How To: Toggle Screen Orientation On Your Nexus 7 Tablet
You’ve just unwrapped your new Nexus 7 and you’re all set to start playing, when you quickly realize your screen is stuck in portrait. Now you start freaking out: “Oh no, did I get a defective Nexus 7?!” “Why won’t this thing rotate?!” “Where’s the setting to make this thing rotate?!” Calm down, take a deep breath, and exhale. Your Nexus 7 isn’t broken and you’re not doomed to spend eternity in the land of portrait.
Google went ahead and decided to throw a convenient little orientation lock feature on the Nexus 7. If you pull down your notification bar, you’ll notice an icon resembling either a lock or tablet with arrows circling it. That’s your orientation lock toggle and a simple tap of the icon will lock/unlock your screen orientation.
The toggle icon is only available if “Auto-rotate screen” is checked off under Settings > Accessibility. The toggle is actually quite useful and easier than having to go into your settings to disable auto-rotate every time you want to lock the orientation. I’m happy they included it, I only wish Google would have included landscape view for the home screen. Unfortunately for now, the only way to force your home screen into landscape view is to download a third-party launcher or an app such as Ultimate Rotation.
Now stop freaking out!
Vincent Messina has been writing and evangelizing about Android for the past three years. When he's not playing the part of "Loki" to his 5 and 4-year-old, he can be found here, covering all things Android. He adamantly believes Android has the greatest community around and can be harassed at any of the following locations: 