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?

Answer 1

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​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.

Answer 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

Answer 3

Add this tag to your header

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

Answer 4

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.