Get actual time from internet ?

Question

How to get 'current(actual) time' or 'network operator's time' programmatically if device time is changed ?

I'm trying to get current time through 'getLastKnownLocation' method of 'LocationManager' class. But it gives last location time, but I need current time.

Can anyone tell me a clue about the correct way to get actual time from internet ?

If possible without using any external library.

Thanks in advance.

You did not look hard enough it seems https://stackoverflow.com/questions/13064750/how-to-get-current-time-from-internet-in-android — Kiloreux, May 03 '16 at 06:32
Thanks @Kiloreux. already referred that link. but I need time without using library. — Tejas Patel, May 03 '16 at 06:49
You can have a look at this [How to get time from internet or a server?](http://stackoverflow.com/a/43384287/7047927) — Halesh Kumar, Apr 13 '17 at 05:54

Sathish Kumar · Answer 1 · 2017-07-09T11:53:02.017

4

According to this answer you can get the current time from an NTP server.

support.ntp.org library

Add to your dependency

String timeServer = "server 0.pool.ntp.org";
NTPUDPClient timeClient = new NTPUDPClient();
InetAddress inetAddress = InetAddress.getByName(timeServer);
TimeInfo timeInfo = timeClient.getTime(inetAddress);
long returnTime = timeInfo.getReturnTime();
System.out.println(returnTime)

edited Jul 09 '17 at 11:53

answered May 03 '16 at 06:47

Sathish Kumar

919
1
13
27

That does *not* get you the network operator time, but the current time from an NTP server in the global NTP pool. – Wichert Akkerman Apr 24 '17 at 08:32

score 3 · Accepted Answer · edited May 04 '16 at 01:26

3

You can use a rest full api provided by geo names http://www.geonames.org/login it will require lat and long for this purpose for example

http://api.geonames.org/timezoneJSON?lat=51.5034070&lng=-0.1275920&username=your_user_name

edited May 04 '16 at 01:26

nasch

5,330
6
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52

answered May 03 '16 at 07:11

Adeel Turk

897
8
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This is really useful rest api. Can I call this web service unlimited times? or any restrictions? – Tejas Patel May 03 '16 at 08:42
and create you own account also :D username=adeel_turk is mine ;) – Adeel Turk May 03 '16 at 08:54
and if you think u got your answer then please accept it . :) – Adeel Turk May 03 '16 at 08:55
Already create my own account. Don't worry, I'm not using yours :). Btw Thanks. – Tejas Patel May 03 '16 at 09:03
My pleasure mr patel :) – Adeel Turk May 03 '16 at 09:05

score 3 · Answer 3 · answered Jul 10 '17 at 09:27

For Android:

Add to gradle app module:

compile 'commons-net:commons-net:3.3'

Add to your code:

...
String TAG = "YOUR_APP_TAG";
String TIME_SERVER = "0.europe.pool.ntp.org";
...
public void checkTimeServer() {
    try {
        NTPUDPClient timeClient = new NTPUDPClient();
        InetAddress inetAddress = InetAddress.getByName(TIME_SERVER);
        TimeInfo timeInfo = timeClient.getTime(inetAddress);
        long setverTime = timeInfo.getMessage().getTransmitTimeStamp().getTime();

        // store this somewhere and use to correct system time
        long timeCorrection = System.currentTimeMillis()-setverTime;    
    } catch (Exception e) {
        Log.v(TAG,"Time server error - "+e.getLocalizedMessage());
    }
}

NOTE: timeInfo.getReturnTime() as mentioned in an earlier answer will get you local system time, if you need server time you must use timeInfo.getMessage().getTransmitTimeStamp().getTime().

score 2 · Answer 4 · answered Jul 16 '19 at 11:08

Getting the time from the third-party servers is not reliable most of the times and some of them are paid services.

If you want to get the exact time and check with the phone whether it is correct or not, irrespective of the proper way, you can use the following simple trick to get the actual time.

private class GetActualTime extends AsyncTask<String, Void, String> {

        @Override
        protected String doInBackground(String... urls) {
            try {
                HttpURLConnection urlConnection = null;
                StringBuilder result = new StringBuilder();
                try {
                    URL url = new URL(urls[0]);
                    urlConnection = (HttpURLConnection) url.openConnection();
                    int code = urlConnection.getResponseCode();
                    if (code == 200) {
                        InputStream in = new BufferedInputStream(urlConnection.getInputStream());
                        BufferedReader bufferedReader = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(in));
                        String line = "";
                        while ((line = bufferedReader.readLine()) != null)
                        result.append(line);
                        in.close();
                    }
                        else {
                        return "error on fetching";
                    }
                    return result.toString();
                } catch (MalformedURLException e) {
                    return "malformed URL";
                } catch (IOException e) {
                   return "io exception";
                } finally {
                    if (urlConnection != null) {urlConnection.disconnect();
                    }
                }
            } catch (Exception e) { return "null"; }
        }

        @Override
        protected void onPostExecute(String time) {
            Calendar calendar = Calendar.getInstance();
            SimpleDateFormat mdformat = new SimpleDateFormat("h:mm");
            String times =  mdformat.format(calendar.getTime());
            try {
                String areatime = time.substring(time.indexOf(String.valueOf(times)), time.indexOf(String.valueOf(times)) + 5).trim(); 
                        Toast.makeText(this, "The actual time is " + areatime, Toast.LENGTH_SHORT).show();

            }
            catch(IndexOutOfBoundsException e){
                        Toast.makeText(this, "Mobile time is not same as Internet time", Toast.LENGTH_SHORT).show();
                }
            }


        }

    }

Call the class in the onCreate();

new GetActualTime().execute("https://www.google.com/search?q=time");

So this is actually getting the time from Google. This works pretty awesomely in my projects. In order to check whether the system time is wrong, you can use this trick. Instead of depending on the time servers, you can trust Google.

As it is more sensitive in checking, even a minute ahead or lag will catch the exception. You can customise the code if you want to handle that.

lenght 4 index 1 exception – Kumar Santanu Sep 15 '21 at 05:09 — Kumar Santanu, Sep 15 '21 at 05:09

score -3 · Answer 5 · answered May 03 '16 at 06:32

-3

Try this :

System.currentTimeMillis();

answered May 03 '16 at 06:32

yozzy

344
2
15

1

System.currentTimeMillis(); gives you the time of the current device, not the time from internet. – Shridutt Kothari May 03 '16 at 06:32
Your phone's time is the internet actual time – yozzy May 03 '16 at 06:34
if you modify that time from settings, then it is not internet actual time – Vivek Mishra May 03 '16 at 06:35
2

Ok so you have to do a request from a server which give you the time, like this : http://www.timeanddate.com/services/api/ – yozzy May 03 '16 at 06:36

Get actual time from internet ?

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