According to the Collection View Programming Guide one should handle the visual state of the cell highlights in the UICollectionViewDelegate. Like this:
UICollectionViewDelegate
It is enough for highlighting cell (Swift 4)
class MyCollectionViewCell: UICollectionViewCell { ... override var isHighlighted: Bool { didSet { if isHighlighted { self.contentView.alpha = 0.6 } else { self.contentView.alpha = 1.0 } } } }