# System Time, please **URL:** \ **Category:** Feature Requests\ **Created:** [May 15, 2021, 7:00pm UTC](https://community.glideapps.com/t/system-time-please/26837 "2021-05-15T19:00:39Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Mark\_Turrell](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/community.glideapps.com/mark_turrell/32/26605_2.png) [@Mark\_Turrell](https://community.glideapps.com/u/Mark_Turrell)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2021, 7:00pm UTC](https://community.glideapps.com/t/system-time-please/26837/1 "2021-05-15T19:00:39Z")
Glide picks up the time from user devices (‘current time’) which is fair enough but annoying and causes issues in some cases. Use case: - my telemedicine app has users and agents (video call) - both are in different apps, but working on the same glide table (TestFlow) - sometimes the user sets values, sometimes the agent > > example - agent time stamp drops put on the test cassette… to start a timer Problem\> If an agent is in a different time zone to the user, the agent time is used. So…. It’s 1600 for the user, but the agent might be 2 hours ahead so the time is set at 1800 (in the future!) I can work around with ite checks in a clumsy way, and no, I can ask the user and agent their time zone all the time, even for on boarding. A better solution would be a second time - the System Time. Unless I’m missing a trick. ---
**Author:** ![Jeff\_Hager](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/community.glideapps.com/jeff_hager/32/43_2.png) [@Jeff\_Hager](https://community.glideapps.com/u/Jeff_Hager)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2021, 7:24pm UTC](https://community.glideapps.com/t/system-time-please/26837/2 "2021-05-15T19:24:52Z")
Maybe you’re already doing this, but one thought is if you have both the user and agent pushing a button or something around the same time, you could capture their local time and maybe some some math to calculate the difference to the nearest hour and use that difference to offset timer start time to the user’s or agent’s local time. Still clumsy, but a thought. I agree that a GMT or System time would make it a lot easier to figure this out. ---
**Author:** ![Mark\_Turrell](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/community.glideapps.com/mark_turrell/32/26605_2.png) [@Mark\_Turrell](https://community.glideapps.com/u/Mark_Turrell)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2021, 8:23pm UTC](https://community.glideapps.com/t/system-time-please/26837/3 "2021-05-15T20:23:28Z")
Fortunately, I had two timestamps around the same time: - user request video (e.g. 11:00) - agent joins video (e.g. 11:03… or 12:03 or 09:03, etc) Problem fixed with two columns (with some help from this solution, and implementation courtesy of my son, Patrick - 17 years old, programming algorithms to solve Expert Sudokus in less than 0.4 sec… working on Glide as my intern 🙂 ![Screenshot 2021-05-15 at 22.10.28](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/uploads/glideapps/original/3X/1/1/1111fe6e3191e199529c87b4e227146ac6bca50e.jpeg) ![Screenshot 2021-05-15 at 22.10.37](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/uploads/glideapps/original/3X/6/9/6931649b9755dc00111bc7e9a299a49ed40dc97a.png) ---
**Author:** ![Mark\_Turrell](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/community.glideapps.com/mark_turrell/32/26605_2.png) [@Mark\_Turrell](https://community.glideapps.com/u/Mark_Turrell)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2021, 3:13pm UTC](https://community.glideapps.com/t/system-time-please/26837/4 "2021-05-26T15:13:15Z")
BUT I do not always have two timestamps from both sides. I have a challenge to work out what to show agents … before they have interacted with the user. System time is the way to go - please @Mark 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Mark\_Turrell](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/community.glideapps.com/mark_turrell/32/26605_2.png) [@Mark\_Turrell](https://community.glideapps.com/u/Mark_Turrell)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2021, 3:27pm UTC](https://community.glideapps.com/t/system-time-please/26837/5 "2021-05-26T15:27:22Z")
It is driving me totally bonkers without system time. The things I want to do become brutally complex… and prone to error. It should not be too hard 😉 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Robert\_Petitto](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/community.glideapps.com/robert_petitto/32/25193_2.png) [@Robert\_Petitto](https://community.glideapps.com/u/Robert_Petitto)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2021, 5:43pm UTC](https://community.glideapps.com/t/system-time-please/26837/6 "2021-05-26T17:43:08Z")
