Military time shows hours from 00 to 23 instead of 1 to 12 with AM or PM

To change your iPhone to military time, open Settings, tap Display & Brightness, then scroll down and toggle on 24-Hour Time. That's the complete process — it takes about 30 seconds and applies across your entire phone when ready.

Military time (also called 24-hour time) runs from 00:00 at midnight to 23:59 at 11:59 PM. So 1 PM becomes 13:00, 6 PM becomes 18:00, and so on. Once you turn on 24-Hour Time in Settings, your lock screen, notifications, messages, calendar, and every other clock on your phone will display this way.

This setting affects only how time appears on your device. It does not change how you receive notifications, how alarms work, or how you schedule events — those all function the same way. The change is purely visual.

Key Takeaways

  • Military time on iPhone is enabled through Settings > Display & Brightness > 24-Hour Time, a single toggle that takes seconds to turn on.
  • The change applies when ready to your lock screen, status bar, notifications, messages, calendar, and all other time displays across your phone.
  • Turning on 24-Hour Time does not affect how alarms, reminders, or notifications work — only how the time is displayed.
  • You can turn 24-Hour Time off the same way you turned it on, and your phone will revert to 12-hour AM/PM format when ready.

Step-by-step: Enabling 24-Hour Time on your iPhone

Start by opening the Settings app on your home screen — it's the gray icon with gears. Tap it once to enter Settings.

Scroll down the Settings menu until you see Display & Brightness. Tap it. You'll see options for brightness, text size, and other display settings.

Continue scrolling down within Display & Brightness until you reach the bottom of the menu. You'll see a toggle labeled 24-Hour Time. It will be gray (off) if you haven't enabled it yet.

Tap the toggle once to turn it on. It will turn green, and the label will show it's now active. Close Settings by tapping the back arrow or swiping from the left edge of the screen. Your iPhone is now set to military time.

Where you'll see military time appear on your iPhone

Once 24-Hour Time is on, military time shows up everywhere on your device. Your lock screen will display the time in 24-hour format at the top. When you unlock your phone, the status bar at the top of the screen shows military time. Any notification that includes a timestamp will show military time instead of AM or PM.

Your Messages app will display the time each message was sent in 24-hour format. Calendar events show their start and end times in military time. Reminders, alarms, and the Clock app all use 24-hour format. Even third-party apps that display time will often respect this system setting and show military time as well.

The only place this setting may not explore is in apps that have their own time display built in and don't use your phone's system setting. Most apps do respect it, but some older or less common apps might still show 12-hour time. This is rare and depends on how the app was designed.

Turning military time off if you change your mind

If you decide you prefer 12-hour time with AM and PM, the process to switch back is identical to turning it on. Open Settings, tap Display & Brightness, scroll to the bottom, and tap the 24-Hour Time toggle to turn it off. It will turn gray, and your phone will when ready revert to showing 12-hour time everywhere.

You can switch back and forth as many times as you want. There's no limit to how often you can toggle this setting, and it never affects your data, your alarms, or anything else on your phone — it's purely a display preference.

Why military time matters for device security and control

Using military time can help you keep better track of when events happen on your device, which matters if you're monitoring your phone's activity or reviewing logs. When you see timestamps in a consistent 24-hour format, it's harder to misread whether something happened in the morning or evening — 14:30 is unambiguous in a way 2:30 PM is not if you're reading quickly.

If you're reviewing message histories, notification logs, or trying to reconstruct when something occurred on your phone, military time removes the confusion of AM and PM. This is especially useful if you're checking your device for unauthorized access or unusual activity, since you can match timestamps more accurately against your own memory of what you were doing at specific times.

Military time conversion reference

If you're new to military time, here's how the most common hours convert. Midnight is 00:00. 1 AM is 01:00, 6 AM is 06:00, and 11 AM is 11:00. Noon is 12:00. 1 PM is 13:00, 6 PM is 18:00, and 11 PM is 23:00. To convert any PM time to military time, add 12 to the hour — so 3 PM becomes 15:00, and 9 PM becomes 21:00.

The minutes stay the same in both formats. 2:45 PM is 14:45 in military time. 7:30 AM is 07:30. Once you use military time for a few days, the conversion becomes automatic and you'll stop thinking about it as a separate system.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does turning on 24-Hour Time affect how I set alarms or reminders?

No. Your alarms and reminders work exactly the same way. When you create an alarm or reminder, you still set it using the same interface you always have — the time picker on your phone. The only difference is that if you look at an existing alarm in your Clock app, it will display in 24-hour format instead of showing AM or PM.

Will military time show up in my text messages and emails?

Yes, timestamps on messages will show in 24-hour format once you enable the setting. If someone sends you a message at 3 PM, it will show as 15:00 in your Messages app. However, the person who sent the message will see whatever time format their own phone is set to — this setting only affects what you see on your device.

Can I set military time for only certain apps?

No. The 24-Hour Time setting in Display & Brightness is system-wide and applies to all apps that use your phone's time display. You cannot enable it for some apps and disable it for others. It's an all-or-nothing setting.

What if I don't see the 24-Hour Time option in Display & Brightness?

Make sure you're running a current version of iOS. This setting has been available for many years, but if your iPhone is very old or running an outdated iOS version, it might not appear. Check Settings > General > Software Update to see if an update is available, then try Display & Brightness again.

Does military time use a colon or a different separator?

On iPhone, military time uses a colon just like 12-hour time does. You'll see 14:30, not 1430 or 14.30. The format is always hours, colon, minutes, with no AM or PM label.