WhatsApp is testing birthday notifications for contacts on Android
WhatsApp is developing a new section that shows when a contact's birthday is coming up. The update will make it easier for users to keep track of their contacts' birthdays directly from WhatsApp. When it is someone's birthday, users may receive a notification directly within the app.
| Key Points | Details |
|---|---|
| Feature: | Birthday notifications for contacts |
| Status: | Under development |
| Availability info: | This feature is currently in development and it is not available for beta testing yet. |
| Previous news: | WhatsApp launches new features to manage chats on Wear OS! |
WhatsApp asks some users for their date of birth for regulatory purposes
In the post about the WhatsApp beta for Android 2.24.12.25 update, we announced a feature that asks users for their birth year. WhatsApp introduced this feature for regulatory reasons. In particular, several US states passed age verification laws that require online services to confirm the age of their users. WhatsApp started collecting this information to comply, and the data is not visible to other users. Once entered, users cannot change their birth year. At the time, WhatsApp introduced this control purely to comply with law. As a result, the birthday data had no other purpose beyond that.
WhatsApp explores a different feature to notify birthdays
At the moment, WhatsApp asks users to enter their birth date to comply with law in certain regions. But now, WhatsApp is also testing a separate feature that will let users receive updates when one of their contacts has a birthday coming up. However, this new feature has nothing to do with the requirement that WhatsApp introduced to comply with local laws. Rather, it works with your address book. We discovered the news with the WhatsApp beta for Android 2.26.27.3 update, which is available on the Google Play Store. Specifically, WhatsApp is working on a feature that notifies users when it is the birthday of one of their contacts.
How the birthday section will work on WhatsApp
WhatsApp is building a dedicated section where users can see upcoming birthdays from their contacts. When a contact's birthday arrives, WhatsApp sends an in-app notification to remind the user. The section works as a simple overview, so users don't have to rely on a separate calendar app or remember dates on their own. Since most people already use WhatsApp to send birthday wishes, a reminder there just makes sense.
WhatsApp needs you to have your contacts' birthday saved
WhatsApp will display a birthday reminder only if you already have the contact's date of birth saved in your phone's address book. At the moment, not every user saves this information for their contacts. So if you never added a contact's birthday to their entry in your address book, WhatsApp won't be able to show when it's their birthday. This means the feature depends on how many birthdays you already have saved. The more complete your address book is, the more useful the birthday section will be.
WhatsApp does not need to introduce privacy settings for birthdays
Since the app reads the information about birthdays from your address book, WhatsApp doesn't need to introduce any privacy controls for this feature. Everything works on your own device. You are the one who decides whether to save a contact's birthday in your phone. As a result, that decision is entirely yours. If you don't want WhatsApp to display about a specific contact's birthday, you simply don't need to save their date of birth in your address book.
Why the birthday reminder feature makes sense for WhatsApp
Birthdays are one of the few occasions where most people want to send a message to everyone they know. Users rely on a separate calendar app just to keep track of their contacts' birthdays. A reminder for birthdays into WhatsApp will make it simpler for users to contact someone on their birthday without missing this special day. Most people already use WhatsApp to send birthday wishes, so a reminder there just makes sense.
WhatsApp is developing birthday notifications for a future Android update
The feature that notifies users about their contacts' birthdays is currently under development on Android. WhatsApp has not enabled it for beta testers yet, and there is no official timeline for its release. We expect WhatsApp to refine the feature further before making it available to beta testers. We will share more details once WhatsApp moves this feature closer to a public release.
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