Agreed. Would be awesome to have the option to write timestamps in UTC time. ---
**Author:** ![Mark\_Turrell](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/community.glideapps.com/mark_turrell/32/26605_2.png) [@Mark\_Turrell](https://community.glideapps.com/u/Mark_Turrell)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2021, 5:47pm UTC](https://community.glideapps.com/t/system-time-please/26837/7 "2021-05-26T17:47:29Z")
Exactly. A good use case to show why there’s a problem: User A is in Boston (ET) - they click and set a timestamp (ET) - there is a computed column - ‘how many minutes has it been since user timestamp” - so comparing Now to timestamp 10 mins pass User A now sees 10 mins User B in San Fran - time?!? As their Now is before the Timestamp saved A logic that’s missing. A big gap - and a huge win to put it in 🌟🍾🎂 ---
**Author:** ![Robert\_Petitto](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/community.glideapps.com/robert_petitto/32/25193_2.png) [@Robert\_Petitto](https://community.glideapps.com/u/Robert_Petitto)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2021, 6:03pm UTC](https://community.glideapps.com/t/system-time-please/26837/8 "2021-05-26T18:03:53Z")
Right. Recorded timestamps are the issue. Any user with a UTC time that’s later than another user will appear to be interacting with the app in the future. ---
**Author:** ![Mark\_Turrell](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/community.glideapps.com/mark_turrell/32/26605_2.png) [@Mark\_Turrell](https://community.glideapps.com/u/Mark_Turrell)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2021, 6:22pm UTC](https://community.glideapps.com/t/system-time-please/26837/9 "2021-05-26T18:22:52Z")
🙂 I’ll grant that the way time is done is better than random…… as in ‘pick a number and I’ll make that the timestamp’… ---
**Author:** ![Mark\_Turrell](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/community.glideapps.com/mark_turrell/32/26605_2.png) [@Mark\_Turrell](https://community.glideapps.com/u/Mark_Turrell)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2021, 7:12pm UTC](https://community.glideapps.com/t/system-time-please/26837/10 "2021-05-27T19:12:28Z")
BTW I am looking forward to seeing the Murphy Clock in action 🙂 @Darren_Murphy your sneak peek was intriguing 🙂 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![gvalero](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/community.glideapps.com/gvalero/32/1037_2.png) [@gvalero](https://community.glideapps.com/u/gvalero)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2021, 3:16pm UTC](https://community.glideapps.com/t/system-time-please/26837/11 "2021-06-01T15:16:33Z")
@Mark_Turrell Did you fix your problem with your GS timestamp and the user timestamp working together? I think I have a workaround and works very well (not very complex as well) Saludos ---
**Author:** ![Simon\_Hill](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/community.glideapps.com/simon_hill/32/94730_2.png) [@Simon\_Hill](https://community.glideapps.com/u/Simon_Hill)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2021, 3:43pm UTC](https://community.glideapps.com/t/system-time-please/26837/12 "2021-06-01T15:43:20Z")
Just in case you missed my workaround solution… > [@Timestamp with your local time NOT user's time zone](https://community.glideapps.com/t/timestamp-with-your-local-time-not-users-time-zone/24753): > > Happy to share a trick if you want to track activity in your App, e.g. how many users are active in the last X hours then how many the last Y minutes. This solves the issue that when you push the current time into a cell using a ‘Set columns’ action Glide pushes the current time on the user’s device versus your Local time. This can throw up issues, for example it may appear that users in Asia are active on the App in the future! So my solution is to leverage your Google sheet. The magic is to … ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Murphy](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/community.glideapps.com/darren_murphy/32/47326_2.png) [@Darren\_Murphy](https://community.glideapps.com/u/Darren_Murphy)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2021, 4:24pm UTC](https://community.glideapps.com/t/system-time-please/26837/13 "2021-06-01T16:24:09Z")
