Silent Switches

Silent switches: type quietly without the clack

Silent switches dampen the bottom-out and top-out so the typical clacking disappears. They are the right choice for the office, shared rooms and late evenings. You can get them as silent linear and as silent tactile.

How do switches get quiet?

Usually soft rubber or silicone pads sit on the stem rails or in the housing and absorb the impact. Other designs use flexible stem parts or dampers in the bottom housing. Manufacturers call this mute rings or silencing pads, for example.

How do they feel?

Dampening costs some directness. Many find the bottom-out softer, some slightly mushy. Outemu Silent are among the quietest but feel a little less direct. HMX and Wingtree x Lichicx are a bit louder but closer to a normal typing feel. Semi-silent switches with a movable stem part are the loudest, but feel most like a switch without dampening.

Linear or tactile?

Silent linears like the HMX Blackberry glide through evenly. Silent tactiles add a bump, though because of the dampening it is usually softer. You'll find more on the tactile variants in the tactile switches.

The keyboard does the rest

Switches are only part of the sound. Plate, case, foam and keycaps also decide how quiet the keyboard ends up. Our guide switch types explained shows how the types differ. In-stock items ship from Germany within one working day.