Goodbye Forgetful: WhatsApp Tests a New Feature to Remember Contacts' Birthdays

WhatsApp is working on a new feature for Android that could allow users to receive notifications as a person's birthday approaches among their contacts. The update is still under development and has not yet been made available to beta testers.

According to information from the beta version of WhatsApp for Android 2.26.27.3, the company is preparing a section dedicated to birthdays, where users can view upcoming anniversaries associated with their contacts.

The feature is based on information that WhatsApp had already begun collecting earlier: users' birth years. This data was primarily introduced for regulatory reasons, particularly to comply with age identification laws for users of online services. In some areas of the United States, regulations have been approved that require digital platforms to verify the ages of their members.

Initially, this information served no other purpose than compliance with regulations. It was not visible to other users and, once entered, could not be modified. Now, WhatsApp is considering using this information to offer a more practical function to users.

WhatsApp and Additional Details on the New Birthday-Related Feature

The new system is expected to display a list of upcoming birthdays and send a notification directly within the app when the day of the anniversary arrives. This way, users will no longer have to rely solely on external calendars or manually remember important dates.

However, the feature will depend on the availability of data. A reminder can only be generated for contacts that have shared their birth date with WhatsApp. Additionally, at the moment, the collection of this information is not active in all countries.

There are currently no dedicated privacy settings that allow users to precisely choose who can see or use this information. However, since this is a feature still in the early stages of development, WhatsApp may introduce additional controls before the official release. The aim of the new feature would be to transform data collected for regulatory needs into a useful tool to enhance social interactions on the platform.