Android 16 Beta 2 makes it easier to change temperature and measurement units

Ben Schoon | Feb 13 2025 - 1:23 pm PT

A new option in Android 16 Beta 2 allows users to easily change system measurement units, temperature units, and more “Regional preferences.”

Android has, on a system level, long set a “default” for certain types of information that can vary from place to place. This includes the default units of measurement or temperature. In the US, those would be Fahrenheit for temperature and Imperial (US) for measurements, but in most other countries, those would be Celsius and Metric. Generally speaking, Android will set these units based on your device location or language. That works perfectly the majority of the time, but in those instances where you perhaps are using a different language, or simply prefer another unit of measurement, changing those preferences can be a bit of a pain as Android hasn’t had a straightforward menu for that.

That’s changing in Android 16 Beta 2.

This latest update introduced a new “Regional preferences” section to the “Languages” page of Settings. Android 16 Beta 2 will let you change:

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Region
Temperature – Celsius or Fahrenheit
Measurement system – Metric, Imperial (US), Imperial (UK)
First day of week – Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday

A system default will still be applied based on your region/language selections, but these new menus make it much easier to change these specific preferences after the fact.

These changes won’t be reflected in all apps, but anything that references Android’s “default” setting should be reflected. Some apps will contain their own adjustments for these settings, while others can push users directly to this menu, such as Google’s Pixel Weather app. In quick testing, Google Maps ignored the change of measurement, but Pixel Weather did change to Celsius on request.