WhatsApp may SOON never let you miss a birthday again

Ever forgotten a friend’s birthday and realised it only after scrolling through Instagram stories? Well, WhatsApp may soon help you avoid those awkward moments! The instant messaging app is reportedly working on a new feature that may remind you whenever any of your contacts is celebrating a birthday.  Also Read: Meta AI can use your Instagram Photos; Here's how to turn it off

If you are already excited, then hold on as the feature is still under development, but if it arrives, you may no longer have to depend on calendar apps or social media reminders. But how will it work? Also Read: Meta's next AI Glasses may continuously record what you see and hear; It already raises privacy concerns

WhatsApp Birthday Reminder: How will it work

According to a report by WhatsApp’s upcoming features tracking platform, WABetaInfo, Meta is developing a dedicated Birthdays section for Android users within WhatsApp. The section is expected to show a list of upcoming birthdays, making it easier to keep track of friends’ and family members’ special days. Apart from that, WhatsApp may also send an in-app notification whenever it’s someone’s birthday, allowing you to open the chat and send wishes directly. Also Read: Meta launches Muse Image AI generator: New image tool raises privacy concerns over Instagram photos

As mentioned before, the feature is currently under development and isn’t available even for beta testers yet.

But you must be thinking, how would WhatsApp know the birthdays? This could be possible, and reminders are expected to work only for contacts whose date of birth is available on WhatsApp. This is because WhatsApp is already asking for the date of birth in some countries while logging in to the app. If the feature rolls out, the app may use that information to generate birthday reminders. And for the countries, where WhatsApp doesn’t ask for birthdays, the feature may depend entirely on the voluntarily basis. Which means, if a contact hasn’t shared this information, they may simply not appear in the birthday list.

Questions that are hard to answer for now!

While the idea sounds useful, there are still a few things Meta hasn’t explained. So far, the report hasn’t indicated anything regarding the matter of choice of the users. Will it allow you to choose who can see your birthday or an option to hide it from specific contacts, just like status? As the feature is still under development and there is no sign of rollout for now, WhatsApp may add additional privacy controls before bringing it to all. 

All you can do for now is to remember those birthdays yourself till this feature comes!

… or maybe there are other alternatives too?

Birthday reminder hacks

If you’re someone who keeps forgetting, there are a few alternatives to waiting for the WhatsApp birthday reminder feature.

— You can simply save birthdays in Google Calendar

— Create a reminder in Google Keep or the Apple Reminders app

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— Or simply pin in your notes app with key birthdays