How to Set Preferred Language and Change Region on iPhone & iPad
Do you want to set a preferred language as your iPhone’s system language? Or perhaps, switch to a different region? Fortunately, changing your iPhone’s language and region is a fairly straightforward procedure.
When you set up a shiny new iPhone for the first time, you’re asked to select a default language and set the region you’re residing in. However, you may know multiple languages in addition to English. For example, you may want to use your native language as your preferred device language. Or, if you’re moving to a different country for college or work, you might want to change your iPhone’s region to set how date, time, and currencies are displayed locally.
If you’re keen on learning how you can make these changes to your iOS device, read along to learn how to set the preferred language and change region on your iPhone or iPad.
How to Set Preferred Language on iPhone or iPad
Adding multiple languages and setting one of them as the preferred language is pretty easy to do on an iPhone.
- Head over to “Settings” from the home screen of your iPhone.
- In the settings menu, scroll down and tap on “General”.
- Next, scroll down and choose “Language & Region” to proceed further.
- Here, you’ll see the default language for your iPhone. Tap on “Other Languages” to view the available languages.
- Now, simply tap on the additional language you want to use. When you get a prompt, choose “Keep English”. Your iPhone will quickly restart to apply this new language setting.
- In the Language & Region menu, you’ll see two languages under “Preferred Language Order”. You can change this order by pressing the triple-line icon next to each language and dragging it to a different position.
- Whenever you change this order, you’ll get a prompt that iPhone will be restarted to apply the changes. Tap on “Continue”.
There you go, that’s how to set and use preferred languages on your iPhone.
How to Change Your iPhone / iPad Region
Changing the region of your iPhone is a lot easier than adding and switching to a different language. However, you can do this in the same Settings menu.
- Return to Settings app > General if you aren’t there already.
- In the “Language & Region” menu, tap on the “Region” option as shown in the screenshot below.
- Now, just tap on the country you want to switch to. You’ll be prompted to confirm your action and your iPhone will quickly restart to apply the region change.
That’s pretty much all there is to it. How easy was that?
Keep in mind that when you switch to a different country on your iPhone, you will be given the option to change the iPhone language to the country’s local language as well. For example, if you changed the country from United Kingdom to United States, your iPhone will ask if you want to change the language from English (UK) to English (US).
Depending on the country you selected, your iPhone will display temperature in either Celsius or Fahrenheit, show Calendar in Gregorian, Japanese, or Buddhist format, and even use 12-hour or 24-hour clock format.
Do you use a Mac as your primary computer? If so, you may be interested in learning how to change the region of your Mac or how to add & switch languages in macOS. Plus, if your Mac is running macOS Catalina or later, you can change language settings on a per-app basis too.
We hope you had no trouble changing the region and preferred language on your iPhone or iPad. Although we were focusing solely on the iPhone, you can use these steps to change the language & region on your iPad too. Let us know your thoughts, experiences, and opinions in the comments section down below.
