"Ago" date/time functions in Ruby/Rails

You can use:

10.minutes.ago
2.days.since

Or in your views you have the helpers:

distance_of_time_in_words(from_time, to_time)
time_ago_in_words(from_time)

Check the API for details and more options.

You can use available methods to get the time in past or future using ago, since alias for from_now and many available methods

Time.current
#=> Tue, 20 Sep 2016 15:03:30 UTC +00:00

2.minutes.ago
#=> Tue, 20 Sep 2016 15:01:30 UTC +00:00

2.minutes.since
#=> Tue, 20 Sep 2016 15:05:30 UTC +00:00 

1.month.ago
#=> Sat, 20 Aug 2016 15:03:30 UTC +00:00

1.year.since
#=> Wed, 20 Sep 2017 15:03:30 UTC +00:00 

Check all the available methods in Time class