Where are the date and time settings?

Date and time is the most widely present setting we have measured, and it is also one of the most inconsistently punctuated. We read the settings tree of all 43 systems in the catalogue and recorded where each one keeps it.

What each system calls it

34 of the 43 operating systems in our catalogue have this setting, and between them they use six different labels for it:

The most common is Date & Time, on 9 of the 34. If that is not the word on your screen, the table above is the rest of the vocabulary to try.

Some of those rows differ only in capitalisation — 9 spellings for six actual names. We have kept them apart because that is what is printed on the screen, and a settings search that matches case will tell them apart too.

Where it lives on each system

These are the shortest paths from the first settings screen on the newest release of each system. 29 of the 34 are within two taps; the rest sit deeper, and the table shows how much deeper.

Each system name above opens the real menu in the simulator, so you can walk the path before you touch your own device.

Why the names came out this way

Almost all of the variation here is typographic rather than conceptual: Date & Time, Date and Time, Date & time, Date and time. Four spellings of the same two words, which is what happens when a setting is old enough that nobody remembers deciding.

The interesting part is underneath. Nearly every one of these screens now offers to set the time from the network, which means the setting most people open is not the clock but the switch that decides whether they are trusted to set it themselves.

Find it on your own device

If your system is not in the table, or the label on your screen is different again, there are three ways through it:

• Search every system at once for a setting by name — it looks inside all 43 trees, not just the one you are holding.
• Open your own system in the settings simulator and click to the screen without changing anything real.
• Follow the step-by-step guide to changing the system language, or see where that setting lives on every system.

Related settings in the same part of the menu:

• Where is the 24-hour time setting?
• Where are the keyboard settings?
• Where is the autocorrect setting?

All of it comes from the same catalogue: 43 systems, 135 versions, published as an open dataset.