I recently discovered There while struggling to coordinate meetings across multiple time zones with my remote team. After years of mental math and constantly Googling “what time is it in Tokyo,” I found myself wanting a tool that focused on people rather than abstract time zones. There delivers exactly that - a menu bar app that lets you track the local time of specific individuals in your life.
The concept is refreshingly human-centered: instead of managing a list of cities or UTC offsets, There lets you add people by name and associate them with their locations. You can personalize each entry with photos pulled from their X or Telegram handles, or upload local images. This transforms the typical sterile timezone display into something that feels more connected to the actual people you’re trying to coordinate with.
Setting up There is remarkably simple - you add timezones by city, country, abbreviations like PST, or UTC offsets, then personalize each entry with a name and photo. I’ve been running it on my Mac Mini with M4, and the 4.8 MB download demonstrates how efficiently the developers have built this native application.
What sets There apart from other timezone apps is its commitment to privacy and simplicity. There’s no sign-up required, no cloud syncing, and all information stays local on your device. This approach means you can add personal information about teammates and family members without worrying about data collection or third-party access.
I particularly appreciate how There handles the social aspect of time zone management. By pulling profile photos from social platforms, the app creates visual associations that make it easier to remember who’s where. When you’re planning a meeting, you’re not thinking “what time is it in UTC+9” - you’re thinking “what time is it where Sarah is,” and There makes that connection immediately clear.
The ultra-lightweight nature of There means it runs continuously without any noticeable impact on system performance. The native macOS integration feels polished and responsive, with the kind of attention to detail you’d expect from developers who understand the Mac platform.
The app works well for small teams, but managing more than 10-12 people becomes visually cluttered. The photo-pulling feature occasionally fails with private social media profiles, requiring manual image uploads.
There is completely free and developed by Dena Sohrabi and Mo Rajabi. You can download it directly from their website or install via Homebrew with brew install there. The app requires macOS 13 or newer and has gained popularity among employees at major tech companies including Apple, Shopify, IBM, Amazon, and Zoom - a testament to its utility for distributed teams.
For anyone working with international colleagues, managing family spread across different regions, or simply wanting a more personal approach to timezone tracking, There transforms the functional task of time zone management into something more human and intuitive. It’s particularly valuable for remote workers who need to maintain awareness of their team’s local times throughout the day.
