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How to Use WorldTimeNow

A complete guide to getting the most out of the free WorldTimeNow interactive world clock.

The Basics — Navigating the Globe

  1. 1
    Rotate the globe
    Click and drag on the globe to rotate it freely. The globe spins continuously — drag left or right to spin, up or down to tilt. On mobile, use one finger to rotate.
  2. 2
    Zoom in and out
    Scroll your mouse wheel to zoom in on a specific region. On mobile, use a pinch gesture to zoom. Zooming in makes it easier to click on smaller countries.
  3. 3
    Click a country or city dot
    Click directly on any yellow or blue dot on the globe to see that city's local time. A pulsing pin will appear and a panel will show the city name, time, and timezone.
  4. 4
    Read the day/night indicators
    Yellow dots = cities currently in daytime. Blue dots = cities in nighttime. This gives you an instant visual of which parts of the world are awake right now.

Searching for a Specific City

  1. 5
    Open the search bar
    Click the 🔍 Search bar in the top-left of the globe panel. Start typing a city name — results appear instantly as you type, powered by OpenStreetMap.
  2. 6
    Select your city
    Click on a result from the dropdown. The globe will automatically rotate to centre on that city and drop an animated pulsing pin on its location.
  3. 7
    Read the time panel
    A panel appears showing the city's current local time, timezone name (e.g. "Asia/Kolkata"), UTC offset, and whether it's currently daytime or nighttime there.

Reading the Regional News

  1. 8
    Rotate to a region
    As you spin the globe, WorldTimeNow detects which region of the world is facing the camera and automatically loads relevant news headlines from regional sources.
  2. 9
    News sources by region
    UK/Global: BBC · Global: Reuters · Australia/Pacific: ABC · Japan: NHK · SE Asia: Channel NewsAsia · Middle East: Al Jazeera. Headlines update every few seconds as you navigate.
  3. 10
    Click a headline
    Click any news headline to open the full article in a new tab on the source publisher's website.

Scheduling International Calls

  1. 11
    Check your local time
    Your current local time is always displayed in the header at the top of the page, updating every second.
  2. 12
    Search for the other person's city
    Search for the city of the person you're calling. The time panel will show their exact local time right now — just compare with the time shown in your header.
  3. 13
    Use the UTC offset
    The time panel shows the UTC offset (e.g. UTC+5:30). Add or subtract this from your own UTC offset to calculate the time difference for any future meeting time.

💡 Tips

For international meetings: Search for both cities, compare times, and aim for overlap in normal working hours (9am–6pm) for both parties.

For travel planning: Search your destination to instantly know the local time and how many hours ahead or behind it is from where you are.

Use the dots: Glancing at the globe before a call is the fastest way to check if someone is likely to be awake — yellow dot means daytime.