Never miss a birthday wish, thanks to Google

Google has unveiled an innovative function in its most recent update to the Contacts application, providing its users with alerts for the birthdays of their loved ones. The technology behemoth has been heavily investing in various means to strengthen connections with friends and family, with a particular emphasis on assisting users in recalling crucial dates such as birthdays. One such example is the Google Messages app, which now showcases birthday chats and cues users to remember the special occasion.
On the other hand, Google Messages also features an additional functionality that notifies users to save a contact's birthday if they send a "happy birthday" message. Additionally, the Conversations widget in Android periodically displays birthdays, which is facilitated by Google Contacts. This comprehensive app synchronizes user data concerning friends and family across various devices, empowering a wide array of helpful features within the Google ecosystem.
Google Contacts might notify you for birthdays soon
Google Contacts is gearing up to introduce an exciting new feature that will assist users in staying connected with their loved ones on their special day. Dubbed "birthday notifications," this feature will enable users to choose particular friends and family members whose birthdays they would like to be reminded of.
This feature has been forcefully enabled, and users can view it in action, as shown below:

The new function is set to enhance the Google Contacts app, providing a more comprehensive suite of tools for users to stay connected with the important people in their lives. With this feature, users will no longer have to worry about forgetting their loved ones' birthdays and can rest assured that they will always be there to wish them a happy birthday.
For individuals who have their date of birth listed in the Google Contacts app, a new option will now appear in the overflow menu located in the top-right corner. This option, "Add birthday notification," will allow users to set reminders for that contact's birthday. Additionally, if a contact's birthday is approaching, a reminder displayed on their contact page will also feature an "Add notification" button.
However, it appears that, unlike Facebook's highly convenient birthday reminders, there is no option available to activate notifications for all contacts simultaneously. Users will have to enable notifications manually for each individual contact. Nonetheless, the silver lining is that user preferences for these notifications will sync across all devices, ensuring that users never miss a loved one's special day, no matter where they are.
Google Contacts' effectiveness relies heavily on users manually entering their contacts' birthdays. However, it would be much more advantageous if Google provided a social media app that would allow users to connect effortlessly with friends while automatically synchronizing their profile information with Google Contacts.
According to 9to5Google, the latest version of a Google application uploaded to the Play Store has been decompiled to reveal potential future features. These decompiled files, known as APKs for Android apps, contain various lines of code that suggest new functionalities that may be in the works.
It is essential to note that Google may or may not ultimately release these features, and our interpretation of them may not be entirely accurate. With the promise of more convenient and useful features on the horizon, Google Contacts' position as a powerful and essential tool for staying connected with loved ones is looking more promising than ever.
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Thanks for the tip Martin.
It is for these kinds of posts that I follow GHacks.
What’s up with the generic comment, are you a bot?
2G?
Where on the planet is that still in use? I was forced to give up using my RAZRV3 years ago because 2G was phased out by AT&T.
Everywhere 3G has been turned off and you don’t have LTE coverage, and believe me there are many developed countries where this is the case and if it weren’t for 2G you wouldn’t even be able to make a phone call.
Maybe I missed it, but I don’t believe tha term “2G” is in the article. Perhaps you are referring to “AGM G2”??
@Martin
Your website has gone insane.
When I the post button I then saw my comment posted on a different article page. When I opened this article again, it is here.
@Tachy @Martin Brinkmann
” Your website has gone insane. ”
Same here. Has happened several times.
@Tachy,
@Martin P.,
For over two weeks now,
I’ve been seeing “Comments” posted by subscribers appearing in different, unrelated articles.
https://www.ghacks.net/windows-11-update-stuck-fixed-for-good/#comment-4572991
https://www.ghacks.net/windows-11-update-stuck-fixed-for-good/#comment-4572951
For the time being,
it would be better to specify the “article name and URL” at the beginning of the post.
@tachy a lot of non-phone devices with a sim in them rely on 2G, at least here in europe.
Usually things reporting usage or errors/alarms on something remote that does not get day to day inspection in person. They are out there in vast numbers doing important work. Reliable, good range. The low datarate is no problem at all in those cases.
3G is gone or on its last legs everywhere, but this stuff still has too much use to cancel.
Anyhow, interesting that they would put that in. I can see the point if you suspect a hostile 2G environment (amateur eavesdroppers with laptop, ranging up to professional grade MITM fake towers while “strangely” not getting the stronger crypto voip 4G because it is being jammed, and back down to something as old ‘stingray’ devices fallen into the wrong hands).
But does this also mean that they have handled and rolled out a fix for that nasty 4G ‘pwn by broadcast’ problem you reported earlier this year? I had 4G disabled due to that, on the off chance that some of the local criminals would buy some cheap chinese gear, download a working exploit and probe every phone in range all over town in the hope of getting into phones of the police.
>”While most may never be attacked in stingrays, it is still recommended to disable 2G cellular connections, especially since it does not have any downsides.”
The downside would be losing connectivity. I spend a lot of time way out in the countryside where there’s often no service or almost none. My network allows 2G, and I need it sometimes. I have an option on the phone to disable 2G, I may do that when I’m in the city and I have good 5G connectivity, but not out in the country.
I would imagine that the stingray exploits, like most of the bad things in this world, are probably things you will run into in the crowded big cities.
I stopped using it in a mobile (Wi-Fi line) environment, so I’m almost ignorant of the actual situation,
But the recent reality in Japan makes me realize that “the infrastructure of the web is nothing more than a papier-mâché fiction”.
https://www.ghacks.net/2023/08/17/google-chrome-to-enable-https-first-by-default-for-all-users/#comment-4572402
It is already beyond the scope of what an individual can do.
What we should be aware of is the reality that “governments and those in power want to control the world through the Web”, and efforts to counter (resist and prevent) such ambitions are necessary.
Why do you want people to disable the privacy features? Hmmmmm?
Now You: do you plan to keep the Ads privacy features enabled?
I’d like to tell you, but apparently if you make a post critical of Google, you get censored. * [Editor: removed, just try to bring your opinion across without attacking anyone]
@Martin
You website is still psychotic. Comments attach to random stories.
@Martin please do fix the comments, it’s completely insane commenting here! :[
@Martin
The comments are seriously messed up on gHacks now. These comments are mixed with the article at the below URL.
https://www.ghacks.net/2023/08/18/android-how-to-disable-2g-cellular-connections-to-improve-security/
And comments on other articles are from as far back as 2010.
What does this article has anything to do with all the comments on this article? LOL I think this Websuite is ran by ChatGPT. every article is messed up. Some older comments from 2015 shown up in recant articles, LOL
The picture captioned “Clearing the Android Auto’s cache might resolve the issue” is from Apple Carplay ;)
How about other things that matter:
Drop survival?
Screen toughness?
Degree of water and dust protection?