RoutineHub • Birthday Helper

Birthday Helper

Remember about all the birthday messages!

Description

Run this Shortcut everyday to make sure you don’t forget to send any birthday messages!

Birthday Helper Example

Features

Automatically finds all contacts that have their birthdays today
Custom templates including smart values (more below)
Prompts to send an iMessage or a Text
Reminds you if you’ve already used the Shortcut this day, helping you avoid double messages!
Supports both iMessage and WhatsApp!
Email Fallback available when your contact doesn’t include a phone number

Smart Values

This feature helps your templates to be more personal

$age — gets replaced by the age (eg. 22)
$name — gets replaced by the First Name of your contact

Notes

This Shortcut uses UpdateKit (2.0) — A Shortcut for keeping shortcuts like these updated!
Enabling WhatsApp gives you the choice between sending with iMessage and WhatsApp every time you want to send a message :)

Latest Release Notes

1.9.1 - Feb. 25, 2021, 2:50 p.m.

Fixes an issue where phone numbers were not found

Version history

Feedback

@kivar

it works only with iMessage or also whatsapp?
Reply · 4 years, 11 months ago

@kivar

it works only with iMessage or also whatsapp? is possibile to verify if contact had no iMessage to create directly an what sup message?
Reply · 4 years, 11 months ago

@brechtbakker Author

Right now only with iMessage, but I'll add an option for Whatsapp, give me a few hours :) It's not possible to check if user uses iMessage or Text and decide based on that
Reply · 4 years, 11 months ago

@brechtbakker Author

Added WhatsApp support :)
Reply · 4 years, 11 months ago

@kivar

great! but i's better if it is possible ti choice if use iMessage or WhatsApp non in configuration shortcut but before sending message... what do you think about it?
Reply · 4 years, 11 months ago

@brechtbakker Author

That’s already available :) enabling WhatsApp gives you the choice between sending with iMessage and WhatsApp every time you want to send a message :)
Reply · 4 years, 11 months ago

@kivar

great! you're a genius!!
Reply · 4 years, 11 months ago

@Savnakk

Works flawlessly! I’m so thankful for this!
Reply · 4 years, 11 months ago

@kivar

what about you think to add possibility to insert memoji directly in template? could be a problem for whatzapp but in the case an idea could be to record memmoji and send it like a video on whatsapp... what do you think?
Reply · 4 years, 10 months ago

@kivar

it is possibile to improve possibility to import birthday into calendar 1. from facebook 2. and to insert manually (ex. name contact, tel birthday)?
Reply · 4 years, 9 months ago

@brechtbakker Author

I looked into the Facebook thing, I think I added a comment on Reddit explaining the problems, since Shortcuts doesn’t give access to Facebook information on a contact.. insert manually we could add, maybe better in separate Shortcut. It would mean a lot of work on your side though, since I can only show you a list and a quick input thing, but obviously you’ll need to know all the dates ;) Ps: currently in Indonesia and Reddit is blocked, I saw you wrote a comment there too :)
Reply · 4 years, 9 months ago

@kivar

It could be a great idea let user to insert manually .... and it would great to create a separate shortcut.. during the first installation It could be created a check of all contact that have or no birthday and ask user if he wants to add manually.. if user says yes the date could be insert in Appel contact and calendar
Reply · 4 years, 9 months ago

@Kaftis

Great shortcut! Nicely done. No excuses now for not missing any more birthdays! Could I please ask for calendar support? All of my birthdays are noted down on my calendar instead of address book! A fix for this or any work around would be much appreciated. Thanks again and well done!
Reply · 4 years, 9 months ago

@brechtbakker Author

I can help you make a few changes, but I’d need to know two things: 1. Do you have a specific calendar for birthdays/or specific notation for finding the events — easiest would be a specific calendar 2. How would you like to go from calendar event to contact info? I mean to send those people a message, we need some contact info :) — probably easiest to set the title exactly to your contacts name, but idk how reliable it will be. Let me know what you think :)
Reply · 4 years, 9 months ago

@Kaftis

Thanks for your prompt reply. From reading your comment, I now realize that its not as simple as I thought and that it probably wont work. Basically, I have a specific Birthday calendar, that I have merged with existing facebook calendar. (I have downloaded a calendar from Facebook with all of my friends birthdays) as Facebook no longer lets you sync your contacts. Is there an app or software on the Mac that syncs birthdays with my existing contacts? If yes then my problem is solved!
Reply · 4 years, 9 months ago

