customize android Date like twitter and instagram news feed

Question

how can I customize the date format in an android development to be like that of twitter and instagram. What i have below my current code, but I don't like the format it produces like "11 minutes ago" or "34 minutes ago". I prefer the twitter format like "11m" or "34m". Please anyone know how i can format my date like that?

Date createdAt = message.getCreatedAt();//get the date the message was created from parse backend
        long now = new Date().getTime();//get current date
        String convertedDate = DateUtils.getRelativeTimeSpanString(
                createdAt.getTime(), now, DateUtils.SECOND_IN_MILLIS).toString();
        mPostMessageTimeLabel.setText(convertedDate); //sets the converted date into the message_item.xml view

Answer 1

Had the same problem. Instead of using a library I figured I could probably write my own version and have it be a little more understandable as to what is happening (and be able to tweak it a bit if needed).

Here is the utility method I made (helpful Log statements for Android users to test it out included):

public static String convertLongDateToAgoString (Long createdDate, Long timeNow){
        Long timeElapsed = timeNow - createdDate;

        // For logging in Android for testing purposes
        /*
        Date dateCreatedFriendly = new Date(createdDate);
        Log.d("MicroR", "dateCreatedFriendly: " + dateCreatedFriendly.toString());
        Log.d("MicroR", "timeNow: " + timeNow.toString());
        Log.d("MicroR", "timeElapsed: " + timeElapsed.toString());*/

        // Lengths of respective time durations in Long format.
        Long oneMin = 60000L;
        Long oneHour = 3600000L;
        Long oneDay = 86400000L;
        Long oneWeek = 604800000L;

        String finalString = "0sec";
        String unit;

        if (timeElapsed < oneMin){
            // Convert milliseconds to seconds.
            double seconds = (double) ((timeElapsed / 1000));
            // Round up
            seconds = Math.round(seconds);
            // Generate the friendly unit of the ago time
            if (seconds == 1) {
                unit = "sec";
            } else {
                unit = "secs";
            }
            finalString = String.format("%.0f", seconds) + unit;
        } else if (timeElapsed < oneHour) {
            double minutes = (double) ((timeElapsed / 1000) / 60);
            minutes = Math.round(minutes);
            if (minutes == 1) {
                unit = "min";
            } else {
                unit = "mins";
            }
            finalString = String.format("%.0f", minutes) + unit;
        } else if (timeElapsed < oneDay) {
            double hours   = (double) ((timeElapsed / 1000) / 60 / 60);
            hours = Math.round(hours);
            if (hours == 1) {
                unit = "hr";
            } else {
                unit = "hrs";
            }
            finalString = String.format("%.0f", hours) + unit;
        } else if (timeElapsed < oneWeek) {
            double days   = (double) ((timeElapsed / 1000) / 60 / 60 / 24);
            days = Math.round(days);
            if (days == 1) {
                unit = "day";
            } else {
                unit = "days";
            }
            finalString = String.format("%.0f", days) + unit;
        } else if (timeElapsed > oneWeek) {
            double weeks = (double) ((timeElapsed / 1000) / 60 / 60 / 24 / 7);
            weeks = Math.round(weeks);
            if (weeks == 1) {
                unit = "week";
            } else {
                unit = "weeks";
            }
            finalString = String.format("%.0f", weeks) + unit;
        }
        return finalString;
    }

Usage:

Long createdDate = 1453394736888L; // Your Long
Long timeNow = new Date().getTime();
Log.d("MicroR", convertLongDateToAgoString(createdDate, timeNow));

// Outputs:
// 1min
// 3weeks
// 5hrs
// etc.

Feel free to test this out and let me know if you find any issues!

Answer 2

I might be a bit late, but i write it down for somebody who is looking for a solution. Using PrettyTime you can obtain formatted dates like "2 months ago" and so on. To fit your needs you have to feed it with a custom TimeFormat object, there is no need to create a new TimeUnit object since we are formatting normal time units. To do this just create your TimeFormat object for minutes for example:

public class CustomMinuteTimeFormat implements TimeFormat {
@Override
public String format(Duration duration) {
    return Math.abs(duration.getQuantity()) + "m";
}

@Override
public String formatUnrounded(Duration duration) {
    return format(duration);
}

@Override
public String decorate(Duration duration, String time) {
    return time;
}

@Override
public String decorateUnrounded(Duration duration, String time) {
    return time;
}
}

Then Instantiate a new PrettyTime instance and set your formatter.

PrettyTime pretty = new PrettyTime();
//This line of code is very important
pretty.registerUnit(new Minute(), new CustomMinuteTimeFormat());
//Use your PrettyTime object as usual
pretty.format(yourDateObject);

This will output "2m" if time elapsed is 2 minutes.