How to format timestamps for X

13 Jun, 2025

If you're posting a video to X (formerly Twitter) and want to include clickable timestamps/chapters, ensure your chapter markers are formatted as MM:SS until one hour, then H:MM:SS.

Here’s an example. As you’ll see, you can click any timestamp to jump around. Note: You don't need to wrap the timecode in parentheses.

X’s official documentation suggests that any of the formats below will work. However, that has not been my experience, and I have not tried any format other than MM:SS and H:MM:SS since learning the hard way.

x:xx
xx:xx
x:xx:xx
xx:xx:xx

Here's a prompt you can use to format your timestamps correctly:

Format the following podcast timestamps for X/Twitter as a vertical list, one entry per line.

Rules:
- Normalize all input timestamps to consistent time values first (handle formats like H:MM:SS, HH:MM:SS, M:SS, or MM:SS).
- Drop the leading zero from the hour when the hour is less than 10 (e.g. 1:03:12, not 01:03:12).
- Drop the leading zero from minutes when there's no hour present (e.g. 5:53, not 05:53).
- The first timestamp is always 0:00 — never offset or change it.
- Preserve all punctuation in topic names exactly (semicolons, commas, quotes, ampersands).
- Each timestamp and its label goes on its own line, ready to copy-paste directly into a tweet.

Example output:
0:00 Introduction
2:55 Topic One
5:53 Topic Two, Detail; Follow-up Point
1:03:12 Sponsor: Brand Name

Timestamps to format:
[paste raw timestamps here]