WhatsApp is testing birthday reminders in its iPhone Contacts tab, pulling dates from the phone’s saved contacts.
WhatsApp is building birthday reminders into its new Contacts tab on iPhone, where it can surface birthdays already saved in the phone’s address book. The feature is still under development and is not available to beta testers yet, but the intended behavior is already clear: a contact with a saved birthday would show a cake emoji and a “Birthday today” label beneath their name inside the tab. Users would see the reminder directly in the contact list without adding birthdays inside WhatsApp, since the date comes from the phone’s existing contact record.
Cake emoji and “Birthday today” inside WhatsApp Contacts
The visible cue is simple. On a contact’s birthday, WhatsApp plans to place a cake emoji and a “Birthday today” label directly under that person’s name in the Contacts tab. The reminder is designed to appear automatically next to contacts whose birthday is already stored on the device, so users would not need to hunt through a separate screen or open a chat first to spot it.
For people who use WhatsApp as a daily contact surface, that means birthdays would show up where they already browse for people to message or call. For business users and operators who keep customer or partner details in their phone book, the reminder could serve as a quick follow-up prompt during routine contact checks.
The address book, not manual birthday entry
WhatsApp is not asking users to build a separate birthday database inside the app. The feature pulls the date from the phone’s contacts record, which means the reminder depends on information that is already saved in the address book. If a contact has a birthday stored there, WhatsApp can surface it in the Contacts tab; if that field is missing, there is nothing for the app to show.
That design keeps the feature lightweight. It also avoids adding another profile field for users to maintain inside WhatsApp itself. In practice, the setup is straightforward: the quality of the reminder will depend on how complete the phone’s saved contact entries already are.
Part of the iPhone tab redesign
The birthday feature sits inside a broader iOS navigation redesign. WhatsApp’s new Contacts tab is part of a shift that moves status updates and Channels into the Chats tab, changing how the bottom navigation is organized on iPhone. In that layout, Contacts becomes a more deliberate destination for finding people rather than just a side utility.
WhatsApp also appears to be building the tab into a richer people surface. Beyond birthdays, the Contacts view is expected to include relationship signals such as who is online and who was recently active. Those added signals would put birthday prompts, online status, and recent activity in the same place when users are deciding who to message.
Still under development, with rollout timing unknown
The feature is still under development, is not available for beta testing, and has no public rollout date. In WhatsApp beta for iOS 26.38.10.18, the birthday reminder work shows up alongside the broader navigation changes seen in iOS 26.26.10.16.
Some practical details also remain open. It is still unclear whether WhatsApp will add any controls around the reminder beyond the in-list display, and there is no confirmed timing for when beta users might first see it. What is clear already is the direction of the feature: WhatsApp is using the new Contacts tab to surface small, timely relationship cues from data users have already saved on their phones.
Disclaimer: This article was created with the assistance of AI. Images are for illustrative purposes only.
About the author
Samarth Agrawal is an AI and technology professional who writes about WhatsApp, automation, and emerging AI trends. He focuses on simplifying complex tech updates into practical insights for businesses, creators, and everyday users
