RelativeDateFormat

RelativeDateFormat is a small Swift package for formatting dates in a compact, social-app style.

It is useful for timelines, feeds, message lists, activity logs, and any UI where recent dates should be short and easy to scan.

Keywords: Swift, Swift Package Manager, SwiftUI, Foundation, Date, Date FormatStyle, relative date formatter, localized date formatting, timeline date format, social feed timestamp.

Date.now.formatted(.relative(unitsStyle: .condensed))
// "just now"

Date(timeIntervalSinceNow: -60).formatted(.relative(unitsStyle: .condensed))
// "1m"

Date(timeIntervalSinceNow: -86400).formatted(.relative(unitsStyle: .condensed))
// "1d"

Requirements

• iOS 17.0+
• macOS 15.0+
• Swift 6.3+

Installation

Add this package to your Swift Package Manager dependencies:

.package(url: "https://github.com/noppefoxwolf/RelativeDateFormat.git", from: "0.0.9")

Then add RelativeDateFormat to your target dependencies:

.product(name: "RelativeDateFormat", package: "RelativeDateFormat")

Format Style

Use .relative(unitsStyle: .condensed) with Date.formatted(_:).

import RelativeDateFormat

let text = date.formatted(.relative(unitsStyle: .condensed))

You can also pass a fixed reference date, which is useful for tests or stable rendering.

let now = Date(timeIntervalSinceReferenceDate: 0)
let date = Date(timeIntervalSinceReferenceDate: -3600)

date.formatted(.relative(unitsStyle: .condensed, relativeTo: now))
// "1h"

Output

The condensed style formats dates using these ranges:

Range	Example
Less than 5 seconds	just now
Less than 1 minute	59s
Less than 1 hour	59m
Less than 1 day	23h
Less than 30 days	29d
30 days or more	Locale-aware short date

For dates 30 days or older, the package uses Foundation Date.FormatStyle with the current locale.

// en
"04/09/2024"

// ja
"2024/04/09"

// de
"09.04.2024"

If the active calendar is Japanese, the date portion is formatted with the Gregorian calendar to avoid showing Japanese era years in compact timeline dates.

SwiftUI

Use the SwiftUI Text convenience initializer for compact relative dates.

import RelativeDateFormat
import SwiftUI

Text(date, style: .condensedRelative())

You can pass a reference date here as well.

Text(date, style: .condensedRelative(to: referenceDate))

Formatter

If you need direct formatter access, use CondensedStyleRelativeDateTimeFormatter.

import RelativeDateFormat

let formatter = CondensedStyleRelativeDateTimeFormatter()
let text = formatter.localizedString(for: date, relativeTo: Date())

Localization

Relative strings are localized for:

• English
• German
• Spanish
• French
• Italian
• Japanese
• Korean
• Portuguese (Brazil)
• Simplified Chinese
• Traditional Chinese

License

RelativeDateFormat is available under the MIT license. See LICENSE for details.