How to get TimeZone from android mobile?

Question

I want to get the time zone from the Android mobile when clicking a button.

TimeZone tz = TimeZone.getDefault(); String gmt1=TimeZone.getTimeZone(tz.getID()).getDisplayName(false,TimeZone.SHORT); String gmt2=TimeZone.getTimeZone(tz.getID()).getDisplayName(false,TimeZone.LONG); Log.d("Tag","TimeZone : "+gmt1+"\t"+gmt2); And this is the code — asha v, Oct 07 '11 at 09:45
I wouldn't be so rough on asha v. I was just looking for the same thing and the answers I found were different than these ones. Actually searching by the exact "TimeZone.getDefault" led me here. — Yar, May 29 '12 at 14:27

score 235 · Accepted Answer · edited Jan 28 '14 at 19:19

235

Have you tried to use TimeZone.getDefault():

Most applications will use TimeZone.getDefault() which returns a TimeZone based on the time zone where the program is running.

Ref: http://developer.android.com/reference/java/util/TimeZone.html

edited Jan 28 '14 at 19:19

Joshua Pinter

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answered Oct 06 '11 at 09:46

Tobias

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If you're using **JodaTime**, you can get a DateTimeZone with the following: `DateTimeZone.forTimeZone(TimeZone.getDefault());` – Joshua Pinter Jan 28 '14 at 19:22
@JoshPinter which package do I use, the one on android.icu.utils or the java.util? – Neon Warge Sep 03 '16 at 10:03
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I changed the time zone from the device to CST, it is not giving me CST back. Is there a way to get the time zone, of the device? – Abhinav Saxena Feb 08 '17 at 05:54
I'm wondering, does TimeZone.getDefault get effected if we somehow fake the device's timezone. It seems to be not on the android simulator. – Harvey Jun 18 '20 at 09:12
@NeonWarge Both will work, although android.icu only works for API 24 and above. – Nicolas Jul 28 '20 at 18:45
This answer is'nt work for me. Result is always UTC – Murat Aktay Sep 14 '22 at 10:35

score 157 · Answer 2 · edited Nov 13 '20 at 18:17

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TimeZone tz = TimeZone.getDefault();
System.out.println("TimeZone   "+tz.getDisplayName(false, TimeZone.SHORT)+" Timezone id :: " +tz.getID());

Output:

TimeZone GMT+09:30 Timezone id :: Australia/Darwin

edited Nov 13 '20 at 18:17

Andrew Orobator

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answered Jun 16 '12 at 06:25

Sher Ali

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@Flexo how to get timestamp from android device – KOUSIK daniel Jul 07 '15 at 06:32
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For me, the display name is only EST for TimeZone.SHORT, and Eastern Standard Time for TimeZone.LONG. All i'm looking for is the +/- value lol. Something must have changed. – FoxDonut Mar 23 '21 at 05:02
@FoxDonut try TimeZone.SHORT_GMT – userVadim Mar 02 '23 at 15:30

score 21 · Answer 3 · edited Aug 12 '22 at 03:31

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Edit: corrected the case

TimeZone.getDefault()

edited Aug 12 '22 at 03:31

chornge

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answered Oct 06 '11 at 09:47

jmj

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score 17 · Answer 4 · answered Mar 07 '17 at 08:40

I needed the offset that not only included day light savings time but as a numerial. Here is the code that I used in case someone is looking for an example.

I get a response of "3.5" (3:30') which is what I would expect in Tehran , Iran in winter and "4.5" (4:30') for summer .

I also needed it as a string so I could post it to a server so you may not need the last line.

for getting currect time zone :

TimeZone tz = TimeZone.getDefault();
Date now = new Date();
//Import part : x.0 for double number
double offsetFromUtc = tz.getOffset(now.getTime()) / 3600000.0;
String m2tTimeZoneIs = Double.parseDouble(offsetFromUtc);

It worked for me as I was just dealing with durations (as a stopwatch). — Ahsan, Apr 18 '18 at 10:05

Ole V.V. · Answer 5 · 2021-03-21T18:38:28.220

ZoneId from java.time and ThreeTenABP

Modern answer:

    ZoneId zone = ZoneId.systemDefault();
    System.out.println(zone);

When I ran this snippet in Australia/Sydney time zone, the output was exactly that:

Australia/Sydney

If you want the summer time (DST) aware time zone name or abbreviation:

    DateTimeFormatter longTimeZoneFormatter = DateTimeFormatter.ofPattern("zzzz", Locale.getDefault());
    String longTz = ZonedDateTime.now(zone).format(longTimeZoneFormatter);
    System.out.println(longTz);
    
    DateTimeFormatter shortTimeZoneFormatter = DateTimeFormatter.ofPattern("zzz", Locale.getDefault());
    String shortTz = ZonedDateTime.now(zone).format(shortTimeZoneFormatter);
    System.out.println(shortTz);

Eastern Summer Time (New South Wales)
EST

The TimeZone class used in most of the other answers was what we had when the question was asked in 2011, even though it was poorly designed. Today it’s long outdated, and I recommend that instead we use java.time, the modern Java date and time API that came out in 2014.

Question: Doesn’t java.time require Android API level 26?

java.time works nicely on both older and newer Android devices. It just requires at least Java 6.

In Java 8 and later and on newer Android devices (from API level 26) the modern API comes built-in.
In non-Android Java 6 and 7 get the ThreeTen Backport, the backport of the modern classes (ThreeTen for JSR 310; see the links at the bottom).
Edit: On (older) Android usually, as long as you're on Android Gradle plugin 4.0 or newer, with coreLibraryDesugaring you can use java.time directly. ThreeTenABP is no longer needed. (Previous bullet: use the Android edition of ThreeTen Backport. It’s called ThreeTenABP. And make sure you import the date and time classes from org.threeten.bp with subpackages.)

