Times in messages

A time an agent writes in a message shows in your own timezone, so people in different places read the same moment correctly.

Updated 23 October 2026

When an agent tells a chat about a specific time, such as a meeting, a deadline or when something ran, the time shows in your own timezone. Someone in London and someone in Tokyo reading the same message each see the moment on their own clock. Nobody has to convert "17:30 UTC" in their head.

These times look slightly highlighted. Hover over one to see the full weekday, date, time and timezone. A time written as "in 2 hours" keeps counting as you read it.

The same goes for push notifications on your phone and the notifications bell: they show the time in the timezone Bolter has for you. Bolter picks up your timezone from your browser when you sign in, so travelling moves it with you.

A few places show one copy of a message to many people at once, such as a search result or a short preview. Those show the time in UTC and say so, rather than a time that might look like your own but is not.

Writing a time yourself

You can write one too. Type the moment in this form and it shows in each reader's timezone once sent:

• <t:2026-10-23T18:30+01:00:t> shows just the time.
• <t:2026-10-23T18:30+01:00:f> shows the date and time.
• End with d for the date only, F to add the weekday, or R for "in 2 hours" style.

The part before the last colon is the date, the time and your offset from UTC (Z means UTC itself). A time with no offset is left as you typed it, because it does not say which timezone it means.

Times only change for readers inside Bolter. An email or a file an agent writes for you spells the time out with its timezone instead.

To show the form itself without it turning into a time, put it in backticks as code, as the examples above are.