Explorers who have owned Google Glass for a while now pretty much know the device inside and out. With that said, new Explorers might find Google Glass to be a little rough and will need some tips to help them get the most out of the device faster.
Below, we’ve compiled a short list of tips and tricks that can help new Explorers, and maybe even teach the older Explorers some new things. Enjoy!
Voice
Google Glass actually does a pretty good job at picking up voice commands, but it does mess up occasionally. Here are some tips for using Google Glass and voice commands.
Talk Normally
When you’re saying a voice command, you don’t need to take any breaths, breaks or pauses. Just talk to the device at a normal conversational speed and most of the time it will work. This advice goes for replying to messages and emails as well; speaking at a normal conversational speed will work most of the time.
Long Words
The only thing is, if you enjoy using a large vocabulary, then you might want to take a brief pause after saying long words like “Dendrochronology”. Taking a brief pause after long words is really the only time you should stop talking at a normal speed.
Numbers
When it comes to things like numbers, it’s almost always better to say individual digits. For example, it’s better to say “two zero two zero” to enter 2020, rather than saying “twenty-twenty” to enter 2020.
Smileys and Punctuation
The last two things you should know about voice is that you can enter emoticons and punctuation by just saying the name of the smiley or punctuation symbol. Saying “smiley face” will insert 🙂 and saying “frowny face” will insert :-(. As for punctuation, saying “period”, “exclamation point”, or “question mark” will insert their respective symbols.
Gestures
Doing certain swipes on the touchpad, and moving your head certain ways can do different things on Google Glass. Here are a few swipe combos that you might find useful.
Quick Sleep
If you need to quickly put Google Glass to sleep, then all you have to do is swipe down with two fingers. Swiping down with two fingers will instantly put Google Glass to sleep regardless of what you are currently doing on the device.
Nod / Nudge to Sleep
You can put Google Glass to sleep hands-free by doing a simple “What’s up?” head nod. Frat bros might find this to be a particularly annoying feature, considering how often they participate in the head nod, but it’s handy for the rest of us.
Wake to Next Timeline Card
Swiping left or right while Google Glass is asleep will wake the device and move it on to the next or previous timeline card.
Zooming on the Web
After you load a web page, you can zoom in by swiping forward with two fingers.
Skip Delays and Cancel Actions
Some actions you perform on Google Glass, like tapping the delete menu option, will cause a delay bar to appear. If you don’t feel like waiting for the delay bar to disappear and the action to perform, you can tap the touchpad to skip the delay and do the action. Also, you can swipe down on the trackpad to cancel the action.
Sound / Bone-Conduction Transducer
The bone conduction transducer in Google Glass is pretty cool and allows a layer of privacy so people can’t hear what you’re listening to or doing. With that said, some Explorers have had a pretty bad experience with it and don’t get loud enough sound from it. Here are some tips that can help you hear better with the BCT.
The Glorious Sound Improving Finger
Surprisingly, sticking a finger in one of your ears will increase the loudness of the bone conduction speaker tremendously. A lot of people say the finger trick is bull poop until they actually try it. It legitimately works, so give it a shot if you struggle with hearing sound from Google Glass.
Pressure
Applying a small amount of pressure to Google Glass by using your hands, or a headband can help improve the sound produced by the bone conduction speaker. Just make sure not to go overboard, and to only apply just enough pressure to “secure” the BCT against your head.
Other
The Google Glass tips and tricks presented below are sort of random because we didn’t want to create an individual category for each one. They’re still some pretty good tips though.
Quick Video
If you want to start recording a video quickly, then all you have to do is hold the camera button down for a few seconds and the device will automatically start recording.
View All Contacts
If you activate the share menu using the touchpad, you will be able to view all of your contacts.
Brighten the Display
Occasionally, it can be a bit hard to see stuff on the Google Glass display. Looking up towards something bright for a few seconds and then looking away will brighten up the display so you can see things a bit better.
Conclusion
So, those are some of the tips and tricks that we know. Hopefully they will help you enjoy Google Glass a little bit more, and hopefully you feel a bit more informed. If you enjoyed this post, then make sure to show it some love and to spread it around (we really appreciate it)!