yeah, we have a solution… - Agents click a button to assign themselves to a waiting user - Multi-step action does the following: - Writes the TestID into the Agents row a GSheet column - Sends a webhook to Integromat with the AgentID and TestID - Integromat then writes the TestID back to a column in the Agent sheet, along with a UTC timestamp - Agent is then put into a holding pattern - Once those changes sync back to Glide (takes about 5-10 seconds), a relation is formed, and the Agent is allowed to proceed to the video call with the user. If multiple agents try to assign themselves to the same user, then the one with the earliest UTC timestamp (from Integromat) wins the race, and the others are booted out of the “waiting room” ---
**Author:** ![gvalero](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/community.glideapps.com/gvalero/32/1037_2.png) [@gvalero](https://community.glideapps.com/u/gvalero)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2021, 5:18pm UTC](https://community.glideapps.com/t/system-time-please/26837/14 "2021-06-01T17:18:37Z")
Thanks @Darren_Murphy and @Simon_Hill, I will see better the Simon’s idea to verify if this covers multiples timezones at the same time (I’m using my phone and I can’t see very well the video… sorry). Darren, my solution doesn’t use Webhook (I understand your idea) and works with Glide time and its Now() function natively. In short, I just made a new Glide time but using the GS timezone so, every time Now() updates Glide time (every 10 sec), my new time (Column) is updated as well in GDE in order to be used at any moment. You will have the time based on your GS timezone on your APP always. I will explain it with some pics later when I come back to my home soon. Feliz día! ---
**Author:** ![Jeff\_Hager](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/community.glideapps.com/jeff_hager/32/43_2.png) [@Jeff\_Hager](https://community.glideapps.com/u/Jeff_Hager)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2021, 5:56am UTC](https://community.glideapps.com/t/system-time-please/26837/15 "2021-06-02T05:56:20Z")
I think I may have cracked this entirely within glide. It’s 1am so I need to get to bed, but I’ll try to whip up an example in the morning. ---
**Author:** ![V88](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/community.glideapps.com/v88/32/90054_2.png) [@V88](https://community.glideapps.com/u/V88)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2021, 6:49am UTC](https://community.glideapps.com/t/system-time-please/26837/16 "2021-06-02T06:49:18Z")
1am local? ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Murphy](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/community.glideapps.com/darren_murphy/32/47326_2.png) [@Darren\_Murphy](https://community.glideapps.com/u/Darren_Murphy)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2021, 7:38am UTC](https://community.glideapps.com/t/system-time-please/26837/17 "2021-06-02T07:38:05Z")
🤣🤣 ---
**Author:** ![Jeff\_Hager](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/community.glideapps.com/jeff_hager/32/43_2.png) [@Jeff\_Hager](https://community.glideapps.com/u/Jeff_Hager)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2021, 11:23am UTC](https://community.glideapps.com/t/system-time-please/26837/18 "2021-06-02T11:23:27Z")
Ha! Excellent question. 🤣 ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Murphy](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/community.glideapps.com/darren_murphy/32/47326_2.png) [@Darren\_Murphy](https://community.glideapps.com/u/Darren_Murphy)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2021, 3:27pm UTC](https://community.glideapps.com/t/system-time-please/26837/19 "2021-06-02T15:27:38Z")
> [@Jeff\_Hager](#): > > I think I may have cracked this entirely within glide. It’s 1am so I need to get to bed, but I’ll try to whip up an example in the morning. The suspense is killing me… 😂 ---
**Author:** ![Jeff\_Hager](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/community.glideapps.com/jeff_hager/32/43_2.png) [@Jeff\_Hager](https://community.glideapps.com/u/Jeff_Hager)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2021, 3:28pm UTC](https://community.glideapps.com/t/system-time-please/26837/20 "2021-06-02T15:28:18Z")
Couldn’t wait 5 seconds? 😉 > [@clock3 System/GMT Time - Solved!](https://community.glideapps.com/t/system-gmt-time-solved/27524): > > This is an extension of the request for [System Time, please](https://community.glideapps.com/t/system-time-please/26837). There’s been a lot of questions for a while about how to get a universal time that can be shared for multiple users across multiple time zones. Most of you will know that any time your get a date/time from one of the glide special values, it will always be the user’s local time. But if you don’t know which time zone they are in, then you have no easy way to convert that date/time into something standard, like Greenwich Mean Time, to… [Next page](https://community.glideapps.com/t/system-time-please/26837.md?page=2)