Returns string representing "time since", 3 days ago, 5 hours ago etc. For datetime values, returns a string representing how many seconds, minutes or hours ago it was – falling back to the timesince format if the value is more than a day old.

natural_time.py

from datetime import datetime

@app.template_filter()
def natural_time(dt, default="just now"):
    """
    Returns string representing "time since" e.g.
    3 days ago, 5 hours ago etc.
    """

    now = datetime.utcnow()
    diff = now - dt
    
    periods = (
        (diff.days / 365, "year", "years"),
        (diff.days / 30, "month", "months"),
        (diff.days / 7, "week", "weeks"),
        (diff.days, "day", "days"),
        (diff.seconds / 3600, "hour", "hours"),
        (diff.seconds / 60, "minute", "minutes"),
        (diff.seconds, "second", "seconds"),
    )

    for period, singular, plural in periods:
        
        if period:
            return "%d %s ago" % (period, singular if period == 1 else plural)

    return default