Custom birthday reminders were spotted to be under development in Google Calendar
Google has long allowed you to save birthdays and other anniversaries to your contacts stored on its platform as a central place for all information you have at hand for somebody. However, notifications were not handled too well, as we called out when Android’s 14th birthday came up. It looks like Google is finally changing that, with Google Calendar reportedly working on adding optional custom reminders for birthdays.
As spotted by Twitter user @AssembleDebug, Google is putting UI into place that will make it much easier to add contacts’ birthdays and set up reminders for them. A new pop-up will greet you that will make it possible to “Add birthdays,” including the option to get reminders. The hint will continue to live below the app bar, allowing you quick access to the feature until you either add a birthday or dismiss the dialog with the “Not now” button.
When you view a birthday calendar entry card, there is now an edit button that will presumably allow you to tweak either the date itself or the notification for the birthday. The calendar entry in the screenshot shows that the notification can be set for the day before at 11:30pm, though we presume you can choose any date and time you like. If other Calendar events are any indication, you will also be able to set multiple reminders.
@AssembleDebug confirmed to us that the feature is currently still under development in version 2023.08.2-511758217-release of the app and can only be activated by changing a few flags, so it’s not something you can easily reproduce right now. It’s still great to see Google finally working on support for customized birthday reminders.
Google Calendar has shown you birthdays and anniversaries in the past already, but so far, it has never been possible to set up reminders — let alone customize them. The new tweak makes it easier for you to plan ahead, so you could set a reminder for a few weeks in advance. Right now, birthday reminders are only available through Google Assistant. Google was also just caught working on adding reminders to the Google Contacts app itself this weekend.
Thanks: @AssembleDebug
