To use Google Search, touch the search bar at the top of any Home screen or swipe up from the bottom of your tablet. You can use Voice Actions with Google Search to get directions, send messages, and perform a number of other common tasks.

Voice Search & Voice Actions on Nexus 7

• You can initiate a Voice Search or Voice Action in several ways:
  • Touch the Microphone icon in the Google Chrome omnibox.
  • Touch the Microphone icon on the Home screen or Google Now screen and speak.
  • Touch the search bar on the Home screen and say Google.
  • When youre viewing the Google Now screen, you dont have to touch anything. Just say Google.
• Next, speak the terms to search for or the Voice Action to perform.
• The ability to trigger a search or action by saying Google is called hotword detection. To turn it off or on, start from the Google Now screen and touch Menu, Settings, Voice, and then Hotword detection.

Note: To detect when you say Google to launch Voice Search or Voice Actions, Google analyzes sound picked up by your tablets microphone in intervals of a few seconds or less. The sound is immediately discarded after analysis and is not stored on the device or sent to Google servers.

How to search by typing on Nexus 7

Type your query in the search box on the Home screen or Google Now card, or in Google Chromes omnibox.

• The first few suggestions attempt to complete what youre typing:
  • To search for a suggestion immediately, touch it.
  • To search for the contents of the search field, touch the Search icon on the right side of the keyboard.

How to use Voice Actions on Nexus 7

You can use Voice Actions with Google Search to get directions, send messages, and perform a number of other common tasks.

• You initiate a Voice Action the same way you initiate a voice search, by touching a Microphone icon in a search box or the Chrome omnibox, or by saying Google when the Google Now screen is open. Next, speak the Voice Action you want to use. Here are some typical examples:
  • Set alarm for 8:30 a.m.
  • Send email to Marcus Foster. Subject: Coming tonight? Message: Hope to see you later.
  • Navigate to Mikes bikes in Palo Alto.
• As you speak, Voice Search analyzes your speech and initiates the action.
• If Voice Search doesnt understand you, it lists a set of possible meanings. Just touch the one you want. Some Voice Actions, such as send email and note to self, open a panel that prompts you to complete the action by speaking or typing more information.
  • Touch any text already entered in the panel to add or edit the text by typing.
• To speak text instead of typing, first touch the Microphone key near the bottom right of the onscreen keyboard.
  • Touch underlined words or phrases or drag across multiple words to view a list of alternate transcriptions, or to edit by speaking or typing.
• When confident that the transcription is accurate, Voice Search displays transcribed words as regular text. Words or phrases for which it has provided alternate transcriptions are underlined.
  • Touch a button at the bottom of the window to add any optional fields (you can also speak the name and content of any of these fields in your original voice action).
  • When youre done, touch the button appropriate to complete the action, such as Send.

How to use Voice Actions commands on Nexus 7

You can search and control your tablet with the following Voice Action commands.

• Say Words you want to search for Examples: bike shoes
• Say Map of Followed by Address, name, business name, type of business, or other location Examples: Map of Golden Gate Park, San Francisco.
• Say Directions to or Navigate to Followed by Address, name, business name, type of business, or other destination Examples: Directions to 1299 Colusa Avenue, Berkeley, California or Navigate to Union Square, San Francisco.
• Say Contact name Examples: Mike LeBeau (opens Mikes contact card)
• Say Go to Followed by Search string or URL Example: Go to Google.com
• Say Send SMS or Send Text Followed by To & contact names, Message & message text (speak punctuation) Example: Send text to Hugh Briss, message, I cant wait to show you my new shoes, period
• Say Send email Followed by One or more of: To & contact names, Cc & contact names, Bcc & contact names, Subject & subject text Message & message text (speak punctuation) Examples: Send email to Hugh Briss, subject, new shoes, message, I cant wait to show you my new shoes, period.
• Say Note to self Followed by Message text Example: Note to self: remember the milk
• Say Set alarm Followed by Time or for & time, such as 10:45 a.m. or 20 minutes from now, Label & name of alarm Example Set alarm for 7:45 p.m., label, switch the laundry
• Say Listen to Followed by Words to search YouTube for, such as the name of a song, artist, or album. Example: Listen to: Smells Like Teen Spirit