# Reminder Offsets

Reminder offsets decide how far before a birthday Cakeday should remind you, and at what time of day. In Cakeday each friend has a **reminder plan**: an ordered list of **reminder times**, where every entry is either on the birthday itself or a set number of days, weeks, or months before it.

If you are setting up reminders for the first time, the defaults are a good starting point: **On Birthday at 10:00 AM** and **1 Day Before at 9:00 PM**. That gives you one reminder on the actual birthday and one the evening before, with enough time to prepare a message or gift.

## Where to Set Reminder Times

There are two places to adjust reminder times:

- **Settings > Notification Settings > Default Reminder Times:** The plan used automatically when you add a new friend. You cannot delete the last reminder time here, so a new friend always starts with at least one.
- **Friend Detail > Edit > Notifications > Reminder Times:** The plan for one specific friend. This row appears once **App Notification** is on for that friend.

Changing the default plan does not rewrite friends you already saved. When the default changes, Cakeday asks with a **Default Reminder Times Changed** prompt whether to update friends that still use the old default; choose **Review** to update them or **Not Now** to leave them. A friend that differs from the default also shows a **Use Default Times** button so you can snap back at any time.

## Anatomy of a Reminder Time

Each reminder time is built in its own editor sheet:

- **Timing:** Choose **On Birthday** or **Before Birthday**.
- **Lead time (Before Birthday only):** Pick a number and a unit. Units are **Days** (up to 99), **Weeks** (up to 12), or **Months** (up to 3). The longest lead time is **99 days** before the birthday.
- **Reminder Time:** The clock time of day the reminder fires, set to the minute.
- **Time Sensitive Notifications:** A per-reminder toggle that lets that reminder break through Focus and appear prominently. See [Time Sensitive Notifications](/docs/en/time-sensitive-notifications).

Lead time is measured in whole days (entered as days, weeks, or months) plus a clock time. There is no "minutes before" or "hours before" option — instead you set how many days before, and separately the exact time of day the reminder should fire.

## Editing the Plan

In either editor you can:

- Tap **Add Reminder Time** to add a new entry.
- Tap an existing reminder time to edit its timing, lead time, clock time, or Time Sensitive setting.
- Swipe a row to **Delete** it, or use **Delete Reminder Time** inside the editor.

You can keep several reminder times for the same friend. For example, an important friend can have **2 Weeks Before**, **1 Day Before**, and **On Birthday** all scheduled at once.

## On the Birthday

The **On Birthday** reminder is the same-day alert:

- It can be marked as Time Sensitive.
- It contributes to the app badge when the birthday is today.

[Birthday Alarm](/docs/en/birthday-alarm) is independent of the reminder plan. It rings at its own alarm time on the birthday whether or not you keep an On Birthday reminder, so removing On Birthday no longer turns the alarm off.

## Interaction With Other Reminder Features

  

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

    Mark individual reminder times as Time Sensitive so they can appear
    prominently when the system allows it.
  

  

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

    Give important friends an alarm-style reminder that rings at its own time on
    the birthday.
  

  

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

    Keep reminder times anchored to the friend's local birthday date and time.
  

## Scheduling Limits

iOS limits how many local notifications an app can keep scheduled. Cakeday protects the most important birthday reminders first, especially same-day and 1-day-before reminders, then schedules farther reminders as capacity allows.

If you track many friends and keep many reminder times for each one, a far-future reminder may be scheduled closer to the birthday instead of immediately.

## Tips

- Use fewer reminder times for casual acquaintances and more for close friends.
- Keep an **On Birthday** reminder if you want a badge count on the actual day.
- Use a **1 Month Before** reminder for gifts, reservations, or travel planning.
- Set the clock time to match your routine — for example an evening reminder the day before, and a morning reminder on the day.