JSFiddle - React, Tailwind, and code Playground
HTML
<textarea id="momentdifference"></textarea>
<textarea id="jsdifference"></textarea>
JavaScript
$(function(){
/* generics */
/* received date Nov 20 2016 9pm */
var uncleanedReceivedDate = "\/Date(1479675600000)\/",
cleanedReceivedDate = parseInt(uncleanedReceivedDate.replace(/\D/g, ''),10),
then = cleanedReceivedDate,
/* date now */
d = new Date(),
now = d.getTime(); //date now in unix
/* Scenario using momentwithlocale.js*/
var now = new Date(Date.now()),
ms = moment(then, "DD/MM/YYYY HH:mm:ss").diff(moment(now, "DD/MM/YYYY HH:mm:ss")),
d = moment.duration(ms),
formattedMomentDateDifference = Math.floor(d.asHours()) + ":";
formattedMomentDateDifference += Math.floor(d.minutes()) + ":";
formattedMomentDateDifference += Math.floor(d.seconds());
$('#momentdifference').val(formattedMomentDateDifference);
/*Scenario using plain js */
var then = cleanedReceivedDate, //cleaned received date in unix
difference = Math.floor(then - now)*1000, /* difference in milliseconds */
msDifferenceInDate = new Date(difference),
hoursDiff = msDifferenceInDate.getHours(),
minutesDiff = "0"+msDifferenceInDate.getHours(),
secondsDiff = "0"+msDifferenceInDate.getSeconds(),
formattedTime = hoursDiff + ':' + minutesDiff.substr(-2) + ':' + secondsDiff.substr(-2);
$('#jsdifference').val(formattedMomentDateDifference);
});