@donavanbecker

Not working with iOS 13 betas
Reply · 4 years, 3 months ago

@brechtbakker Author

Hi, thanks for the heads up, I haven’t got the beta yet but I’ll definitely be updating it to support iOS 13 :) Have a nice day!
Reply · 4 years, 3 months ago

@Bweez16

When can we expect an update for iOS 13? Loved this shortcut on 12, was very helpful! Thank you in advance.
Reply · 3 years, 11 months ago

@brechtbakker Author

Updated for iOS 13!
Reply · 3 years, 11 months ago

@tata09

Is there's a way to have an alternate iOS 12 version?, or the last iOS 12 update for the shortcut because anyone that has iPhone 6 like me can't upgrade to iOS 13 :(
Reply · 3 years, 11 months ago

@brechtbakker Author

Hello! You can find the previous versions on the changelog page! :) https://routinehub.co/shortcut/595/changelog
Reply · 3 years, 11 months ago

@tata09

Oh that's right, thank you!
Reply · 3 years, 11 months ago

@donavanbecker

Second date provided was invalid is showing up for iOS 13.2 beta
Reply · 3 years, 11 months ago

@brechtbakker Author

Hello, I’m currently on 13.1, once 13.2 comes out I’ll be sure to update the shortcut! Have a nice day!
Reply · 3 years, 11 months ago

@donavanbecker

Any luck with getting it working with 13.2?
Reply · 3 years, 10 months ago

@WilstonCakes

It's working on 13.2.2, but I had the "second date" error too. Just added a text file to icloud/Shortcuts/Birthdays/ called last_run.txt with the current date (13.11.2019) and it worked for me.
Reply · 3 years, 10 months ago

@donavanbecker

The shortcut might run, but it doesn’t find any birthday’s because of an iOS bug.
Reply · 3 years, 10 months ago

@WilstonCakes

It found my test contacts without problems. Hmm
Reply · 3 years, 10 months ago

@migandretta

Ios 13.4 don't work
Reply · 3 years, 5 months ago

@[email protected]

I'm having a problem where it's saying "no birthday's today", when I have contacts with birthday's today. It seems to be a day ahead for some reason. Example: if today is Monday it will show send text for ppl with birthday on Tuesday.
Reply · 3 years, 3 months ago

@brechtbakker Author

Hi :) I haven’t heard of such an issue before.. I just pushed an update, would you let me know if it fixes the problem!
Reply · 3 years, 3 months ago

@[email protected]

Unfortunately, problem still persists... I tried deleting and re downloading too!
Reply · 3 years, 3 months ago

@[email protected]

Any other troubleshooting?
Reply · 3 years, 3 months ago

@brechtbakker Author

I’m sorry, I’m really not sure what could be the cause of this.. As a fix I would suggest editing the shortcut and changing the ‘find contacts’ filter to find yesterday’s birthdays instead of today’s :) Hope that will fix this weird issue for you specifically!
Reply · 3 years, 3 months ago

@donavanbecker

I am having the same issue. I have reported it to Apple. This has been like this since a later version of iOS 13
Reply · 3 years ago

@Shah.Raj

Can you please add support for iOS Share Sheet so as to select as to which app wants to share with... Thanks
Reply · 3 years, 2 months ago

@brechtbakker Author

Hi Shah, I’m not sure I understand what you mean. I think you mean using the share sheet to basically share the wishes manually through the share sheet? If that’s what you’re after the easiest way would be for you to edit the shortcut and just add a share sheet action :) If you need some help editing the shortcut let me know!
Reply · 3 years, 2 months ago

@batatat

Hello, Nice shortcuts ! Don’t work with iOS14, someone to update it ? @brechtbakker maybe ? ;)
Reply · 3 years, 2 months ago

@brechtbakker Author

It seems to be working just fine for me on iOS 14 (pubic beta). What doesn’t work for you?
Reply · 3 years, 2 months ago

@batatat

Hello, i tried on iOS 13 on my iPad and it’s work but in iOS 14, when i click on a pre message ( Like happy birthday), the iMessage is empty, same when i click on skip. I can give you a screenshot or a video if you need
Reply · 3 years, 2 months ago

@brechtbakker Author

Hi! You’re right... I just uploaded a new version to fix it :) Could you download the latest version and check if this fixes the issue? (And could you check if the update works on iOS 13 also? :))
Reply · 3 years, 2 months ago

@batatat

Just tried on iOS 13 and iOS 14, work fine :) thank you for that !
Reply · 3 years, 2 months ago

