An endless, zoomable timeline
A map, but for time.
Timelay is an endless timeline you zoom like a map. This afternoon, your grandmother’s childhood and the age of the dinosaurs fit on one line. Pinch in to a single minute. Pinch out to billions of years.
From $7.50 a month · runs in your desktop browser
The problem
When was that again?
Next week lives in a calendar. Last year lives in a photo library. Your grandparents live in a family tree, and everything before them lives in a book. Each one shows time at a single size, and none of them shows how anything lines up.
How long did that job really last?
How old was Dad when we moved?
What was going on in the world the year Grandma got married?
These aren’t hard questions. They only need everything on one line at once.
What if time had no edges?
Timelay treats time the way a map treats the world. No page, no first date, no last one. One line, and a window onto it. Zoom in until a minute fills the screen. Zoom out until the age of the Earth does. Everything you placed stays exactly where you put it.
How it works
Everything starts with three moves.
- 1
Place
Double-click where something happened and type its name. Or drag across a stretch of time to draw it.
- 2
Nudge
Drag it until it feels right. Pull an end to make it longer. Drop it in another lane. Nothing needs to be exact.
- 3
Zoom
Pinch out for the decades. Pinch in for the afternoon. Timelay draws what fits the altitude and keeps the rest safe.
What makes it different
Built for how memory actually works.
Vague is welcome.
You know Grandma moved to the city “sometime in the fifties”. Put it there. A rounded end says about, a square end says exactly, and something still going runs straight into today. Sharpen it whenever you find the letter.
Reads as ~1954 → 1996
Nothing to tidy.
Zoom is the filter. At the size of a year, a 25-minute coffee is not drawn. At the size of an afternoon, it is. Mark something important and it stays visible from higher up. Nothing ever needs hiding or archiving.
Lanes, not folders.
Stack lanes for family, work, the world, your health. Any event can move to any lane. Color a lane and new events pick up its color.
A line for now.
A thin red line marks this moment and moves with the clock. Sit a 25-minute focus block around it and you can see how far along you are. No timer, nothing to start.
Type a date the way you’d say it.
Press / and type where you want to go. “next tuesday”. “1969”. “44 BCE”. “540 million years ago”. Timelay takes you there, framed to fit.
Every moment can have an address.
Name an event and it gets a link. timelay.com/wedding opens your timeline centered on the wedding, zoomed to fit. Keep it in a note or a bookmark and you’re one click from the wedding. It’s private, like the rest of your timeline.
One line, many uses
Whatever you’re piecing together.
Family history
Four generations on one line, with the wars, moves and weddings that shaped them.
Your own story
Jobs, homes, friendships, and the years you would otherwise blur together.
Studying history
Put the Renaissance next to the Ming dynasty and see who was alive at the same time.
Writing
Keep a novel’s backstory and plot on one line, so no one is born after their own child.
Research
Lay a subject out by date. Gaps and overlaps show themselves.
Today
Block out the afternoon at minute level, on the same line as everything else.
Ready to lay it all out?
Put down one thing, then the one before it.
From $7.50 a month. Cancel anytime; your timeline and everything on it stays with you.
Questions
Questions people ask.
Is Timelay a calendar?
No. A calendar schedules next week. Timelay lays out any stretch of time at any size. Your afternoon fits on it, and so does the Roman Empire, on the same line.
Does it come with history built in?
It starts empty, on purpose. Everything on it is there because you put it there, which is what makes it yours.
Do I need exact dates?
Not at all. Place things roughly and sharpen them when you know more. Each end of an event carries its own certainty.
How far does it zoom?
From a single second to fourteen billion years, past or future.
Where does it run?
In a desktop browser: Chrome, Safari or Firefox. It follows your system’s light or dark mode.
Who can see my timeline?
Only you. Nothing on it is public, and an event’s link opens for you alone.
What does it cost?
Plans start at $7.50 a month billed yearly, or $9 billed quarterly. Sign in with Google to subscribe. Cancel anytime; your timeline and everything on it stays with you.
From $7.50 a month