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Units, Measurement & Locale

The Meshtastic app automatically displays temperatures, distances, speeds, and times in the units your device is configured to use — no settings to change inside the app.

How It Works

Meshtastic radios always transmit data in metric units (meters, °C, m/s, hPa, etc.). When the app receives this data, it converts and displays values in whatever unit system your device’s locale specifies.

On Android, your measurement preferences are determined by your system Language & Region settings. On Desktop (JVM), the app uses the JVM’s default Locale.

💡 Tip: You never need to toggle units inside the app. Change your system measurement preferences and every screen in Meshtastic updates automatically — node details, telemetry charts, weather, altitude, and more.

الحرارة

Temperature values from environment sensors are transmitted as °C and displayed based on your device’s temperature unit preference.

Environment metrics with temperature

Your Setting You See
Celsius 22°C
Fahrenheit 72°F

This affects all temperature displays throughout the app: node environment telemetry, soil temperature, dew point, and telemetry chart axes.

Distance & Altitude

Distances between nodes and GPS altitudes are transmitted as meters and automatically scaled and converted.

Distance info display

Your Setting Small Distance Large Distance Altitude
Metric 350 m 2.5 km 1,200 m
Imperial (US) 1,148 ft 1.6 mi 3,937 ft

The app uses natural scaling — short distances stay in meters or feet, while longer distances switch to kilometres or miles automatically.

Where these appear

  • Node list — distance and bearing to each node
  • Node detail — altitude, distance from your position
  • Map — waypoint distances, traceroute hop distances
  • Compass — distance to selected node

Speed

GPS ground speed is displayed in your locale’s preferred speed unit.

Your Setting You See
Metric 12 km/h
Imperial (US) 7 mph

Wind

Wind speed and gust data from environment sensors are transmitted as m/s and converted for display.

Your Setting You See
Metric 5 m/s
Imperial (US) 11 mph

Wind readings appear in the Node Detail environment section and the Environment Telemetry charts.

Rainfall

Rainfall measurements (1-hour and 24-hour totals) are transmitted as mm and converted for display.

Your Setting You See
Metric 12 mm
Imperial (US) 0.5 in

Units That Never Change

Some units are international standards and are displayed the same way regardless of your locale:

Measurement Unit Why
Barometric pressure hPa International meteorological standard
Heading / bearing ° (degrees) Universal navigation convention
Radiation μR/hr Standard dosimetry unit
GPS coordinates decimal degrees Universal geographic standard
Humidity, battery, soil moisture % Universal

Date & Time

All timestamps throughout the app — last heard, message times, telemetry logs, chart axes — follow your device’s date and time preferences.

Setting What It Controls Example
24-Hour Time Clock format 14:30 vs 2:30 PM
Date Format Date ordering 09/05/2026 vs 05/09/2026

The app also uses relative time where it makes sense — for example, “5 min ago” or “2 hours ago” in the node list — which is automatically localised into your device language.

Changing Your Measurement System (Android)

On Android, your measurement system (metric vs imperial) is tied to your region setting:

  1. Open Android Settings → System → Language & Region
  2. Change your Region or Measurement units preference
  3. Return to Meshtastic — values update immediately

💡 Tip: All measurement formatting is handled centrally and respects your platform’s locale, so units stay consistent everywhere in the app.