Google Glass Buttons and Their Actions

For those of you who’ve just got their hands on Google Glass or didn’t get to try it yet, but are still curious about its buttons, I’m going to explain them here. Google Glass only has two buttons, while the third one only seems to be a button, but it doesn’t do anything.

Along with the two buttons, there’s also the touchpad, which is used the most.

Power Button

The power button is used to power Google Glass on and off, as you’d expect. To turn on the device, just press the power button once. If you want to turn it off, you have to press it for a few seconds. If you need to turn it off while it’s frozen or you’re encountering any other issue, keep this button pressed for 15 seconds and it’ll do the job.

Unfortunately this button can’t be pressed while Glass is on your head, so you’ll have to take it down when you need to press it.

Camera Button

The camera button is located above the touchpad and it’s easy to press it whenever you need to. It’s also a bit embossed, so you’ll easily find it with your finger. This is used to take a fast image if you don’t want to use your voice.

Also you have to use the camera button if you want to make a vignette. To make a vignette you have to navigate to the card that you want featured in the vignette, press the camera button, tap the touchpad and then you’ll see the vignette option. Tap the touchpad again and you’re done.

Touchpad

The touchpad can be used in four ways. You can tap it to confirm an action, swipe back or forward to navigate through the cards or options and swipe down to exit the current card or turn off the display if you’re in one of the main cards.

I’ve noticed some people believe the touchpad is small and they’re wrong. It’s the entire right side of Glass, starting where the prism ends.

Bone Conductor

The bone conductor is right behind the ear and it looks like a button, it can even be pressed, but it does nothing. The bone conductor sends vibrations to your skull and that’s how you hear sounds on Google Glass without any earbuds. Unfortunately it doesn’t work very well in noisy environments, so you should have an earbud around, especially if you want to use Glass for voice calls in noisy places.