tzbot

tzbot is a Slack bot that detects messages with references to some point in time and converts them to your timezone.

Features

• When a Slack message is edited, the bot sends a new ephemeral message.

• Time references in code blocks are ignored.

• Supports messages sent to public and private channels and shared channels where the bot is present; replies in threads are also supported.

• Users can send direct messages to the bot to convert time references.

• Every message in the workspace can be converted by selecting Convert time references from the message's context menu ⋮.

• If a message contains wrongly converted or unrecognized time references, users can report an issue from a message's context menu ⋮; the feedback can be either recorded to a file or sent to a configured Slack channel.

• Detects references to:

  • invalid times (e.g., "tomorrow at 1:30", but the clocks skip from 00:59 to 02:00 on that day).
  • ambiguous times (e.g. "tomorrow at 1:30", but the clocks are set back from 01:59 to 01:00 on that day, meaning the time "1:30" will occur twice at two different offsets).

• Handles references with timezones, offsets and some timezone abbreviations (see timezone_abbreviations.md for a full list).

  • tuesday at 11am Australia/Brisbane

  • tuesday at 11am UTC+3

  • tuesday at 11am CST

  If a word looks like a timezone abbreviation but is not known by the bot, the user is given a hint of what abbreviations the sender probably meant.

• Multiple time references with shared context are processed correctly. For example, "Let's meet between 10 and 11pm tomorrow" contains two references: "10(pm) (tomorrow)" and "11pm tomorrow".

Contributing

See:

• Contributing
• Development
• Edge cases & pitfalls
• Implementation details

Comparison with similar tools

• Timely is very similar to tzbot, but it:
  • Reacts everytime someone says the word "now", which can be a bit annoying when you say e.g. "I just merged my PR, we can now use this feature".
  • Reacts to timestamps in codeblocks. This means that when you post some application's logs in Slack, you get flooded with notifications.
  • Does not react when a user edits their message.
  • Does not understand references that include a timezone name or an offset.
• Timezone Butler:
  • Assumes all references are relative to the current day, i.e., it doesn't distinguish "10am" from "10am tomorrow", which can have an impact when DST changes occur.
  • It understands "10am" but not "10 am".
  • It incorrectly interprets "3:30" as "3:30pm", instead of "3:30am".
  • Does not react when a user edits their message.
  • Does not understand references that include a timezone name or an offset.