Relative time strings using the web platform

format-relative.js

/**
 * The target language. [Browser support is good][1] but "en-US" is a safe default.
 *
 * [1]: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/NavigatorLanguage/language
 *
 * @type {string}
 */
const { language = "en-US" } = navigator;

/**
 * Instance of the relative time format object for the target language. [Browser
 * support for this][2] is less good, though [polyfills][3] are available.
 *
 * [2]: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/JavaScript/Reference/Global_Objects/Intl/RelativeTimeFormat
 * [3]: https://github.com/tc39/proposal-intl-relative-time#polyfills
 * @type {Intl.RelativeTimeFormat}
 */
const formatter = new Intl.RelativeTimeFormat(language, {
  numeric: "auto",
  style: "long",
});

/**
 * Mapping from a Intl.RelativeTimeFormat unit string to the equivalent value
 * in milliseconds.
 *
 * @type {{[unit: string]: number}}
 */
const units = {
  year: 31_557_600_000, // Approx. 86,400 seconds per day * 365.25 days.
  month: 2_629_800_000, // Approx. 31,557,600 seconds per year / 12 months.
  day: 86_400_000,
  hour: 3_600_000,
  minute: 60_000,
  second: 1_000,
};


/**
 * Return an Intl.RelativeTimeFormat string without having to specify units.
 *
 * @param {Date} when
 * @returns {string}
 */
export function formatRelative(when) {
  const ms = when - Date.now();
  for (const [unit, value] of Object.entries(units)) {
    const amount = Math.ceil(ms / value);
    if (amount || unit === 'second') {
      return formatter.format(amount, unit);
    }
  }
}

Good point, the equivalent is to return seconds.

yeah, I wanted a "just now" equivalent haha, but I guess the seconds are fine 😅