World Clock

Time Shifter


Contents

  1. About the App
  2. New Features
  3. Time Shift
  4. Locations
  5. Notifications
  6. Time Sharing
  7. Settings

About The App

World Clock displays times around the world in a unique and intuitive way that not only shows the current time in many places around the globe simultaneously, but also lets you easily fast forward into the future or rewind back to the past to quickly visualize how the time changes everywhere all at once.

Each location is displayed as a banner rotating around the globe, with the location's name (or a custom title you choose) printed on it, and an arrow pointing from the banner's head to the current time at that location. To see times in the future or past, spin the globe around with your finger. Or hop to any point in time instantly using the time and date choosers.

The currently selected location's name (or custom title) and its current time & date are displayed above the clock. Underneath the clock the selected location's time zone is shown. Tap on the arrows on either side of the time zone information (or swipe left or right on the time zone label itself) to change the selected location.

The clock also shows the dividing lines between days, so you can easily see different days in different locations. One line pointing to midnight divides the globe into two days, which are labeled on either side of the line. The other line - that rotates with the clock face as it moves - approximates the international date line. (1)

When the clock is fast forwarded into the future a button appears in the upper left corner for creating notifications that will be delivered to your phone or watch (either one-time or daily) when the current time reaches the future time in the selected location.

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New in Version 3.5

New Features in Version 3

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Time Shift/Freeze

Touch the clock face and spin it around clockwise or counterclockwise to shift the time forwards or backwards. The clock is now frozen and will not advance until you tap the reset button in the lower left corner. A lock icon appears next to the time to indicate that it's frozen. You can also tap the clock face without spinning it to freeze the clock at the current time without changing it. Use this feature as a count-down (or count-up) timer.

When the time is shifted/frozen a bubble appears over the location's name showing how much the time is shifted forwards or backwards, and an arc appears on the outer edge of the clock to show the difference between current and shifted times in the selected lcoation. The green circle on the arc shows the current time in the selected location. As time advances the green circle will move forward, but all the banners on the clock will remain frozen until the Rewind button in the lower left corner is tapped, unfreezing it and returning the clock to the present time.

To make minor adjustments to the time when frozen, tap the +/- buttons next to the time label.

Easter Egg: You can also adjust the time +/- 1 min by swiping on the location time label above the clock, either left/right or up/down.

Time/Date Hop

Tap the clock button near the time label at the top right of the screen to jump any time of day. Tap the calendar button just underneath the clock button to jump to any date.

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Locations

The app draws banners on the clock face representing the locations that you choose. Tap the world button in the lower right corner to see the list of user-chosen locations. You can add, change, delete, and reorder the locations. Reordering will change how they are displayed on the clock face, where locations listed first shown near the outer edge of the clock and locations lower in the list shown closer to the center.

Creating New Locations

To create a new location:

Managing Locations

From the location list screen:

Choosing Time Zones

The default way to search for a time zone is with the new City Search feature. Type the name of a city in the search bar and the table will show all matching results in a list of cities. When you choose a location it populates the location's custom title with the name of the city. Note that some city names are very long and may not display well on the clock banner.

The other way to choose a zone is simply by choosing from a list of time zones, organized either by region or by GMT offset. By region the zones are grouped by continent/region and then listed alphabetically by major city name. The regions are Africa, America (including both north & south), Antarctica, Arctic, Asia, Atlantic (ocean), Australia, Europe, GMT, Indian (ocean), and Pacific (ocean). Within these regions all named time zones are listed. Note that many major cities will not be named here, because they use the time zone for a different city within the same zone. For example on the west coast of the US Pacific Time is represented by 'America/Los Angeles', and all other US cities on Pacific time will use that zone, for example including Seattle, Portland, San Francisco, San Jose, and San Diego. If you want to target a specific city, use the City Search tab. The GMT offset list shows the time zones ordered by their offset from GMT/UTC (Greenwich Mean Time, aka Coordinated Universal Time), starting with the furthest behind (GMT-11) up to the farthest ahead (GMT+14). It is the same set of zones listed by region, just ordered by GMT offset.

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"Can't add more locations"

Some notes on the limit on the number of locations:
The lite version of the app supports up to 3 locations. The pro version supports many more - the exact number depends on several factors: the size of the screen, which locations you choose, how long their banner titles are, and their order in the location list. The app draws location banners in bands around the clock face, starting from the outermost band and moving inward. It favors locations that are high on the list over ones lower on the list. Multiple banners will fit within the same band if they don't overlap each other. When new locations are added that overlap existing locations a new band is created, unless its already at the maximum number of bands, in which case no more locations can be added.

The number of locations that will fit depends on which locations you choose and where you position them in the list. If you choose locations whose time zones are are very close together they will stack up quickly and create many bands on the clock. To avoid creating too many bands, combine locations that are in the same time zone and use a custom title to identify them (e.g. have one location named "Paris/Amsterdam" instead of two separate ones). It is also recommended to place locations with longer names higher up in the list so they will be drawn in outer bands closer to the outer edge of the clock face. If a name is too long it will be truncated when drawn on the clock, especially if the banner is close to the center.

If the app won't allow more locations to be added it is because it has reached a limit on the number of banners that can be displayed that are big enough to be readable. (As more bands are added they get smaller and harder to read.) Once that limit has been reached the app won't allow any new locations to be added, even if there are some places in time zones that could fit within the existing banners. In order to fit more locations, you must first remove one or more locations that cause the banners to stack up in multiple bands. If there are multiple locations/banners in the same time zone (i.e. same GMT offset) they will stack up quickly. Removing at least one should free up a band and allow more locations to be added in other places (i.e. other time zones / GMT offsets).

