Birthday Alarm

Birthday Alarm is Cakeday’s alarm-style reminder for same-day birthdays. It is for the people you truly do not want to miss: on iOS 26.0 or later it uses Apple’s AlarmKit, while earlier iOS versions use Cakeday’s built-in fallback Birthday Alarm so the birthday is more than a normal notification.

When to Use It

For most birthdays, a regular notification or Time Sensitive notification is enough. Birthday Alarm is better for:

• Family, partners, close friends, important teammates, or anyone you truly do not want to miss.
• Same-day reminders that need a stronger sound and interface than a normal notification.
• Reminders you want to be more noticeable during Focus.
• Friends who should have a more distinctive Birthday Alarm sound.

Requirements

Birthday Alarm can be scheduled for a friend when both of these are true:

• App Notification is on for that friend.
• Birthday Alarm is on for that friend.

Turning on Birthday Alarm automatically turns on App Notification if it was off. Turning App Notification back off turns Birthday Alarm off, because the alarm depends on that friend’s notifications being enabled. The reminder plan does not matter — you can keep, change, or remove any reminder time without affecting the alarm.

On iOS 26.0 or later, the system AlarmKit alarm also needs Alarm access. If access is denied, Cakeday keeps the Birthday Alarm switch and delivers the alarm through its notification fallback instead.

How to Enable It

How It Rings

Birthday Alarm chooses the available alarm path for the current iOS version:

• iOS 26.0 or later, with Alarm access granted: Cakeday schedules an Apple AlarmKit system alarm. The system alarm uses the selected sound and a Live Activity with actions to stop it or open the app.
• Earlier iOS, or when Alarm access is not granted: Cakeday delivers the alarm as a short burst of Time Sensitive notifications and can show its own full-screen ringing view. In Settings the alarm status reads App Alarm to indicate this fallback. Tapping the notification opens the ringing view.

Cakeday keeps the birthday reminder either way, so a denied Alarm access never deletes the record.

Ringing View

In Cakeday’s own ringing view, a single birthday shows the friend’s avatar, name, age or “It’s their birthday today”, a date and zodiac label, and a birthday-wish prompt. Hold Hold to Stop to dismiss it so the alarm is not stopped by an accidental tap.

When several friends share the same fire time, Cakeday combines them into one group Birthday Alarm. The view shows the number of birthdays today, stacked avatars, and a scrollable list with each person’s name and age. Hold Hold to Stop All to dismiss the group alarm.

Alarm Time

Birthday Alarm rings at an absolute Alarm Time on the birthday, separate from your regular reminder times.

• Global default: Open Settings > Notification Settings > Birthday Alarm > Alarm Time. New installs default to 10:00 AM.
• Per friend: In a friend’s edit screen, the Alarm Time row offers Follow Default or Custom. Choose Custom to set a time just for that friend; Follow Default keeps them on the global alarm time.

Regular notifications still arrive at their own reminder times, which are independent of the alarm time.

Countdown Before the Alarm

In Settings > Notification Settings > Birthday Alarm > Countdown Starts, you can choose how early the alarm countdown begins. The default is 1 hour before the alarm. Set it to 0 (“At alarm time”) to turn the countdown off, or up to 24 hours.

On iOS 26.0 or later, the countdown uses AlarmKit’s pre-alert and a Live Activity. On earlier iOS versions, Cakeday shows an in-app countdown or Live Activity when available so you can see the Birthday Alarm approaching.

Alarm Sounds and HQ Audio

Cakeday includes 25 built-in Birthday Alarm sounds across 5 styles — Gentle, Sparkling, Groove, Lively, and Bold. You can set:

• The default Birthday Alarm sound in Settings > Notification Settings > Birthday Alarm > Alarm Sound.
• A sound just for one friend from that friend’s Alarm Sound row, or Default to follow the global sound.

If a friend does not have a custom sound, Cakeday uses the default sound. When multiple birthdays are combined into one group alarm, Cakeday uses the first custom sound in the group, or the default if no one has one.

Standard sounds download automatically the first time you open the sound picker. Each sound also offers an optional HQ version via a Download HQ button. HQ audio files are local device resources: they are not included in .cakeday backups, and they can be downloaded again from the sound picker after changing devices or restoring a backup.

Related Settings

• Time Sensitive Notifications: A notification level for regular reminder times that should be more prominent. Birthday Alarm is the separate alarm-style reminder that rings at its own time.
• Ring at Friend’s Timezone: A global Birthday Alarm setting. When on, the alarm follows a friend’s local time only if that friend also has Notify at Friend’s Timezone turned on; otherwise it rings at your own time. See Friend-Timezone Reminders.
• iCloud sync: The per-friend Birthday Alarm switch, custom alarm time, and custom alarm sound sync with the birthday record. Global alarm time, default alarm sound, and HQ audio files remain local to each device.
• Backup and import: .cakeday backups include Birthday Alarm settings and sound choices, but not downloaded HQ sound files.
• System Calendar Sync: Calendar sync creates all-day events in Apple Calendar. It does not replace Birthday Alarm.

Tips

• Enable Birthday Alarm for the most important people and use regular notifications for everyone else.
• Keep a 1 day before reminder if you need time to prepare a message, gift, or plan.
• If the friend lives abroad, turn on Notify at Friend’s Timezone so the alarm follows their local time.
• If you do not want late-night alarms, set a friendlier global Alarm Time, or a Custom time for specific friends.
• If you only need a more prominent notification, try Time Sensitive Notifications first.

Troubleshooting

I do not see the Birthday Alarm switch

Birthday Alarm is an iOS feature in Cakeday. Make sure you are editing a friend in Cakeday for iPhone or iPad and that you are in the Notifications section. Other platforms may not show the same alarm controls.

Birthday Alarm cannot be enabled

Check that App Notification is on for the friend. If you are using the system alarm on iOS 26.0 or later, Alarm access also needs to be allowed in Settings > Cakeday.

Alarm access is denied

On iOS 26.0 or later, open Settings > Cakeday and allow Alarm access. Without access, Cakeday still keeps regular birthday notifications and delivers the alarm through its notification fallback. Earlier iOS versions do not show an Alarm access prompt; the fallback Birthday Alarm mainly depends on system notification permission.

I only receive a notification, not a system alarm

If the device is running an earlier iOS version, or Alarm access is not granted, Cakeday uses the fallback Birthday Alarm instead of the iOS 26.0 AlarmKit system alarm UI. Tap the Birthday Alarm notification to open Cakeday’s ringing view.

There is no sound or nothing appears on the Lock Screen

Check Settings > Cakeday > Notifications and make sure notifications, sounds, and Lock Screen alerts are allowed. Silent mode, Focus, scheduled summary, and device state can still affect final delivery. Birthday Alarm is not a Critical Alert.

Several friends share the same day but only one alarm rings

This is expected. Birthdays with the same fire time are combined into one group Birthday Alarm so the app does not ring several times in a row.

HQ sounds are missing after restoring a backup

.cakeday backups save the sound choice, but HQ audio files stay on the current device. Open the sound picker to download the HQ version again.