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Facebook Time Library

Meta's open-source time library at github.com/facebook/time — the code behind Meta's public time infrastructure, including the NTS (Network Time Security) protocol, server, and client that back nts.meta.com / time.meta.com. Meta open-sourced "everything, including the protocol, server, client" and explicitly encourages others — "particularly those who maintain an NTP client on Android or iOS" — to adopt it and enable NTS. (Source: sources/2026-10-06-meta-nts-authenticated-time-at-meta)

Why it matters

The NTS post is partly a call to action: the protocol is finished, the servers are appearing (PTB, Netnod, time.nl, and now Meta), and client implementations exist (chrony, ntpsec) — "What is missing is mobile." Android's platform time-sync is plain SNTP over UDP/123 with no NTS path; Apple devices sync via timed against time.apple.com with no known NTS support. By open-sourcing a complete, production-proven NTS stack, Meta lowers the cost for a device vendor or OS maintainer to close that gap: "A device vendor can ship a separate NTS-capable client today — chrony runs perfectly well on Android — but that is a workaround for something the platform should do itself."

Scope

Beyond NTS, the library is the home for Meta's broader time work (the earlier ntpd → chrony migration and precision tooling that took Meta's public service from 10 ms to 100 µs). This wiki page is anchored on the 2026-10-06 NTS disclosure; deeper internals of the non-NTS components are not covered by that source.

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