Keyboard sounds are enabled by default on your phone, but that doesn’t mean you have to live with them. If you’d rather type without drawing attention, you can easily turn off keyboard sounds on Android and iPhone. In this article, we’ll walk you through the steps to enable silent typing on your mobile device.
Good to know: learn how to undo or redo your typing in Gboard for Android.
Turn Off the Keyboard Sounds on iPhone
If your iPhone’s keyboard sounds seem to get louder out of nowhere, you’re not imagining it. iOS raises sound levels to highlight incoming notifications, and, if an alert comes in when you are typing, that also bump up keyboard sounds. You can avoid this issue altogether by using one of the methods outlined below to fully turn off keyboard sounds on iPhone.
Go to Settings → Sounds & haptics. Scroll down and turn off the toggle next to Keyboard feedback.
Turn off the toggle for Sound, as well as Haptics, if you want.
To get keyboard sounds back, retrace the steps and enable the Sound toggle (this applies to all the following methods as well.)
For more useful settings you can use on your iOS keyboard, check our guide here.
Third-party keyboards for iPhone
If you’re using a third-party keyboard like Gboard, following the above method for the Apple keyboard should turn off Gboard key clicks. However, for many users, including myself, doing so doesn’t disable the Gboard sounds. The easiest fix is to restart your iPhone after turning off the Sound under Keyboard Feedback.
In case restarting your phone also doesn’t help, you need to revoke the Allow Full Access permission and grant it again. To do so, open Settings → General → Keyboard → Keyboards. Select Gboard.
Turn off the toggle for Allow Full Access. Wait for a few seconds and enable it again.
For third-party keyboards like SwiftKey, search the settings for an option to turn off keyboard sounds on iPhone. In this case, bring up the keyboard, press on the Windows-like button in the right corner, and select the Home icon.
Use the physical Silent switch
Often, we want to turn off the keyboard sound only for a brief period. Let’s say you are visiting a place where you don’t want others to hear the keypress sound. In such situations, you can turn off the keyboard sound by using the physical mute button on your phone. It should be on the left edge of your phone. Push it toward the back of your phone to enable Silent mode. That will disable keypress sounds for all keyboards.
As you may have guessed, while this method is helpful as a temporary measure, it does turn off all the sounds on your phone. You won’t even get a notification or ring sound, so use it wisely.
Switch to Silent mode from the Control Center
If your iPhone doesn’t have a physical switch or an Action button, you should be able to find a Silent mode switch in the Control Center.
Swipe from the upper right corner to bring it up. It should appear next to the Auto-rotate toggle. If you don’t see one, long-press on an empty part of the display and select Add a Control. Find the Sound section. You should see the toggle there. Tap to add it to your Control Center.
Tip: learn how to turn your regular Android phone into a DIY magnetic field detector.
Turn Off the Keyboard Sound on Android
Turning off keyboard sounds on Android depends on the manufacturer of your device or the keyboard app you’re using.
On a non-Pixel device, you might be able to disable keyboard sounds via Settings. On my Honor device, for instance, I navigate to Sounds & vibration → More sound settings.
Check out the Keypad tones option which should be switched to None.
Disable Keyboard Sound on Gboard
On Pixel phones and other Android devices, you might not find a system-wide setting like the above. Instead, you’ll need to go through Gboard, which is also the default keyboard for many Android phones.
Note: on a phone that offers both system-wide keyboard noise control and uses Gboard, you should disable keyboard sounds in both places.
Bring up Gboard in any app that supports typing. Tap first on the icon on the left and then on the gear one.
Tap on Preferences in Gboard settings. Scroll down and turn off the toggle next to Sound in the Key tap section.
If you want, you can also disable or adjust Keyboard vibration from the same screen.
Note that on many Android phones, the keyboard sound volume is set to the system default. In case you wish to keep the keyboard sounds but want them to be less loud, all you have to do is lower the system volume.
Alternatively, you can also turn off keyboard sounds on Android by going to Settings → System → Keyboard → On-screen keyboard → Gboard.
Disable Keyboard Sound on Samsung Keyboard
If you have a Samsung Galaxy phone and you’re using the native Samsung Keyboard, navigate to Sounds and vibration → System sound.
Toggle off Samsung Keyboard under the Sound section.
If you wish to disable vibration as well, go back to Sound and vibration → System Vibration. Turn off the Samsung Keyboard option.
Other third-party keyboards
In case you are using a third-party keyboard like SwiftKey on your Android, you should look through their Settings menu for the option to disable keyboard sounds.
For SwiftKey, bring up the virtual keyboard in a compatible app and press the three dots in the upper right, followed by the gear one.
Inside the SwiftKey settings, tap on Sound & vibration. Turn off the toggle next to Keypress sound volume. You can increase or decrease the keypress volume using the available slider if you want to keep it enabled.
From the same screen, it’s possible to select a different Keypress sound profile. Also, if you want to disable vibration for SwiftKey, disable the toggles next to Use the Android default vibration and Keypress vibration.
Switch to Silent mode using volume buttons
As a temporary fix, you can mute keyboard sounds by switching to Silent mode. However, just like on iPhone this means all sounds will be off including notifications, and ringing for calls.
On most Android phones, you can switch to Silent mode via the volume buttons. Long-press volume down one until the volume control bar appears on the right. Tap the icon at the top and switch to Silent (the icon that looks like a muted speaker.)
Turn Silent mode on via Quick Settings
On some Android phones, you might have the option to enable Silent mode via the Quick Settings panel. For instance, on my Honor device, this Sound toggle is present so I can easily switch back and forth.
If you don’t see one in your Quick Settings try tapping the Edit button (looks like a pencil) and search through the available unused toggles.
If you prefer, do compose your messages using voice dictation, you might want to try the Willow keyboard (for iPhone and Mac), one of the best speech-to-text options I’ve used in a long time. If you’re on Android, here are some voice dictation options to consider.
