This sample demonstrates that on a larger iPhone plus, you can interact with the contents of a popover controller, but on a regular, non plus phone, you cannot. Instead, interacting with the popover dismisses it, while tapping on the background does not.
chrislconover/iPhone-Popover-Test
Quick test of popover on iPhones, showing that you can interact with the contents of the popover on + phones, but not on regular sized phones.
Swift