Guides
Notifications
Set up reminders so you never miss a birthday
Cakeday provides two reminder layers for birthdays: standard notifications for advance planning, and Birthday Alarm for a higher-priority day-of reminder. Both are configured from the same contact data and reminder schedule.
Permissions and Availability
The first time you enable notifications, iOS requests notification permission. Cakeday needs alerts, sounds, and badges for the full birthday reminder experience.
When you enable Birthday Alarm for a person, iOS requests Alarm access the first time you save that change. Birthday Alarm is available on iOS 26 or later. If Alarm access is unavailable or denied, that person still receives standard birthday notifications.
Global Notification Settings
In Settings > Notifications, you can configure the app-wide reminder behavior:
- Reminder time: Sets the default time of day for birthday reminders. The default is 9:00 AM.
- Time Sensitive: Marks selected reminders as Time Sensitive so they can appear more prominently during Focus mode.
- Time Sensitive range: You can apply Time Sensitive delivery to the day of, 1 day before, 3 days before, 1 week before, or 1 month before.
Per-Person Notification Settings
Each birthday record has its own reminder controls:
- App Notification: Turns app-based reminders on or off for that person.
- Alert offsets: Supports multi-select from preset offsets and custom offsets.
- Notify at Friend’s Timezone: Schedules the reminder according to the friend’s local time.
- Birthday Alarm: Upgrades the day-of reminder to an alarm-style alert.
18 Built-In Reminder Offsets
- On the day
- 1 minute before, 5 minutes before, 10 minutes before, 15 minutes before, 30 minutes before, 45 minutes before
- 1 hour before, 2 hours before, 3 hours before, 6 hours before, 12 hours before
- 1 day before, 2 days before, 3 days before
- 1 week before, 2 weeks before
- 1 month before
Custom Reminder Offsets
The preset list covers the common schedules. Custom reminder offsets let you define exact lead time in days, hours, and minutes, such as “2 days and 6 hours before” or “45 minutes before.”
Birthday Alarm
Birthday Alarm applies to the day-of birthday reminder. When enabled, Cakeday keeps the same-day reminder and delivers it in an alarm-style format on supported systems. This is useful for important people, on-time greetings, or any reminder you want to treat as critical.
Birthday Alarm works alongside standard notifications. Advance reminders continue to use your chosen offsets, while the same-day reminder is handled by Birthday Alarm. If Alarm access is later turned off, Cakeday falls back to the regular notification path automatically.
Friend-Timezone Reminders
If you save a birth city or timezone for someone, you can enable Notify at Friend’s Timezone. Cakeday schedules the reminder using the friend’s local time and shows a preview in the editor so you can compare their time with your own.
This is especially useful for long-distance relationships, distributed teams, and any situation where the birthday should be anchored to the other person’s day instead of yours.
Communication Notifications and Badges
Cakeday supports iOS Communication Notifications. When a person has an avatar, that image can appear directly on the banner and in Notification Center for faster visual recognition.
The app icon badge shows how many people have a birthday today. Badge values update automatically as notifications are scheduled and dates roll over.
Troubleshooting
- No notifications arriving: Check Settings > Cakeday > Notifications and confirm alerts, sounds, and badges are enabled.
- Wrong delivery time: Review the global reminder time. If friend-timezone reminders are enabled, the schedule follows the friend’s local timezone.
- Birthday Alarm cannot be enabled: Confirm the device is running iOS 26 or later and that Alarm access is allowed in system settings.
- Focus mode affects reminders: Add the relevant offsets to Time Sensitive delivery, or enable Birthday Alarm for the most important same-day reminders.
- No avatar on the notification: Make sure the person has a photo and that Communication Notifications are allowed for Cakeday.