Facebook is often the first place people find out it is someone’s birthday, thanks to its built-in reminder system, and for many people it has quietly replaced remembering birthdays manually altogether. Here is how the system works and how to get the most out of it.
How Facebook shows birthdays
Facebook checks the birthdays listed in friends’ profiles and shows a notification, plus a dedicated birthdays list, each day someone in your network is celebrating. This relies entirely on what each person has entered as their birthday in their own profile settings, so if a friend has left their birth year private or hidden the date entirely, you may not see a reminder for them even though the feature works correctly for everyone else.
Where to find today’s birthdays
On desktop, birthdays typically appear in the right-hand sidebar of your News Feed, listed alongside a small cake icon. On mobile, check your notifications bell, or search “birthdays” in the Facebook search bar to open the dedicated birthdays page, which usually lists the next several days as well as today, useful for planning ahead rather than being caught off guard.
Making sure you see reminders
Go to Settings and Privacy, then Notifications, and check that birthday notifications are turned on if you want a daily reminder rather than checking manually. It is easy to have turned off notifications broadly at some point and forgotten that birthday alerts were included in that change, so it is worth checking this setting specifically rather than assuming it is already on.
What if you missed someone’s birthday
If you notice a birthday has already passed, a short, honest message acknowledging the delay is almost always better received than staying silent, something like “sorry I am a bit late, hope you had a great one” tends to land fine. Facebook usually keeps the birthday notification visible for a day or two afterward specifically because people miss the exact date fairly often.
What to post
Once you know it is someone’s birthday, browse our birthday wishes library for a ready-to-use message, and pair it with an emoji from our emoji library. See 12 best birthday wishes to post on Facebook for tone-specific examples, from heartfelt to short and simple.
Frequently asked questions
Why do I not see a birthday reminder for a close friend?
They may have hidden their birthday from their profile’s privacy settings, in which case Facebook will not surface a reminder even if you are close friends.
Can I turn off my own birthday reminder for others?
Yes, adjust your birthday’s visibility under your own profile’s About section to control who sees it.
Does Facebook remind me about birthdays in Messenger too?
Yes, birthday notifications can also appear inside Messenger depending on your notification settings.