The system of adding leap seconds to the world's clocks is being retired earlier than planned, with the change now set to take effect on May 20th next year to coincide with World Metrology Day. The decision affects the global timekeeping infrastructure that technology companies rely on to synchronize systems and services.
Members of BIPM had previously agreed in 2022 to stop using leap seconds on or before 2035, but that timeline is being accelerated. The reason for moving up the retirement is that changes in the Earth's rotation may soon require timekeepers to subtract time rather than add it, in order to keep astronomical time aligned with atomic time.
Subtracting a leap second has never been attempted before, and there are concerns that doing so could cause serious problems for critical infrastructure that depends on synchronized time. Those concerns follow past outages at technology platforms when leap seconds were added. Foursquare, Reddit, LinkedIn, Yelp and many other tech platforms have experienced outages during earlier leap second events.
Major technology companies have backed efforts to eliminate the current system. Meta, Google, Microsoft and Amazon have all supported moves to scrap leap seconds. After the BIPM vote, timekeepers will switch to a different approach.
Under the new arrangement, atomic time and astronomical time will be allowed to gradually drift apart until a full hour needs to be added, using what are being called leap hours. That addition is not expected to be needed for around 3,000 years, according to the plan.
The shift matters for US technology companies and the infrastructure they operate, given the number of platforms that have stumbled when leap seconds were introduced in the past. By ending the practice and moving to leap hours, timekeepers aim to avoid the recurring synchronization risks that have accompanied past adjustments.
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