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TextConcierge Now Works Worldwide

· 2 min read
TextConcierge Team
TextConcierge Team
Builders of the messaging-first family assistant

Until today, TextConcierge assumed you lived in the US. Timezones were limited to six American options. Weather only understood zip codes. Temperatures came in Fahrenheit whether you wanted them or not.

That changes now. Three updates shipped today that make TextConcierge useful no matter where you are.

Pick your timezone by city name​

The old setup showed a numbered list of US timezones (Eastern, Central, Mountain, Pacific, Alaska, Hawaii). If you lived in London or Tokyo, you were out of luck.

Now you can type a city name, a timezone abbreviation, or pick from an expanded list of 15 zones spanning the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, Asia, and Oceania. Over 100 cities and abbreviations are recognized -- type "London", "IST", "Seoul", "CET", or "Sydney" and it just works.

If you signed up with Telegram's language set to something other than English, we'll suggest a timezone based on that too.

Weather in your units​

TextConcierge's daily summaries and weather checks now respect your location. Previously, the weather service only accepted US zip codes and returned Fahrenheit.

Now it works with country codes worldwide, and shows temperatures in Celsius or Fahrenheit based on your preference. If you're in the UK, you'll see 18C, not 64F. Your daily summary pulls weather for your actual locale.

12-hour or 24-hour time -- your call​

Event times and reminders now display in whichever format you prefer. Users in countries where 24-hour time is standard (most of Europe, Asia, and South America) will see 14:30 instead of 2:30PM by default.

You can change this in settings at any time.

How defaults work​

When you sign up, TextConcierge infers sensible defaults from your Telegram language setting:

  • Country -- used for weather location and unit defaults
  • Temperature unit -- Fahrenheit for the US, Celsius elsewhere
  • Time format -- 12-hour for the US, 24-hour for most other regions
  • Timezone -- suggested based on your language/country

You can override any of these in the settings menu.

Try it​

If you haven't started yet: open Telegram, search for @TextConciergeBot, and hit Start. If you're an existing user, your defaults are already set -- just update them in settings if they're not right.

We're building TextConcierge to work for everyone, not just one country. This is the foundation for that. More locale-aware features are coming.