Use a UILongPressGestureRecognizer and set its minimumPressDuration to 0. It will act like a touch down during the UIGestureRecognizerStateBegan state.

For Swift 4+

func setupTap() {
    let touchDown = UILongPressGestureRecognizer(target:self, action: #selector(didTouchDown))
    touchDown.minimumPressDuration = 0
    view.addGestureRecognizer(touchDown)
}

@objc func didTouchDown(gesture: UILongPressGestureRecognizer) {
    if gesture.state == .began {
        doSomething()
    }
}

For Objective-C

-(void)setupLongPress
{
   self.longPress = [[UILongPressGestureRecognizer alloc] initWithTarget:self action:@selector(didLongPress:)];
   self.longPress.minimumPressDuration = 0;
   [self.view addGestureRecognizer:self.longPress];
}

-(void)didLongPress:(UILongPressGestureRecognizer *)gesture
{
   if (gesture.state == UIGestureRecognizerStateBegan){
      [self doSomething];
   }
}