Reports say WhatsApp is testing a new ‘Birthday Notification’ feature. It will remind you about your contacts’ birthdays and list them in a special section. The feature is still being developed and will only work if people have shared their date of birth with the app.
Do you often forget your friends’ or family’s birthdays? Well, WhatsApp might soon have a solution for you. Reports suggest the company is working on a new ‘Birthday Notification’ feature to help you remember those important dates. This feature was spotted in the Android beta version and is expected to be rolled out in a future update.
A new ‘Birthdays’ section
According to the feature tracker WABetaInfo, WhatsApp plans to introduce a special section called ‘Birthdays’. This will let you see all the upcoming birthdays from your contact list in one single place. This means you might not have to rely on other apps or calendars to remember these special days anymore.
Get a notification on the D-day
On the day of a contact’s birthday, WhatsApp will send you an in-app notification as a reminder. You can just tap on it to go directly to their chat and send your wishes. The company’s goal here is to make the user experience much more convenient.
It won’t show everyone’s birthday
But here’s the catch – this feature won’t work for everyone in your contact list. You’ll only get a notification or see a birthday in the ‘Birthdays’ section if that person has shared their date of birth with WhatsApp.
Where will WhatsApp get the date from?
Currently, the app collects birth dates from users in some US states to comply with local age verification laws. Reports suggest this is the data that might be used for the new feature. In other countries, where this isn’t mandatory, the feature will only work if users voluntarily add their birth date to their profile.
Privacy concerns are there
There are also some privacy concerns, as it’s not yet clear what controls users will have. The current test version reportedly doesn’t have options to hide your birthday or choose who can see it. The company hasn’t commented on whether these privacy options will be included in the final release.
Not available yet
This feature was spotted in the WhatsApp beta for Android, version 2.26.27.3. But since it’s still under development, it’s not even available for beta testers yet. There’s no official announcement or release date from the company. So, reports suggest the final feature could be different, or it might not even be released at all.