Based on thousands of APIs, what is the best approaches and format for handling timezone, timestamps, and datetime in APIs and Apps

Managing timezones in applications involves storing and displaying datetime values efficiently, with a focus on using UTC time until user-specific display is necessary. Databases typically store dates as 64-bit integers, like Unix epoch with milliseconds, due to their querying and indexing efficiency, while APIs should handle datetime consistently in UTC, though they can accept various timezones in requests. For APIs, datetime can be formatted as ISO 8601 strings or Unix Epoch time, with each having its pros and cons; ISO 8601 is human-readable and timezone-inclusive, while Epoch is compact and suited for high-volume data. If displaying time in a user's local timezone is the primary goal, storing the user's timezone isn't always necessary, as client-side technologies can handle conversions, but caching timezone information might be useful for backend processes like alerts. Storing timezone identifiers rather than UTC offsets is advised due to issues like daylight savings changes. Moesif, an API analytics platform, supports various protocols and is used for insights, debugging, and monitoring by platform companies.

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