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Notifications

To create a notification that will alert you at a given time in the currently selected location, first use the time shift feature to move the clock forward to the time when you want to be notified, then a button appears in the upper left corner of the clock (exclamation point inside of a speech bubble, underneath the globe button). Tapping on this button will create a notification for the selected location at the set time (you can choose either one-time or repeating notifications). Please make sure that you have notifications enabled for the app in the System Settings screen (see the System Settings option below).

Troubleshooting Notifications

You may not notice or hear incoming notifications. The iPhone has a lot of ways to silence potential alerts. You may not get an alert or hear a sound for a notification, if any of these conditions are true:
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Managing Notifications

In the upper left corner of the main screen, tap the globe button to show a list of locations and their current times, including the current system time zone (local), all of the custom locations you selected, and many prominent time zones around the world. (This screen always shows the current real time, even if the clock is time-shifted into the future or past.)

The notification button in the upper right corner of the table shows a screen listing all of the notifications that are scheduled for all locations by the app. You can view them in ascending or decending order of delivery date (tap up/down arrow button). You can permanently cancel a notification by swiping left on the row.

Tap on a location's row to see more information about the time zone associated with that location, including any notifications schedule for delivery. You can also permanently cancel notifications here.

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Time Sharing

A new feature of the app lets you share screenshots and timetables with others using the iOS share sheet. Tapping the share icon (box with arrow pointing out) in the upper right corner shows (sometimes after some delay) the share sheet. Use this feature to coordinate global meetings!

The share sheet gives lots of options for sharing a screenshot of the current clock state and a list of all the times in the locations you have chosen to display on the clock. This works with Apple's Messages, Mail, Notes and Journal apps, and with some social media apps, but several 3rd party apps don't support the full functionality:

Spread the Word

On the settings screen there is an option to share a link to the World Clock app in the app store using the iOS share sheet. Tap on this link and choose your preferred mode of communication (supports Messages, Mail, most social network apps) and send a link to your friends!

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Settings

Appearance

This controls the use of light mode or dark mode. The default setting is 'System' which matches the iPhone's system setting. The 'Light' or 'Dark' options override the system setting.

Clock Style

The hours on the clock face can be labeled with either a 12-hour format (AM/PM) or the 24-hour format. The default 'System' option uses whatever the user chooses in the System Settings (under "General -> Date & Time"). This option affects only the labeling of the clock face, all other time formatting will conform to the System Settings.

Perspective

You can choose to see the locations presented either from the perspective of the North or South Pole. The default is to view the times as if you were hovering over the South Pole. In this mode you will see the times move clockwise around the clock face, as with a standard clock. If you choose North Pole perspective, the locations will move counter-clockwise as they advance in time, as if you were hovering over the North Pole.

Banner Placement

This option affects how the banners are placed within the bands. "Dense" tries to place them as closely together as possible, while "Sparse" will maintain at least 4-hour separation between locations on the same band. (So, for example, New York at GMT+5 and Los Angeles at GMT+8 won't appear on the same band because they are separated by only 3 hours.) Inner bands will require even more separation.

DST Banner Indicator

This option will show a dot at the front of a location's banner when it is currently observing Daylight Saving Time.

Font

You can choose from dozens of fonts to display on the banners and labels on the main clock screen.

System Settings

If you tap on the System Settings item in the app's settings screen it will take you to the app's settings page in the iOS device's Settings app. On this screen you can choose the preferred language, configure notifications, and other options.

Language

The app currently supports English, Spanish, and German. The English is pretty good, the Spanish and German are not perfect.

Enable Notifications

If you want to use the notifications feature of the app make sure you have notifications enabled in the system settings, and configure how you would like to receive them. The app will never send you any push notifications that you didn't create yourself.

Siri & Search

The 'Siri & Search' option lets you choose whether to include the app in Siri suggestions and search results. It is not necessary for the function of this app and you can turn them off if you like.

Cellular Data

If you are using the lite version of the app this option may affect the display of ads when using the device when connected to a cellular network and not connected to wi-fi. Turning off this option will not affect the app's ability to update the time, as it gets all time and timezone information from the device's OS. This option also has no effect on the pro version.

Allow Tracking

If you are using the lite version of the app you will see an option to 'Allow Tracking'. This options lets advertisers associate ads you tap on in this app with ads you tap on in other apps. (That's all it means by 'tracking', it doesn't track your movements or associate your personal identity with other apps. It basically just means if you tap on ads for gumball machines in this app, you will probably see ads for gumball machines in other apps.)

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Notes

  1. The International Date Line (IDL) theoretically exists at the 180-degree meridian, separating GMT+12 and GMT-12. In practice, however, several time zones exist ahead of GMT+12, including several at GMT+13 and even one at GMT+14. Because of this is is difficult to depict the day/date on a globe simultaneously for locations that are at +13 and +14 vs those that are at -12 or -11, because they occupy the same position longitudinally, but are always in different days. As of the time this user guide was written there were no standard time zones at GMT-12, so in order to accommodate several Pacific islands at GMT+13, the World Clock app draws the IDL at the GMT+13/GMT-11 line. As a result, a handful of time zones will appear to lie right on the IDL on the clock face, and thus it will not be obvious which day they are in. The date/time label above the clock will show the correct day when the location is selected. Also, one time zone - Kiritimati (GMT+14) - will always appear on the wrong side of the IDL, and Chatham DST (GMT+13:45) will be on the wrong side when it is on daylight saving time. BACK