WhatsApp may soon make it easier to remember your friends’ birthdays without having to open a separate calendar app.
The messaging platform is testing a new birthday field inside the contact information page. The feature was spotted in WhatsApp’s iOS beta version, available through Apple’s TestFlight program.
The new birthday section appears near the top of a contact’s information page, directly below the person’s name and last seen details. This means users can see the information without scrolling through the page.
If a birthday has already been saved for someone in the phone’s Contacts app, WhatsApp can display that date on the contact information screen. If the birthday is later changed in the phone’s Contacts app, WhatsApp will automatically update the information as well.
This is not WhatsApp’s first attempt to help users keep track of birthdays. An earlier beta version introduced birthday reminders through the app’s new contacts tab.
That feature uses a cake emoji and a “Birthday Today” label to alert users when someone in their contacts is celebrating a birthday. However, the reminder appears only once a year and stays visible for one day.
The new contact information option could give users a way to check a person’s birthday ahead of time instead of waiting for the reminder.
For now, the birthday field has not been released to beta testers, and WhatsApp has not announced when the feature could become available to everyone.
