In WolframAlpha (no Kago subscription, but I assume it works just the same), to achieve your desired result, you merely have to use:

> 14:50 - 16:28

Or

> 14:50 to 16:28

It makes sense when you think of it.

I’ve been using this for years, and it works wonders for datetimes too.

This is the amount of time between 16:28 today and 14:50 tomorrow. You got a correct answer. Just not the answer you were thinking of.

To me it seems to compute number of hours in the interval between those times.

I don't use kagi. On WA, this search results in the answer with a prompt with the engine's assumptions, and includes a link to change the assumption to "math" from "word."

These prompts don't show on kagi? Seems like including them would be an avenue for improvement.

Yes, one vexing thing is the inability of search engines to convert time. 5209s to hours and minutes? Oh, I still need to tell you how to do in steps. Why is this so?

> inability of search engines to convert time. 5209s to hours and minutes?

Kagi just resolved “5209 s in h” quite perfectly.

Yes that's the news here, it now does all the math for you. Other search engines don't know how to do it -or- they only do the first step. Your example doesn't do what I asked. I want input to be converted to hours, minutes, and it should ideally give me both outputs: additional remaining seconds and the decimal. Wolfram Alpha's output has what I want, but it also adds what I don't:

Input interpretation

convert 5209 seconds to hours, minutes

     Results

     1 hour 26.82 minutes <==OK

     1.447 hours <==Not asked for

     Additional conversions

     1 hour 26 minutes 49 seconds <==Acceptable interpretation

I'm getting the correct result: "= 1 hour and 38 minutes"