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This App on Every iPhone Now Has a Secret Travel Feature

Traveling to a different country? This default app on your iPhone just got a super helpful upgrade.

iOS 18 Calculator conversionsPhoto by Tucker Bowe for Gear Patrol

By Tucker Bowe

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iOS 18 dropped earlier this week and delivered a variety of “headline” new features to your current iPhone — no need to upgrade to an iPhone 16 just yet.

Thanks to the new software, you can now fully customize your iPhone’s Home Screen. You can schedule Messages to be set at future times. You can hide apps in a secret folder. And you can now generate a QR code to more easily share your home’s Wi-Fi info with others (a godsend, truly).

But iOS 18 also delivers a number of lesser-known features, too. One of them, which promises to be super helpful for international travelers, is hidden in none other than the iPhone’s Calculator app.

iOS 18 Calculator conversions
Thanks to iOS 18, your iPhone’s Calculator app just got a bunch of new abilities.
Photo by Tucker Bowe for Gear Patrol

Your iPhone’s Calculator app got a key upgrade

Apple doesn’t often update its Calculator app — which has been a default app on every iPhone since the first iPhone (and iPod Touch) in 2007 — but iOS 18 delivers quite the suite of features.

The feature that has garnered the most attention is Math Notes. You can go into the Calculator app—or the Notes app—and type math equations, and it’ll automatically solve them. It can also handle complex and scientific equations that you’d typically need TI-89 to solve.

iOS 18 Calculator conversions
My 140,000 Colombian pesos from my recent trip is worth about $33 in the US.
Photo by Tucker Bowe for Gear Patrol

A lesser-hyped feature that is arguably even more helpful, at least for international travelers, is the Calculator app’s new ability to convert currencies from different countries. For example, you can quickly check how much $100 in the US is worth in Colombian pesos or British pounds.

All you have to do is open the Calculator app, select the calculator icon in the bottom-left corner, select Basic and toggle on the new Convert features. From here, you can choose the currencies you want to convert and see what the exchange rate is. It’s very easy.

iOS 18 Calculator conversions
Unit conversions, such as temperature or area, are also much easier in the Calculator app.
Photo by Tucker Bowe for Gear Patrol

You can also use this new conversation feature for units, too. You can use it to quickly see what 1,000,000 centimeters converts into feet (answer: 1,076). Or what temperature 95 degrees Fahrenheit converts to Celsius (answer: 35).

In a nutshell, you’re going to be using the Calculator a lot more.

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