Change from Imperial to Metric

[deonholt]

Hi and thanks for your help.
I am a newbie to Android.
Xiaomi Redmi 9 with Android 10.

There is a flaw/bug in this OS.

Our family use an App, Life360.
This App shows distance in miles and I need it to be in kilometres. There is no in-App option to change it as it depends on the system settings. But, I cannot find anything in System settings to change from imperial to metric. In Language options, the only English options are English (UK) and English (US). I am from South Africa and there is no English (South Africa).
My boys all have Android phones (Huawei) and theirs display metric. I am baffled.

UPDATE:
I have just change the language of the phone to English (INDIA) and now it shows metric. Where can I report this to fix?

This is very frustrating.
I will appreciate your advice and suggestions.
TIA.
Deon

 

[mikedt]

Hi and thanks for your help.
I am a newbie to Android.
Xiaomi Redmi 9 with Android 10.

There is a flaw/bug in this OS.

Our family use an App, Life360.
This App shows distance in miles and I need it to be in kilometres. There is no in-App option to change it as it depends on the system settings. But, I cannot find anything in System settings to change from imperial to metric. In Language options, the only English options are English (UK) and English (US). I am from South Africa and there is no English (South Africa).
My boys all have Android phones (Huawei) and theirs display metric. I am baffled.

UPDATE:
I have just change the language of the phone to English (INDIA) and now it shows metric. Where can I report this to fix?

This is very frustrating.
I will appreciate your advice and suggestions.
TIA.
Deon

From what you're describing it sounds like a problem/feature of this particular app, rather than the Android OS. I don't know this "Life360", but suggest you contact the developers about it, as it maybe only be something they can fix, possibly with an update. Is it an American app? Because the US mainly uses imperial measures, and I've seen American weather apps that only work in degrees F.

 

[deonholt]

From what you're describing it sounds like a problem/feature of this particular app, rather than the Android OS. I don't know this "Life360", but suggest you contact the developers about it, as it maybe only be something they can fix, possibly with an update. Is it an American app? Because the US mainly uses imperial measures, and I've seen American weather apps that only work in degrees F.

Thanxs. I have contacted them. They explained and showed me that the App works on system information and that it does not offer the option to change between imperial & metric. The exact same App works perfectly on all my sons' phones and they have Huawei phones and use the exact same App as I am.
Your last sentence confirms the error. US & UK both use imperial. When I choose "English (India)" it shows metric because India also uses metric.

 

[Hadron]

Actually the UK doesn't use Imperial. We've got a typically British half-hearted muddle here: most things are metric but for some unknown reason road signage is still in miles. So we've a couple of generations now who know long distances in miles but don't know any other imperial units apart from the pint (which is different in UK and US units anyway, just to add a bit of confusion). And I'm not exaggerating there: my kids are science graduates but one of them asked me the other week what a "foot" is, and I know for sure they've no idea what an "ounce" would be (they hear the words occasionally, but have never used the units).

Maybe Australian English would also work?

 

[mikedt]

Thanxs. I have contacted them. They explained and showed me that the App works on system information and that it does not offer the option to change between imperial & metric. The exact same App works perfectly on all my sons' phones and they have Huawei phones and use the exact same App as I am.
Your last sentence confirms the error. US & UK both use imperial. When I choose "English (India)" it shows metric because India also uses metric.

That doesn't sound satisfactory to me, and is something they need to address with their whatever it is app IMO. I'm actually British, and do have my devices set to English(United Kingdom) however I've got so used to the metric system now and want any distances in apps measured in kilometres(NOT miles), mainly because I haven't lived in the UK for over a decade.

 

[Hadron]

Actually I have my mapping apps set to km too, and I live in the UK.
If I'm walking I've a better feel for the distance in km. If I'm driving then the time estimate matters more than the distance estimate, and I can read the road signs if I want miles. And if I'm not in the UK (remember that?) I most likely want km regardless. So for me km works better overall.

