I correspond with a number of people around the planet (Earth), and don't always know what time it is for the recipient (and when I could reasonably expect a reply.)
Email these days propagates within a few minutes pretty much anywhere, but it's often hard to know when the reader will see one's message.
I propose a feature for an email client which displays (for the author) the local time for the recipient of an email being written. (Sorry for the complicated syntax, it's getting late here.)-- csea, Jan 22 2008 World Clock http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/Just keep this page open when you write to your Japanese friends... [ilSilvano, Mar 12 2010] How would the email client know the time zone of the recipient? Would you set these manually?-- vincevincevince, Jan 22 2008 You also may not send the e-mail immediately after you're done composing it. How does that effect you scheme?
Lastly and perhaps more importantly, why does your recipient's local time matter?-- phoenix, Jan 22 2008 [vvv] Good point. Yes, probably have to be set manually, once, unless recipient is travelling...
[UB] Thanks, fixed. It's not hard to figure out, just one of those annoying, repetitive tasks done better/faster/with less hassle via cybernetics than doing it manually.
[phoenix] One might intentionally delay the sending of an email, in order to coincide with the recipient's schedule (which is another reason it would be nice to know what that timeframe is.) sp: affect
Recipient's time could matter a great deal if one is trying to figure out whether to send incomplete information now, or wait a while for more / better info. This could be a deciding factor if the recipient could get the info before a drop-dead decision point, but might not much matter if it's after hours there, and it will be 12 hours before the email will be read, anyway.-- csea, Jan 22 2008 // Yes, probably have to be set manually, once, unless recipient is travelling...//
What then? I frequently correspond with people and can't be sure if they're traveling or not, and if so where they are at any given time. Having to continually make manual adjustments seems to defeat the whole purpose of your idea.-- Noexit, Jan 22 2008 "This could be a deciding factor if the recipient could get the info before a drop-dead decision point, but might not much matter if it's after hours there, and it will be 12 hours before the email will be read, anyway."
Knowing your recipient's local time has no bearing on when he'll get your e-mail. Honestly, if the information is that time sensitive, pick up a phone.-- phoenix, Jan 22 2008 I know someone who on more than one occasion has picked up the phone, only to have awakened the called person at an unreasonable time.
I guess I'm not explaining this well. Will try again later.-- csea, Jan 22 2008 I would definitely like this option on phone calls. Especially since many of the people I call tend to move around a bit between time zones.-- DrCurry, Jan 22 2008 I thought this was email time delay, for people who are embarrased to be sending emails at 3 AM.-- bungston, Jan 22 2008 So how 'bout this:
Much like the "Out of office" tool, a robot on the RECIPIENT's system replies (if the email arrives out of office hours) replies with an auto-email saying:
"The time here is 03:00."
It may also say "I've checked Fred's diary and he's away until Wednesday" or "It's a local holiday here today".
The subject line of this auto-response could have a prefix of "Time:" to avoid the original sender thinking they had a reply from Fred.-- Steve Adams, Jan 22 2008 The Problem ID is which of these: When will the reader of my email see my message ?
OR When will the reader of my email reply to it ?
OR What time is it where the reader lives ?
OR Where is the reader now and what time is it there ?-- popbottle, Jan 12 2016 Good idea.-- doctorremulac3, Jan 12 2016 random, halfbakery