New Beta: More time zone formatting options for datetime fields

[Elena_Jia]

Hi everyone!

Update 2022/11/02 - The new time zone formatting options for date time fields are now generally available!

We’re excited to announce a new beta feature that allows you to specify a display time zone of your choice on date fields that include time and formula fields that output a datetime value. Once you specify a time zone for a field, this time zone will be visible and used for all collaborators.

We’ve heard your feedback that time and time zones can be tricky to manage, and we hope that being able to choose from a broader list of global time zones can make collaborating across time zones much easier and clearer for you and your teams.

You’ll only be able to use these field-level time zone settings in your base if you’ve signed up for the beta and you can sign up for the beta via this form. As you’re trying out the feature, please submit any feedback/issues here.

Read on for more information!

For datetime fields, you can access this feature by going to the field configuration menu and toggling on both “Include time” and “Use the same time zone for all collaborators”. Setting custom time zones is only supported for fields that include time.

For formula fields, you can access this feature by going to your field configuration menu and navigating to the Formatting tab.

This feature is still in development, so there are some known gaps and aspects may be subject to breaking changes. Please keep this in mind and be judicious on how you use this beta feature in your bases.

Current known gaps include:

• Syncs involving new time zones are currently based on the displayed time. They will be based on the underlying timestamp instead. [update on 9/9/2022 - syncing a date field value from one base to another is now based on the underlying timestamp, for example 8/1/2022 5:00 pm GMT will be synced to 8/1/2022 10:00 am PDT]
• Setting display time zones on mobile is not yet supported.

Please don’t hesitate to reply in this thread with any questions, and thank you in advance for your time and consideration.

[Elena_Jia]

Thank you for the feedback! @egordin @Karlstens @ScottWorld @kuovonne

We scoped adding time zones for date only fields out of this launch, but we will keep an eye out for feedback on this and investigate the behaviors to potentially address it in the future.

[Elena_Jia]

Thanks for testing the feature and pointing out the issue! The current behavior of clicking “Today” in the date picker will enter the local date and time values. We will take note of feedback on this as well.

[ScottWorld]

Elena_Jia:

We scoped adding time zones for date only fields out of this launch, but we will keep an eye out for feedback on this and investigate the behaviors to potentially address it in the future

Thanks, @Elena_Jia! :smiling_face:

[WilliamPorter]

This is a nice development: It’s nice to see the timezone. But I don’t see the timezone list, as you show it in your post. What am I missing?

[kuovonne]

WilliamPorterTech:

But I don’t see the timezone list,

After you sign up for the beta, you may need to clear cache before the new features show up. At least that’s what I had to do.

[WilliamPorter]

Thanks, Kuovonne. That did the trick. :slightly_smiling_face:

[Xing_Zhang]

Question about daylight savings - @Elena_Jia

Right now, the date and time are displayed in America/Los_Angelas timezone, which is PDT (UTC−07:00). After the daylight savings on 11/6, it will change PDT to PST (UTC−08:00).

For the meeting that has already been scheduled, after the daylight savings change, it will stay at the same time correct? Meaning, 9 am PDT before 11/6 and it will still be 9 am PST after 11/6.

Thanks!

[Karlstens]

Great question! Keen to hear on the handling of this Daylight Savings scenario.

[Vivid-Squid]

I would assume ALL time is stored in UTC where there is no DST. The time is not relative to 9am PDT before 11/6, it is relative to UTC before 11/6. 9am is 9am, only its relation to UTC changes on a given date.

My guess answer is, yes 9am PDT will remain 9am PST only the UTC offset will change.

[kuovonne]

Vivid-Squid:

I would assume ALL time is stored in UTC where there is no DST.

Yes, all date/time fields are stored in UTC. You can see this by looking at the value through scripting, the REST API, or even a formula field that converts the raw date/time to a string without formatting.

Vivid-Squid:

9am PDT will remain 9am PST only the UTC offset will change.

I think you mean that 9am PT on a particular date will remain 9am on that date regardless of whether the the current date is in PDT or PST.