We’ve all been there – it gets to the end of the day and you realise you’ve been chatting away to a friend without remembering it’s their birthday.
But the days of awkwardly rushing out for a cake could be a thing of the past, thanks to Snapchat‘s latest tool.
The photo messaging app has launched Birthdays Mini, which pulls together a list of all your friends’ upcoming and recent birthdays, organised by Zodiac Sign.
‘The Birthdays Mini makes it easier to see all of your friends’ birthdays in one place, to help you remember important upcoming birthdays, and plan for their special day,’ Snapchat said.
Snapchathas launched Birthdays Mini, which pulls together a list of all your friends’ upcoming and recent birthdays, organised by Zodiac Sign
Birthdays Mini is the latest in the Minis series – tools launched in Snapchat back in June 2020 to offer a novel way to create social experiences.
Snapchat explained: ‘They are easy to use for Snapchatters, and seamlessly share into the Camera to encourage friends to join in.
‘Rather than build two separate apps for Android and iOS, partners can build one Game or Mini that launches instantly with no installation required.’
The Birthdays Mini tool can be found behind the rocket icon in Chat, or through the Search bar.
Once you’ve opened the tool, you’ll see a list of your friends’ upcoming birthdays, following by a list of recent birthdays.
You can also choose to view your friends’ birthdays by Zodiac Sign, by tapping on the ‘Zodiac Signs’ header.
For the first time, Snapchat has also introduced its Lens sharing feature within a Mini.
It explained: ‘Lens sharing allows Minis to unlock themed Lenses that Snapchatters can send as Snaps or post as Stories.
‘Friends can swipe up to reply and/or join the Mini when they see the post or story.’
To make use of the Birthdays Mini feature, you’ll have to agree to allow your birthday to be seen, through Settings.
‘Users and their friends’ birth year or age, will not be shown. Individual birth years and age are only visible to the user,’ Snapchat reassured.
Birthdays Mini is rolling out to all Snapchat users worldwide from today.
The launch comes shortly after Snapchat rolled out 3D Bitmoji, a new feature to help users bring their virtual avatar to life.
The feature lets users create a 3D version of their Bitmoji for their Snapchat Profile and Friendship Profile on the app.
Bitmoji are the animated avatars that Snapchat users create to represent themselves on the social media platform, but previously they were only available in 2D.
3D Bitmoji includes around 1,200 combinations of body poses, facial expressions, gestures and backgrounds for users ‘to further personalise their digital presence’.
HOW HAS FACEBOOK COPIED SNAPCHAT OVER THE YEARS?
March 2016 – Filters
One of the first signs Facebook was copying Snapchat was in March 2016 when it bought MSQRD, an app that overlays silly live filters to your selfies.
The app lets users apply filters to their faces – similar to Snapchat ‘Lens’ filters.
One of the first signs Facebook was copying Snapchat was in March 2016 when it bought MSQRD, an app that overlays silly live filters to your selfies. The app lets users apply filters to their faces (pictured right) – similar to Snapchat ‘Lens’ filters (pictured left)
April 2016 – QR codes
In April of last year, Facebook added QR codes to profiles in Messenger.
Snapchat uses QR codes to allow people to add other users without having to search.
December 2016 – Location-based filters and in-app camera
Facebook introduced custom location-based camera filters that overlay pictures and videos – similar to Snapchat’s ‘geo-filters’.
Users build ‘frames’ on any design platform, submit them to Facebook and then friends nearby will have access to the creations.
In the same month, a ‘Messenger Camera’ was designed to make it quicker to capture and share photos and videos without having to dip out of a conversations – a feature that already existed on Snapchat.
In December, Facebook introduced custom location-based camera filters (pictured right) that overlay pictures and videos – similar to Snapchat’s ‘geo-filters’ (pictured left)
March 2017 – Stories
In March, Facebook introduced Facebook Stories along with two other new Snapchat-like features – Facebook Camera and Direct.
Facebook Stories highlights decorative content in a horizontal layout over News Feed that disappears in 24 hours – just like Snapchat Stories.
Facebook Stories (pictured right) highlights decorative content in a horizontal layout over News Feed that disappears in 24 hours – just like Snapchat Stories (pictured left)
The section in the app called ‘Direct’ appears to be very similar to Snapchat’s feed for one-to-one group messaging.
The update encourages users to use Facebook’s camera feature and also lets them put friends’ stories at the top of their News Feed.
In the same month it also introduced ‘Messenger Day’, which lets user share photos and videos with illustrated filters and stickers that vanish in 24 hours – just like Snapchat Stories.
November 2017 – Streaks
In November, Facebook copied Snapchat by testing a new feature that encourages friends to send messages back and forth for consecutive days.
Like ‘Snapstreaks’ on Snapchat, Facebook Messenger ‘Streaks’ have emoji next to the name of anyone who users are regularly messaging.
According to Facebook, this will encourage users to ‘keep your streak going’.
In March, Facebook introduced ‘Messenger Day’, which lets user share photos and videos with illustrated filters and stickers that vanish in 24 hours – just like Snapchat Stories
January 2018 – Screenshots
In January, Instagram, the Facebook-owned app, began testing a feature that lets your followers know if you’ve taken a sneaky screenshot of their Story.
The Snapchat-inspired feature is expected to launch on the picture-sharing platform soon and is currently being trialled in Japan.
May 2018 – Bitmoji
As with Filters, Snaps, and Stories, Facebook revealed it is duplicating the Bitmoji feature used on Snapchat.
Within the code of Facebook’s Android app, developers have found an unreleased functionality that lets users ‘build personalized, illustrated versions of themselves for use as stickers in Messenger and comments.’
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