 

[olbriar]

Actually I have my mapping apps set to km too, and I live in the UK.
If I'm walking I've a better feel for the distance in km. If I'm driving then the time estimate matters more than the distance estimate, and I can read the road signs if I want miles. And if I'm not in the UK (remember that?) I most likely want km regardless. So for me km works better overall.

Out of curiosity, are your roads laid out on mile increments or kilometer? Most of the US roads are a grid of North South and East West roads that are a mile apart. If your road grid is in km yet noted in miles I'm super confused.

 

[Hadron]

Out of curiosity, are your roads laid out on mile increments or kilometer? Most of the US roads are a grid of North South and East West roads that are a mile apart. If your road grid is in km yet noted in miles I'm super confused.

Road grid? Oh, you think our road systems are planned...

Our road layouts are determined by a mixture of topography and history, and if you can discern any planning it's usually a radial layout rather than a grid (but not generally very regular). There are occasional exceptions, e.g. Milton Keynes, a "new town" built in the 1970s, which has a grid-like structure in parts that weren't pre-existing settlements. But these rough squares (much less regular than a US city grid) are not aligned with the main compass axes, nor is the layout within them grid-like. And ironically yes, they are approximately 1 km on a side, but as grid structures are so unusual there would be no expectation about what size they would be anyway.

 

[olbriar]

Road grid? Oh, you think our road systems are planned...

Our road layouts are determined by a mixture of topography and history, and if you can discern any planning it's usually a radial layout rather than a grid (but not generally very regular).

That makes more sense of the matter. The US is very grid like. It's not strictly observed but for the most part, yes.
MPH and miles between roads all click in my mind. The thought of kph on a mile grid layout and my brain went kaboom.

 

[Trom]

Actually the UK doesn't use Imperial. We've got a typically British half-hearted muddle here: most things are metric but for some unknown reason road signage is still in miles. So we've a couple of generations now who know long distances in miles but don't know any other imperial units apart from the pint (which is different in UK and US units anyway, just to add a bit of confusion). And I'm not exaggerating there: my kids are science graduates but one of them asked me the other week what a "foot" is, and I know for sure they've no idea what an "ounce" would be (they hear the words occasionally, but have never used the units).

Maybe Australian English would also work?

I know exactly what you mean, I'm in the construction industry in the USA and it's a crap shoot what sort of cad files we'll receive. Fortunately, both imperial and metric click at first glance after so many years.

 

[olbriar]

I've worked in the US housing industry for most of my life. I'll be the first to admit the limitations of imperial measurements. Division of fractions comes easy to me but metric would be easier. I do think and design in inches and feet and can't imagine adapting to metric. Especially when you consider that all residential housing is designed around a 4' x 8' sheet good. Do countries that predominantly use the metric system have goods in mm with dwellings designed around such? I'm talking stud, joist, truss, and rafter layout.

 

[Dannydet]

Imperial, Metric...
Distance and measurements.
Can't the world just all get along using one common unit of measure and weight?

 

[mikedt]

Imperial, Metric...
Distance and measurements.
Can't the world just all get along using one common unit of measure and weight?

It does usually, the exceptions been America and Liberia AFAIK.

Reminded of when the school handed out hand-held digital thermometers, for checking and reporting daily body temperatures during the Covid earlier this year. Quite a few were being returned by staff for reading the wrong temps, because they'd been put in Fahrenheit mode rather than Centigrade.

 

[Trom]

It does usually, the exceptions been America and Liberia AFAIK.

Reminded of when the school handed out hand-held digital thermometers, for checking and reporting daily body temperatures during the Covid earlier this year. Quite a few were being returned by staff for reading the wrong temps, because they'd been put in Fahrenheit mode rather than Centigrade.

About ten years ago, my plant was visited by a couple of brit project managers whom we were doing a project for; during a production meeting, one of them lamented, quite rudely, about the Americans with their imperial system. I replied that I certainly wouldn't apologize for knowing grade school math. The president chewed me out later, but it was worth it.

 

[Hadron]

I wouldn't worry, it's unlikely that they knew what "grade school" means anyway (that's also a very US-specific thing, and despite time I've spent there and exposure to US media I've no idea how many grades there are or how they usually correlate to age).