If you are like most people, it is likely that you have experienced the frustration, pain and guilt of forgetting to wish someone special on his/her Birthday due to your busy schedule or due to things going on in your own life.
You can easily avoid this in future by making use of the Contacts, Calendar and the Reminders App on your iPhone to provide you with Birthday Alerts; whenever it is the Birthday of that special someone, immediate family member, friend or a colleague at your place of work.
As you may agree, when it comes to business and professional contacts, wishing people on Birthdays can help in building team spirit and relationships.
Setup Birthday Alerts on iPhone
While the Birthday Alerts feature on iPhone makes use of Contacts, Calendar & Reminders App, Setting up Birthday Alerts on iPhone is not complicated as it sounds; due to the involvement of three different apps.
All that is required to setup Birthday alerts on iPhone is to add the “Birth Dates” of your family members, friends, relatives and business associates to the Contacts App.
Once the Birth Dates are added to Contact App, they should be automatically displayed by the Calendar App. After which, you can setup the Calendar App to remind you about the Birthdays of your Contacts on the day of the event, 1 day early, 2 days early or a week before the date.
Step 1: Add Birthdays to Contacts App
As mentioned above, the first step is to add the Birthdays of your family members, friends, relatives, business and professional associates to the Contacts App.
1. Open the Contacts App on your iPhone > select the Contact for which you want to setup birthday alerts.
2. On Contact’s detail screen, tap on the Edit option located at top-right corner of the screen.
3. Scroll down and tap on + Add Birthday > type or select your Contact’s Birth Date and tap on Done.
Similarly, you can Add Birthdays of other Contacts for which you want to setup birthday reminders on your iPhone.
Step 2: Show Birthdays On iPhone Calendar
As mentioned above, the Calendar App should automatically show or display Birthdays on iPhone, once the Birth Dates are added to the Contacts App.
If for some reason, the Calendar on your iPhone is not displaying birthdays, you can manually enable this option in the Calendar App.
1. Open Calendar App > tap on Calendars in the bottom menu.
2. On the next screen, scroll down to “Other” section > select Birthdays and tap on Done.
This will ensure that Birthdays of Contacts are always displayed on the Calendar on your iPhone.
Step 3: Setup Birthday Alerts on iPhone
The final step is to setup your device to provide you with Birthday Alerts on the day of the event or prior to the even.
1. Go to Settings > Apps > Calendar.
2. From the Calendar screen, go to Default Alert Times > Birthdays.
3. On the “Birthdays” screen, select when you would like to receive Birthday notifications on your iPhone.
As you can see in the above image, you can setup your iPhone to alert you on the Day of the event or prior to the event, in case you want to buy gifts or make preparations for the event.
Once you make your choice, this setting will apply to all your Contacts. Unfortunately, this setting works on a global basis and currently there is no option to customize Birthday Alerts for individual Contacts on iPhone.