@brechtbakker Author

No problem, thanks for the feedback! Glad it's working again! :)
Reply · 3 years, 2 months ago

@Chaovizua

For some reason it constantly says people don’t have phone numbers but they absolutely do. What’s going on here?
Reply · 2 years, 7 months ago

@brechtbakker Author

Hi Chaovizua, thanks for the feedback. I just updated the shortcut. Hope it works for you! Let me know :) Have a nice day
Reply · 2 years, 7 months ago

@Chaovizua

Fixed that item perfectly. Though I did notice (so did my best friend) that today it text messaged him to wish happy birthday but his birthday is tomorrow? Any thoughts? He laughed and said “Lol thank you, little early”.
Reply · 2 years, 7 months ago

@brechtbakker Author

Lol, whoops.. and the date in his contact is definitely set to tomorrow’s date? I can’t reproduce that issue; I made a test contact with tomorrow’s date and it works correctly.. I’m not sure what could cause that to happen.
Reply · 2 years, 7 months ago

@Chaovizua

I’ll do some additional testing and see what I can uncover. It was just really weird to me. All of your scripting seemed correct. I removed and readied the birthday. Removed the year. Changed the date. Just weird.
Reply · 2 years, 6 months ago

@Chaovizua

Still birthdays are not working. Today for a friends birthday of 3/11/1976. I can’t seem to find any logic as to why it isn’t working. I just added her birthday to my calendar today but I have never gotten this this to work on the right day.
Reply · 2 years, 6 months ago

@Chaovizua

Still having shortcut telling me that it’s a birthday the day before it actually is. I have had no luck identifying why. Any one still using this? Is it working for you?
Reply · 2 years, 6 months ago

@brechtbakker Author

Sorry for the late reply. I can confirm the shortcut works for me without this issue. I usually test it by using a test contact, with today’s date as their birthday. The shortcut finds this contact every time. The only thing I can think of is that Shortcuts is somehow checking the UTC time (which might be the next day). Could you tell me what time-zone you’re in and at what time you’re running the Shortcut?
Reply · 2 years ago

@jodipy

I have the same issue where it will notify me a person’s birthday tmr instead of today. Can this be automated instead?
Reply · 2 years, 2 months ago

@brechtbakker Author

Sorry for the late reply. Could you tell me what time-zone you’re in and at what time you’re running the Shortcut?
Reply · 2 years ago

@jodipy

GMT +8 Shortcut runs at 12 midnight my time.
Reply · 2 years ago

@brechtbakker Author

Ok, just to make sure. It's the 08th, the shortcut ran this morning at 00:00, and it would show birthdays for tomorrow the 9th?
Reply · 2 years ago

@iRalph

I also have the same concern. I’m in the central time zone & I just ran it at 10:30 am
Reply · 7 months, 2 weeks ago

@iRalph

I figured out how to subtract a day. This seems to have fixed it. I’ll test tomorrow.
Reply · 7 months, 2 weeks ago

@n00py

This works almost great! I have the problem that when contacts have more than one number the shortcut gives me the option to choose which number should be used, after picking one of them it tells me that the contact has no number and proceeds with the email option. Its confusing to me as it just showed me all the numbers I could pick from and then tells me there are none. I coulnt find the problem. Test with several contacts. iPhone 11 Pro on latest iOS
Reply · 2 years ago

@brechtbakker Author

Hi, I just tested the latest version and it seems to be working fine. I made a ‘test contact’ with today’s date as their birthday and added two numbers to the contact. I tested it and it correctly sent a text to the number I selected. Could you tell me if you have the latest version (updated last February)?
Reply · 2 years ago

@n00py

I downloaded it just 6 days ago. I have deleted some things and changed it a bit, now it works, but your version is way more advanced than my „hack“
Reply · 2 years ago

@brechtbakker Author

Strange you had to change so much, although I’m glad you got it working the way you wanted :)
Reply · 2 years ago

@n00py

Well not quite the way I want it but the way I can use it. Your original version seems to be way better, except on my phone maybe. But if I am the only one with that problem then don’t worry :)
Reply · 2 years ago

@brechtbakker Author

Could you try making a test contact with two numbers and today's date as their birthday? I'm curious if it was maybe one contact you tried or if it happens consistently with other contacts also
Reply · 2 years ago

@pit

GREAT!!!!! MEGA THANKS!!!
Reply · 1 year, 8 months ago

@martindb1988 Member

Are you planning on renewing this :) ? like include options for automations and such.
Reply · 6 months, 3 weeks ago