Smartphones change for daylight savings, causing confusion

CAIRO – 27 April 2018: Egyptians woke up on Friday to their smartphones’ clocks being automatically moved forward one hour to mark the start of daylight savings timing.

Annually, smartphones roll their clocks forward one hour on the last Friday of April, which corresponds this year to Friday, April 27, as the Egyptian government had used to utilize daylight savings time from 1988 until it permanently canceled the practice in 2011.

Many fell prey to the trick, as social media platforms were flooded with users who complained that they lost an hour of their sleep on their weekly day off, while others made it to work earlier than usual.



Facebook user Rabab Fathy said that she made it to work sixty minutes earlier than usual after her smartphone's clock changed for daylight savings time.

In 2014, the Egyptian government decided to come off daylight savings time due to the repetitive electricity cut-outs and in an aim to save energy by prolonging daylight hours. However, the practice was ordered to be entirely scrapped and not to be rolled out again in 2015.