@ var NavigatorIOS = React.createClass({
           style={styles.transitioner}
           vertical={this.props.vertical}
           requestedTopOfStack={this.state.requestedTopOfStack}
-          onNavigationComplete={this._handleNavigationComplete}>
+          onNavigationComplete={this._handleNavigationComplete}
+          interactivePopGestureEnabled={this.props.interactivePopGestureEnabled}>
           {items}
         </NavigatorTransitionerIOS>
       </StaticContainer>
diff --git a/React/Views/RCTNavigator.h b/React/Views/RCTNavigator.h
index a1905a87d21..57b74499306 100644
--- a/React/Views/RCTNavigator.h
+++ b/React/Views/RCTNavigator.h
@@ -17,6 +17,7 @@
 
 @property (nonatomic, strong) UIView *reactNavSuperviewLink;
 @property (nonatomic, assign) NSInteger requestedTopOfStack;
+@property (nonatomic, assign) BOOL interactivePopGestureEnabled;
 
 - (instancetype)initWithBridge:(RCTBridge *)bridge NS_DESIGNATED_INITIALIZER;
 
diff --git a/React/Views/RCTNavigator.m b/React/Views/RCTNavigator.m
index 03b4a79b7c8..d95089ee461 100644
--- a/React/Views/RCTNavigator.m
+++ b/React/Views/RCTNavigator.m
@@ -27,6 +27,20 @@ typedef NS_ENUM(NSUInteger, RCTNavigationLock) {
   RCTNavigationLockJavaScript
 };
 
+// By default the interactive pop gesture will be enabled when the navigation bar is displayed
+// and disabled when hidden
+// RCTPopGestureStateDefault maps to the default behavior (mentioned above). Once popGestureState
+// leaves this value, it can never be returned back to it. This is because, due to a limitation in
+// the iOS APIs, once we override the default behavior of the gesture recognizer, we cannot return
+// back to it.
+// RCTPopGestureStateEnabled will enable the gesture independent of nav bar visibility
+// RCTPopGestureStateDisabled will disable the gesture independent of nav bar visibility
+typedef NS_ENUM(NSUInteger, RCTPopGestureState) {
+  RCTPopGestureStateDefault = 0,
+  RCTPopGestureStateEnabled,
+  RCTPopGestureStateDisabled
+};
+
 NSInteger kNeverRequested = -1;
 NSInteger kNeverProgressed = -10000;
 
@@ -191,13 +205,15 @@ NSInteger kNeverProgressed = -10000;
 
 @end
 
-@interface RCTNavigator() <RCTWrapperViewControllerNavigationListener, UINavigationControllerDelegate>
+@interface RCTNavigator() <RCTWrapperViewControllerNavigationListener, UINavigationControllerDelegate, UIGestureRecognizerDelegate>
 
 @property (nonatomic, copy) RCTDirectEventBlock onNavigationProgress;
 @property (nonatomic, copy) RCTBubblingEventBlock onNavigationComplete;
 
 @property (nonatomic, assign) NSInteger previousRequestedTopOfStack;
 
+@property (nonatomic, assign) RCTPopGestureState popGestureState;
+
 // Previous views are only mainted in order to detect incorrect
 // addition/removal of views below the `requestedTopOfStack`
 @property (nonatomic, copy, readwrite) NSArray<RCTNavItem *> *previousViews;
@@ -332,8 +348,21 @@ RCT_NOT_IMPLEMENTED(- (instancetype)initWithCoder:(NSCoder *)aDecoder)
   }
 }
 
+- (void)setInteractivePopGestureEnabled:(BOOL)interactivePopGestureEnabled
+{
+  _interactivePopGestureEnabled = interactivePopGestureEnabled;
+ 
+  _navigationController.interactivePopGestureRecognizer.delegate = self;
+  _navigationController.interactivePopGestureRecognizer.enabled = interactivePopGestureEnabled;
+
+  _popGestureState = interactivePopGestureEnabled ? RCTPopGestureStateEnabled : RCTPopGestureStateDisabled;
+}
+
 - (void)dealloc
 {
+  if (_navigationController.interactivePopGestureRecognizer.delegate == self) {
+    _navigationController.interactivePopGestureRecognizer.delegate = nil;
+  }
   _navigationController.delegate = nil;
   [_navigationController removeFromParentViewController];
 }
@@ -343,6 +372,11 @@ RCT_NOT_IMPLEMENTED(- (instancetype)initWithCoder:(NSCoder *)aDecoder)
   return _navigationController;
 }
 
+- (BOOL)gestureRecognizerShouldBegin:(UIGestureRecognizer *)gestureRecognizer
+{
+  return _navigationController.viewControllers.count > 1;
+}
+
 /**
  * See documentation about lock lifecycle. This is only here to clean up
  * swipe-back abort interaction, which leaves us *no* other way to clean up
@@ -399,7 +433,11 @@ RCT_NOT_IMPLEMENTED(- (instancetype)initWithCoder:(NSCoder *)aDecoder)
 - (void)freeLock
 {
   _navigationController.navigationLock = RCTNavigationLockNone;
-  _navigationController.interactivePopGestureRecognizer.enabled = YES;
+  
+  // Unless the pop gesture has been explicitly disabled (RCTPopGestureStateDisabled),
+  // Set interactivePopGestureRecognizer.enabled to YES
+  // If the popGestureState is RCTPopGestureStateDefault the default behavior will be maintained
+  _navigationController.interactivePopGestureRecognizer.enabled = self.popGestureState != RCTPopGestureStateDisabled;
 }
 
 /**
diff --git a/React/Views/RCTNavigatorManager.m b/React/Views/RCTNavigatorManager.m
index 7356fee0112..3b42facb947 100644
--- a/React/Views/RCTNavigatorManager.m
+++ b/React/Views/RCTNavigatorManager.m
@@ -27,6 +27,7 @@ RCT_EXPORT_MODULE()
 RCT_EXPORT_VIEW_PROPERTY(requestedTopOfStack, NSInteger)
 RCT_EXPORT_VIEW_PROPERTY(onNavigationProgress, RCTDirectEventBlock)
 RCT_EXPORT_VIEW_PROPERTY(onNavigationComplete, RCTBubblingEventBlock)
+RCT_EXPORT_VIEW_PROPERTY(interactivePopGestureEnabled, BOOL)
 
 // TODO: remove error callbacks
 RCT_EXPORT_METHOD(requestSchedulingJavaScriptNavigation:(nonnull NSNumber *)reactTag