WhatsApp is testing a new ‘Birthday Notification’ feature. It will remind you of contacts’ birthdays through a special ‘Birthdays’ section. This will work only if the user has shared his/her date of birth on the app.
AIf you also often forget the birthdays of your friends or family, then WhatsApp is preparing to bring a relief feature for you. The company is testing a new ‘Birthday Notification’ system, which will remind you on the birthdays of your saved contacts. This feature has been seen in Android beta version and it is expected that users will get it in future updates.
New section named ‘Birthdays’
According to WABetaInfo, a website that monitors WhatsApp, there are preparations to add a special section named ‘Birthdays’ in the app. Through this, users will be able to see the upcoming birthdays of the people in their contact list at one place. This will reduce the need to rely on other apps or calendars to remember birthdays.
Notification will be received on birthday
WhatsApp will remind you by sending an in-app notification on the day of the contact’s birthday. As soon as you tap on this notification, you will be able to go directly to that person’s chat and wish him/her a happy birthday. The purpose of this feature is to make the user experience easier.
Everyone’s birthday will not be visible
However, this system will not work the same for all contacts. This will work only if a user has shared his/her date of birth with WhatsApp. Only then his birthday will appear in the ‘Birthdays’ section and you will get a notification.
Where will I get information about date of birth?
Currently, due to age verification laws in some US states, WhatsApp collects the date of birth from the users. According to reports, this information can be used for this new feature. But in other countries there is no such requirement, so this system will work there only when the users themselves share their date of birth.
Questions regarding privacy also
There is no clear information yet regarding the privacy settings related to this feature. According to reports, in the current testing version there is no option to show your date of birth to whom and from whom you want to hide it. The company has also not given any answer on whether such settings will be there in the final version or not.
This feature has been seen in WhatsApp beta version 2.26.27.3 for Android. But it is still in the development stage, so is not even available for beta testers. The company has not given any official announcement or release date. Therefore, it is possible that this feature may have some changes in the final version or it may not be released at all.