iOS 18’s Overhauled Calculator App Can Perform Conversions Now [CNET]

Here’s how to convert distance, currency and more in Calculator.

Apple released iOS 18 to the general public in September, a week after the company announced its new iPhone 16 lineup, Apple Watch Series 10 and more at its ‘Glowtime’ event. The update brought a lot of new features to your iPhone, like the ability to customize your home screen and hide and lock certain apps. The update also added a conversion function to your Calculator app.

That means you can convert things like currency, temperature and weight right from your calculator without opening a web browser or using Spotlight.

Read more: iOS 18 Brings These New Features to Your iPhone

Here’s how to use your Calculator app to perform conversions fast.

How to use your Calculator for conversions

1. Open your Calculator app.
2. Tap the calculator symbol in the bottom left corner of your screen next to the 0 digit.
3. Tap the switch next to Convert.

The input area for your Calculator — the area just above the digits and buttons — will split into a top and bottom field with separate values in each. By default, you’ll be entering values into the top field and the bottom is what you’re converting to. If you tap the arrows to the left of your values, your input will change to the bottom field and you’ll be converting to the top. 

To change what you’re converting — like distance or area — tap the value indicator to the right of either your top or bottom value. This will pull up a menu where you can search for different units by entering them into the search bar across the top of the menu. 

You can also scroll through a carousel below the search bar and tap into different unit categories, like Area, Currency and Temperature. Tap into the desired category, then tap the correct unit — so if you want to convert grams for a recipe, tap Weight then Gram.

Once you pick the unit, you’ll be taken back to the main Calculator screen. Now, you have to tap the value indicator next to the other value — again, either top or bottom — and select what unit you would like to convert to. You should already be in the correct unit category so you just have to select what unit to convert to — so if you want to convert grams to pounds, you just have to tap Pounds. 

Now if you see a recipe that calls for 500 grams of pasta, you can quickly convert it if you need to — that’s about a pound of pasta.

For more on iOS 18, here’s my review of iOS 18, what to know about RCS messaging and our iOS 18 cheat sheet. You can also check out what iOS 18.1 might bring to your iPhone.