How can I disable meta format-detection on iOS for dates?

Question

I realize that there is a meta tag for disabling the auto formatting of a telephone number in iOS but I wondered if its possible in iOS for things like a date or time.

Anyone have any ideas?

score 3 · Answer 1 · answered Mar 21 '15 at 01:14

There is no meta way at the moment. However there are two tricks to break the detection.

I advise to split the date/time with a harmless HTML element, like a span:

Mon<span></span>day

Another trick is adding a zero-width space:

Mon&#x200B;day

However this is less stable, for example in the preview text of iOS 6-8, there the zero with space is displayed like a regular space.

score 2 · Answer 2 · answered Oct 01 '13 at 11:15

2

Add this tag to your header

<meta name="format-detection" content="date=no">

answered Oct 01 '13 at 11:15

coliff

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Also wanted to add that you should be able to do a comma-separated list within one tag: `` – Ryan Wheale Oct 25 '13 at 01:26
5

This is not documented by Apple and actually does not work (at least on iOS 8). Could you provide the source where you got this information from? – Christophe Fondacci Jun 23 '15 at 16:26

score 2 · Answer 3 · edited Mar 24 '19 at 11:30

2

This isn't possible for dates or addresses. Unfortunately, phone numbers are the only type covered in Apple's documentation: https://developer.apple.com/library/archive/documentation/AppleApplications/Reference/SafariHTMLRef/Articles/MetaTags.html

edited Mar 24 '19 at 11:30

Cœur

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answered Jan 08 '14 at 18:01

CLL

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score 0 · Answer 4 · answered Nov 21 '16 at 11:56

0

Or just hide it with css by styling the generated links like

your-element-containg-days a {
    color: #000 !important;
    text-decoration: none !important;
        }

You have to add !important to overrule the generated styling.

answered Nov 21 '16 at 11:56

webfed

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1

To the person who downvoted this: this is a valid answer. Oftentimes in the email world, one needs to hide auto-generated links instead of completely remove the functionality. It is an effective way to faux-disable these automations. – Nathan Dec 27 '19 at 02:50
The only thing is that this doesn't work with email clients. Otherwise it is a valid solution in html world – Darpan Mar 04 '20 at 18:04

How can I disable meta format-detection on iOS for dates?

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