Spotlight handles unit and currency conversions in iOS 15, but with iOS 16, which is currently in testing, you may perform these and many other unit conversions wherever you can pick text in the operating system. Read on to discover how it operates.
Apple hasn’t made much of a fuss over this useful function, but iOS 16 can convert a variety of units that appear in inline text instantly. With only a tap of the screen, the built-in functionality is accessible across a number of stock apps, including Messages, Mail, Calendar, Notes, and Reminders.
Consider a scenario in which you are in the United States and a user from the United Kingdom mentions the temperature in degrees Celsius while you are conversing with them over Messages.
There’s no need to exit the app or even ask Siri to convert it to Fahrenheit for you – simply long press the underlined temperature in the chat bubble, and you’ll see a pop-over that gives you the conversion (along with Kelvin, in case you were wondering) along with the option to copy it to the clipboard.
Here’s another example. Let’s say you receive an email in the Mail app from someone based in the U.S. country, informing you of a product event announcement that is due to take place at 10:00 a.m. PT. All you have to do is long press on the underlined time and iOS will provide you with the equivalent time in the time zone that your iPhone is set to, along with the option to add a Calendar event.
In fact, iOS 16 can work its conversion magic on a range of units including the following:
- Currency
- Distance
- Temperature
- Time Zones
- Volume
- Weight
So whenever you see underlined units in Apple’s latest mobile OS, remember that a long press will very likely give you the conversion that makes most sense to you. (Credit goes to MacStories editor in chief Federico Viticci for spotting the feature.)