Hi, I’m new to this site though not to house sitting. I’ve noticed over the last few days when messaging a potentional sitting client that there’s a long (at least 9 hours) delay between the client sending a message and it showing up in my app inbox and me receiving the email notification. I noticed because I happened to be looking when a new message came through and it immediately showed as sent 9 hours ago. I think my messages to them are also having this delay. Obviously this is an issue when trying to contact them and I think we’ve already had a few messages cross confusingly during the lag. Is this a known issue and/or is there anything I can do to fix it?
Emily, I have noticed time stamps on messages that seem inconsistent with my time zone … I think it’s possible that what you are observing is not necessarily an actual delay but more likely the way on which THS handles many time zones around the world. It is certainly confusing and could be improved. Of course it’s possible that actual delays are a factor as well!
Hi @Emily2509 and welcome to the forum. I believe it’s not a lag time but rather a time-stamp based on the time zone of the sender. That’s been my assumption, from my experience, but I’ll tag @Therese and ask that she clarify this when she’s next online.
If you are a homeowner, I’d be happy to run a test with you, if you’d like. I see that on the forum you’re in a different time zone to me. Direct message me if you’d like us to do that.
Francine,
Voluntary Forum Moderator 
Hi, thanks for the help. Rather than a timestamp per se, the message in fact says “delivered 9 hours ago”. Theoretically if it was a timezone issue, as the timezone difference is actually 17 hours between me and the client (Australia being ahead of the US), wouldn’t it have said “delivered 17 hours ago”? But math is not my strongest point, so maybe it is just a weird timezone thing!
Thanks for the offer @Snowbird, I am a sitter not a homeowner, so not sure if sitters can message each other.
I think it’s how different your time zone is with THS headquarters. All of my messages when initially sent/received say “in 5 hours” since the UK is 5 hours ahead of my timezone. Your situation would make sense since you are Australian and 9 hours ahead of the UK as well. It’s a weird quirk for sure, but your messages are getting sent/received in real time. 
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Thank you!! Relieved it’s working. I hadn’t seen it say “in xx hours”, I guess that’s because Aussie is pretty far ahead of most places, but that is a pretty confusing quirk 
messages to the future!
Yes … @thejohnsfam correctly mentions, … As our head office is in the UK, the inbox is set on GMT, so the time difference is the reason this happens. However, always, be assured that the message is sent/received instantly with no delays.
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