Today I learned: you can spoof your timezone in Google Chrome without needing to change your system settings.
I was implementing user timezone preferences for a CMS product when I learned about this, much to my relief. I had been anticipating having to change my system settings over and over again as I tested how my datetime formatting behaved in different timezones.
So how do you do it?
- Open DevTools in Chrome (F12).
- If not already shown, open the Console drawer (esc).
- Click the three, vertically-aligned dots at the top-left of the console drawer (
⋮). - In the dropdown menu, select Sensors.
- In the new Sensors tab, you can change your location to one of the presets, or choose "Other..." to manually enter a timezone.
If you're viewing this in Chrome, try it out now and take a look at the current time displayed in the Codepen below.
Latest comments (7)
You can also use the 'Vytal' extension to spoof your timezone, locale, geolocation and user agent. It can automatically set your location data to match your ip address.
chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/...
Where can I get right data for adding a new one. I mean the right Latitude, Longitude, Timezone ID and Locale?
Cool feature, right? I wanted it too back in 2019 so I submitted a feature request for it. You're welcome :)
That's awsome Dan, thanks for making the feature request. Dev work involving timezones is always a nightmare but the timezone selector has certainly eased that pain a little!
Hey, just found that when needed it most. Tnx
Really useful, thanks Aileen
Thanks Conor, I'm glad this helped! Chrome DevTools has so many useful features like this that can be so hidden unless you know where to look.