How to Get Birthday Reminders on iPhone

Yes, your iPhone can remind you of birthdays. Save the birthday on the person's contact card, check Birthdays under Calendars in the Calendar app, then pick an alert in Settings > Apps > Calendar > Default Alert Times > Birthdays. If you'd rather get the reminder by email with a message ready, Greetigo does that in Safari, free for up to 10 saved dates.

The Calendar app reads birthdays from Contacts, so each birthday needs to be on a contact card:

1. 1.Open the Contacts app and tap the person.
2. 2.Tap Edit.
3. 3.Add their birthday, then tap Done.

Someone who isn't in your contacts yet? Add them as a new contact with just a name and a birthday. Birthdays you only see on Facebook or in a group chat won't reach your calendar until they're on a contact; for those, see how to remember birthdays without Facebook.

1. 1.Open the Calendar app.
2. 2.Tap the Calendars button.
3. 3.Make sure Birthdays is checked.

The birthdays saved in your contacts now show with your events. If you use Google Calendar on your iPhone as well, see birthday reminders in Google Calendar.

1. 1.Open the Settings app.
2. 2.Tap Apps, then Calendar. On iOS 17 and earlier, tap Calendar.
3. 3.Tap Default Alert Times, then Birthdays.
4. 4.Choose when you want the alert.

This one setting covers every birthday in the Birthdays calendar, so pick a time that leaves room to act: the day before gives you time to write a message or plan a call. For someone who needs more notice, like a gift that has to ship, add a separate all-day event that repeats every year, with its own earlier alert.

Would you rather ask Siri? See what it can do in birthday reminders with Alexa, Siri or Google.

Go through these in order:

• •The birthday is on the contact. Open the contact and look for the date.
• •Birthdays is checked under Calendars in the Calendar app.
• •An alert is set in Settings > Apps > Calendar > Default Alert Times > Birthdays.
• •Calendar can notify you: in Settings > Notifications > Calendar, notifications are allowed.
• •A Focus isn't holding it back: Do Not Disturb or another Focus can silence notifications while it's on.

Even when everything works, an alert is easy to swipe away on a busy morning. If that keeps happening, a reminder that waits in your inbox may suit you better.

Greetigo is one option, and it runs in Safari on your iPhone, so there's nothing to install. Save a birthday once and it repeats every year. Greetigo emails you in the morning, your time: the day before by default, or on the day, or 1, 3, 7 or 14 days before, and you can pick more than one. The email arrives in whichever email app you use and stays in your inbox until you deal with it.

Each reminder comes with a message already written: a free template with their name, or on Plus and Premium the AI-written draft you saved for that date. Open the reminder on your iPhone and tap Copy message, or Share… to open your iPhone's share sheet and pick Messages or WhatsApp. If you saved their email address, you can send it from Greetigo instead. Nothing is sent until you click Send.

It's free for up to 10 saved dates. To bring in the birthdays already on your iPhone, export your contacts as a file: in Contacts, tap Lists, touch and hold a list, tap Export, choose the fields (include birthdays), tap Done, and save the file. Then import it on the Dates page in Greetigo. It's a one-time copy, not a sync. Want the text to go out at a set time? See how to schedule a birthday text.

• •There's no iPhone app. Greetigo works in Safari or any other browser on your iPhone, with the same account as on a computer.
• •No phone notifications or text messages. Reminders come by email.
• •It doesn't read your iPhone's contacts. Dates come in by hand, from a pasted list, or from a file you export.
• •On a Mac, there's a Mac app by direct download, with Mac notifications.