A simple implementation of human-readable relative time. Don't use dodgy NPM packages for this. It's really not that complicated to build in 2025.

timeago.ts

// Don't use dodgy NPM packages for this. It's really not that complicated to build in 2025
type GranularityInfo = {
  unit: Intl.RelativeTimeFormatUnit;
  intervalMs: number;
};

const getGranularityForTimestampDiff = (diff: number): GranularityInfo => {
  if (diff > 86_400_000) {
    return { unit: "day", intervalMs: 86_400_000 };
  } else if (diff > 3_600_000) {
    return { unit: "hour", intervalMs: 3_600_000 };
  } else if (diff > 60_000) {
    return { unit: "minute", intervalMs: 60_000 };
  }
  return { unit: "second", intervalMs: 1_000 };
};

const formatter = new Intl.RelativeTimeFormat([
  navigator.language.split("-").at(0) ?? "en",
]);

const getHumanReadableRelativeTime = (t1: number, t2: number): string => {
  const diff = t2 - t1;
  const { unit, intervalMs } = getGranularityForTimestampDiff(diff);
  return formatter.format(-1 * Math.floor(diff / intervalMs), unit);
};