1. Add the birthday in Google Contacts
- Open the Contacts app from Google and pick a person.
- Tap Edit (the pencil). If there is no birthday field, tap More fields.
- Fill in Birthday. The year is optional.
- Tap Save.
The birthday is saved to your Google account, so it shows up on every device where you sign in.
2. Show birthdays in Google Calendar
- Open Google Calendar and tap the menu ☰ in the top left.
- Under your account, make sure Birthdays is checked.
Birthdays from Google Contacts now appear in the calendar every year.
3. Make sure you get a notification
Seeing a birthday in the calendar doesn’t mean you will be notified about it. Check this before you rely on it:
- In Google Calendar, open Settings and look for the Birthdays calendar under your account.
- If it offers notifications, choose when: on the day or a few days before.
- If it doesn’t, the reliable way for the people who matter most is a regular event: tap + → Event, set the date, choose Every year instead of “Does not repeat”, and add a notification, for example 1 week before.
Phones from Samsung and other makers have their own calendar apps; the steps there are similar, but the names of the settings differ.
Where the built-in tools fall short
- Your friends’ kids and partners usually aren’t contacts. Google Contacts lets you add a “related person” to your friend’s card, but that person has no birthday and no reminder.
- Yearly events are separate from people. A birthday you create by hand in the calendar doesn’t know who the person is or how old they are turning.
- The reminder doesn’t say whom to message. When your friend’s son turns 6, you text your friend — the calendar only shows the boy’s name.
That gap is why we built Circles: each friend has a circle of the people in their life, with birthdays, and one morning digest says “Dave’s son Leo turns 6 today” with a ready message to Dave. Birthdays you already have in Google Contacts can be imported in one tap, and backups go to your own Google Drive.