# Notifications

Cakeday uses notifications to help you remember birthdays at the right moment. A reminder can be a regular app notification, a Time Sensitive notification, a Birthday Alarm, or a system calendar event, depending on the settings you choose.

Start here if you are new to iPhone notifications: turn on **App Notification** for a friend, set one or more **Reminder Times**, then decide whether that friend should also use **Birthday Alarm**.

  

[Reminder Offsets](/docs/en/reminder-offsets)

    Choose when Cakeday reminds you, from same-day reminders to custom lead
    times.
  

  

[Time Sensitive Notifications](/docs/en/time-sensitive-notifications)

    Let selected birthday reminders appear prominently and break through Focus
    when the system allows it.
  

  

[Birthday Alarm](/docs/en/birthday-alarm)

    Use an alarm-style alert for important same-day birthday reminders on
    supported iPhone models.
  

  

[Friend-Timezone Reminders](/docs/en/friend-timezone-reminders)

    Keep reminders anchored to the other person's local time, even when you
    travel.
  

  

[Communication Notifications](/docs/en/communication-notifications)

    Show friend avatars in notification banners and understand the app badge.
  

  

[System Calendar Sync](/docs/en/system-calendar-sync)

    Add selected birthdays to the Apple Calendar app as managed all-day events.
  

## How Birthday Reminders Work

Each birthday record has its own notification controls. The global settings provide defaults, while each friend can override the alert times, Birthday Alarm choice, alarm sound, friend-timezone behavior, and calendar-sync setting.

When you save a birthday, Cakeday asks for the permissions needed by the features you enabled and schedules the relevant reminders. If a permission is off, Cakeday keeps the record and uses the best available fallback instead of silently dropping your data.

## Notification Permission

iOS asks for notification permission the first time Cakeday needs to send birthday reminders. Cakeday uses alerts, sounds, and badges:

- **Alerts** show the banner or Lock Screen notification.
- **Sounds** play the normal notification sound.
- **Badges** show how many people have a birthday today.

If permission is denied, open **Settings > Cakeday > Notifications** and turn notifications back on. Regular birthday notifications, Time Sensitive delivery, Communication Notifications, and app badges all depend on system notification permission.

## Global Settings

Open **Cakeday > Settings > Notification Settings** to adjust app-wide reminder behavior:

- **Notification Permission:** Shows the current status and lets you enable notifications or jump to system settings.
- **Birthday Alarm:** Opens the Birthday Alarm screen, where you set the alarm time, default alarm sound, countdown, and friend-timezone behavior. On iOS 26.0 or later this also shows Alarm access.
- **Default Reminder Times:** The reminder plan applied automatically when you create a new friend. Out of the box this is **On Birthday at 10:00 AM** and **1 Day Before at 9:00 PM**, both Time Sensitive.

Each reminder time carries its own clock time and Time Sensitive setting, so there is no single global "reminder time" or separate Time Sensitive screen — those live inside each reminder time. See [Reminder Offsets](/docs/en/reminder-offsets) and [Time Sensitive Notifications](/docs/en/time-sensitive-notifications).

Changing the default reminder plan does not rewrite every existing friend. When the default changes, Cakeday asks whether to update friends still using the old default; otherwise they keep their own reminder times.

## Per-Friend Settings

Open a friend, tap **Edit**, then use the **Notifications** section:

- **App Notification:** Turns Cakeday app reminders on or off for that friend. The settings below appear once it is on.
- **Reminder Times:** Set one or more reminder times for this friend, or use **Use Default Times** to match the global plan.
- **Notify at Friend's Timezone:** Use the friend's local time instead of your current time zone, with a **Friend's Timezone** picker.
- **Birthday Alarm:** Give this friend an alarm-style reminder that rings at its own time on the birthday.
- **Alarm Time:** Follow the global alarm time or set a **Custom** time for this friend.
- **Alarm Sound:** Use the default sound or choose a sound just for that friend.

## Scheduling Limits

iOS limits how many local notifications an app can keep scheduled at once. Cakeday prioritizes same-day and 1-day-before birthday reminders, then fills remaining capacity with nearby birthday reminders and periodic reminders.

This usually happens invisibly. If you track many friends with many alert offsets, very far-future reminders may be scheduled closer to the date instead of all at once.

## Troubleshooting

**No notifications arrive**

Check **Settings > Cakeday > Notifications** and confirm alerts, sounds, and badges are enabled. Then open Cakeday and save one birthday again so the schedule can refresh.

**A reminder appears at the wrong time**

Open the friend's **Reminder Times** and check each reminder's clock time. If **Notify at Friend's Timezone** is on, the reminder follows the friend's saved time zone.

**Focus hides a birthday reminder**

Turn on **Time Sensitive Notifications** for the reminder times that should break through Focus, or enable **Birthday Alarm** for an important friend.

**Birthday Alarm cannot be enabled**

Birthday Alarm requires App Notification to be on for that friend. On iOS 26.0 or later, Alarm access also needs to be allowed in system settings.