Loud Nexus 7 on-screen keyboard clicking grinding your gears? You’re just one setting change away from a quieter typing experience.
One of the areas in which the new Nexus 7 improves upon the original is its audio — the new model is equipped with loud, rear-facing stereo speakers. Compared to the first Nexus 7, they’re capable of generating a great deal of volume — and that’s great when you’re watching a movie or listening to music, but less so when you’re typing.
The Nexus 7 also lacks a vibration motor, so the built-in Google Keyboard defaults to audio feedback when you press a key. And when you combine this with those two loud speakers, it can make for a rather noisy typing experience.
Fortunately there is a setting to control the click volume, it’s just hidden away a little. So here’s how to make things a little quieter —
- With the Google Keyboard open, long press on the microphone icon until the settings button appears, then release.
- Tap “Google Keyboard Settings.” (From here you can completely disable audio feedback for the keyboard by unchecking “Sound on key press.”)
- Scroll down and tap “Advanced settings.”
- Tap “Keypress sound volume” and use the slider to set the level to your preference.
… And you’re done. It’s worth noting that the keyboard volume isn’t tied to any of the system volume levels (the stuff under Settings > Sound > Volumes.) The menu within the app is the only place to change the loudness of the clicking sound.