Links

Oracle tutorial: Date Time explaining how to use java.time.
Java Specification Request (JSR) 310, where java.time was first described.
ThreeTen Backport project, the backport of java.time to Java 6 and 7 (ThreeTen for JSR-310).
ThreeTenABP, Android edition of ThreeTen Backport
Question: How to use ThreeTenABP in Android Project, with a very thorough explanation.

Update to the API level 26 question. ThreeTenABP is no longer needed, usually, as long as you're on Android Gradle plugin 4.0 or newer. With `coreLibraryDesugaring` you can use java.time directly. — Jonik, Mar 18 '21 at 10:25

score 14 · Answer 6 · answered Oct 06 '11 at 09:49

14

Try this code-

Calendar cal = Calendar.getInstance();
TimeZone tz = cal.getTimeZone();

It will return user selected timezone.

answered Oct 06 '11 at 09:49

anujprashar

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Creating a `Calendar` object for this is a nonsense. The creation of this type of object is expensive. `TimeZone.getDefault()` is the appropriate way to get this. – anonymous Apr 06 '13 at 09:41
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@KrLx_roller Please check carefully before downvoting answer. I have wrtitten my answer returns user selected timezone whereas TimeZone.getDefault() will return installation default time zone. For more info please http://code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?id=2037. – anujprashar Apr 08 '13 at 10:35
Your code returns the same timezone as TimeZone.getDefault() on android 4.2. TimeZone.getDefault() will return the timezone selected in settings -> date & time. – idunno Nov 06 '13 at 14:51

score 11 · Answer 7 · edited Aug 02 '19 at 15:20

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TimeZone timeZone = TimeZone.getDefault(); 
timeZone.getID();

It will print like

Asia/Kolkata

edited Aug 02 '19 at 15:20

Vadim Kotov

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answered Mar 16 '18 at 12:50

Raja Jawahar

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This is what I was looking for! – Maulik Dodia May 11 '21 at 13:18

score 5 · Answer 8 · edited Jun 17 '22 at 20:05

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On my device, TimeZone.getDefault() is always returning the UTC time zone.

I need to do this to get the user-configured time zone:

TimeZone.setDefault(null)
val tz = TimeZone.getDefault()

It will return the user-selected time zone.

edited Jun 17 '22 at 20:05

Peter Mortensen

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answered Oct 14 '19 at 08:38

Bipi

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Was searching for hours, why `TimeZone.getDefault()` returns UTC always. Thanks for a solution. – Lybrica Apr 14 '23 at 10:15

score 3 · Answer 9 · answered Sep 15 '17 at 10:37

Simplest Solution With Simple Date Format: SimpleDateFormat("ZZZZZ"):

 Calendar calendar = Calendar.getInstance(TimeZone.getTimeZone("GMT"),
                Locale.getDefault());
        Date currentLocalTime = calendar.getTime();

        DateFormat date = new SimpleDateFormat("ZZZZZ",Locale.getDefault());
        String localTime = date.format(currentLocalTime);
        System.out.println(localTime+ "  TimeZone   " );

==> Output is : +05:30

score 3 · Answer 10 · edited Jun 17 '22 at 20:14

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All the answers here seem to suggest setting the daylight parameter to false. This is incorrect for many time zones which change abbreviated names depending on the time of the year (e.g., EST vs. EDT).

The solution below will give you the correct abbreviation according to the current date for the time zone.

val tz = TimeZone.getDefault()
val isDaylight = tz.inDaylightTime(Date())
val timezone = tz.getDisplayName(isDaylight, TimeZone.SHORT)

edited Jun 17 '22 at 20:14

Peter Mortensen

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answered Dec 09 '19 at 22:23

DummyData

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The `TimeZone` class is poorly designed and long outdated. – Ole V.V. Dec 11 '19 at 02:11

score 2 · Answer 11 · answered Aug 19 '14 at 15:37

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According to http://developer.android.com/reference/android/text/format/Time.html you should be using Time.getCurrentTimezone() to retrieve the current timezone of the device.

answered Aug 19 '14 at 15:37

Thom

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Cool, but deprecated since API level 22 – EpicPandaForce Oct 09 '15 at 04:23

Maciej Beimcik · Answer 12 · 2018-10-10T11:30:42.403

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For devices with API 26 and higher, you can get it like this:

ZonedDateTime.now().getZone().toString();

edited Oct 10 '18 at 11:30

answered Oct 08 '18 at 12:02

Maciej Beimcik

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score 1 · Answer 13 · answered Jun 19 '23 at 10:38

I have spent some time to find the right answer. But it seems it works strangely on Android SDK. My device always returns 'UTC' as a timezoneId, and 0 as a timezone offset. But you can try to use headless WebView and fetch the timezone from there by JS. After this, you can save it into SharedPreference(TimeZone.setDefault() also works strangely)

class HeadlessWebViewUtil constructor(context: Context) {
    val webView = WebView(context)
    val jsInterface = MyJavaScriptInterface()

    fun fetch() {
        webView.settings.javaScriptEnabled = true
        webView.addJavascriptInterface(jsInterface, "android")
        webView.loadUrl("javascript:android.onTimezoneFetched(Intl.DateTimeFormat().resolvedOptions().timeZone)")
    }

    inner class MyJavaScriptInterface {
        @JavascriptInterface
        public fun onTimezoneFetched(timezoneId: String) {
            Timber.d("Timezone fetched: $timezoneId")
        }
    }
}

// And fetch
val wv = HeadlessWebViewUtil(this, timeZoneManager)
wv.fetch()

How to get TimeZone from android mobile?

13 Answers13

ZoneId from java.time and ThreeTenABP

Question: Doesn’t java.time require Android API level 26?

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