iOS 18.3 returns one of Calculator’s best features

When iOS 18 launched last fall, we got an all-new Calculator app. It’s got some great features, including Math Notes, which lets you scribble down calculations to solve, and unit conversions, which converts things like currency and weight without heading to Safari. It even arrived on the iPad for the first time, with a full set of features and a brand-new unified interface across platforms.

But one of the most useful features of the old iOS calculator app didn’t make it to the new iOS 18 version: repeating operations. On the old Calculator, like most calculators, you were able to perform an operation, say 2×2, and press the equal sign to get 4. Then if you pressed the equal sign again, it would repeat the last operation (x2), and you’d get 8. Then again to get 16, and so on.

It was a useful way to compute compounding interest or a long series of repeating additions, but for some reason, Apple took it away in iOS 18 and macOS 15. Maybe you didn’t notice, but many users did and have expressed frustration over the past few months that it was gone.

In iOS/iPadOS 18.3 and macOS 15.3, the feature is back, and you can once again mash the equals key over and over and repeat the last operation to your heart’s content. The update is out now, so run over to Settings (or System Settings on your Mac) and hit that Software Update button right now.