Google Calendar may soon let you add custom birthday reminders
Saving important dates like birthdays and anniversaries has long been a feature supported by Google Contacts, with the added benefits of having those same dates appear in Google Calendar. However, the Calendar implementation has been lacking when it comes to choosing how you want to be reminded of such dates. Fortunately, Google is developing a new feature that will possibly allow custom birthdays and notifications.
The feature first appeared in a development version of the Google Calendar and spotted by user @AssembleDebug on Twitter with the caveat that it can only be triggered by changing a few flags and only with version 2023.08.2-511758217-release of the app. A few screenshots and a video were also shared which depict how the feature works.
A video of the feature in action. ;-) pic.twitter.com/evBABcSav5
— Kim (@AssembleDebug) March 20, 2023
The feature is characterized by a new popup when opening the Calendar app. This popup then gives you the option to add a new birthday. This prompt bypasses the need to add a new contact to attach a birthday date to, thus simplifying the process.
There is also an edit option that appears whenever you are viewing a birthday calendar entry card. This button seems to give you the ability to change either the date of the birthday or the notification that is displayed for it. It is unclear if the time of day of the notification can be changed, although from the screenshots shared, it appears that you can schedule the notification for the day before and schedule multiple reminders, something you cannot currently do with birthday reminders that come from the Contacts app.
As the feature is still in development, of Google Calendar, there are certain quirks to it that hopefully will be iron out before the feature is released to the public. That is, of course, if it ever does. One of these is that as the feature is implemented now, you are stuck with getting that popup every time you open your Calendar app, that is until you either add a birthday or close the dialog box by clicking the "Not now" option.
It is encouraging to see Google improve on this feature. It has always been a pet peeve of mine that I am unable to personalize birthday reminders in my Google Calendar, especially if I wanted to plan ahead and, for example, schedule an event or buy a gift. Having the reminder sent the same day is just not ideal, so I'm hoping this feature does make it to the stable version of Google Calendar.
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