iOS 13 app-specific language selection for non-localized apps

Question

In iOS 13 users can select their preferred language for your app in Settings. It appears this only shows up if your app supports more than one language and only lists the languages your app supports, which makes sense.

I have a kind of unique situation in my app. It is not localized for any language except English, however the app allows users to work with dates formatted in their preferred language's format. This is currently implemented via

let dateFormatter = DateFormatter()
dateFormatter.locale = Locale(identifier: Locale.preferredLanguages.first!)
dateFormatter.calendar = .current

Locale.preferredLanguages lists the user's preferred languages as specified in Settings which satisfies most users. But some have requested I add a language selector in the app because sometimes they don't want to use their most preferred locale. So it sounded like the iOS 13 app-specific language selection would be great for me! But it seems that's not the case. Any suggestions on what would be best to do in this scenario?

Localization

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Posted by

Jordan

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Answer 1

iOS has independent settings for language [prefered languages], and another for date format/currency/etc [region settings].

If I am understanding it right, you want to be able to change the date format [region settings] only on your app? Different from the [region setting] that is choosen on settings?

PS: Can´t the user just set their prefered date format on region settings globally while keeping freedon on chosing another language? (I know this is not what you are asking here, but I'm curious about why the user would need a different region format just for some apps. (you dont'd need to answer me my curiosity, I am just expressing myself)

Please just confirm my first question [if I am correctly understanding what you need] so I can try to help you.

Posted by

prado

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Answer 2

Thanks! In Settings you can enable 24-hour time or change the region or calendar, which changes the date format, but they may not want to change those globally. They may want another language/region's date formatting options in my app. iOS 13 allows the user to specify a language for each individual app but this app only supports English localizations (minus the date customizations).

Posted by

Jordan

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iOS 13 app-specific language selection for non-localized apps

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