samfeldman

Just SMS for now (and Telegram outside the US / Canada)

I find the text alerts to be simpler than competing in an email inbox

Lol, aiming for a simple and intuitive way to explain the app. The app is simple, so is the website.

The app collects minimal data for each user. Google Calendar access is read-only and deleted after import or within 30 days (we keep only the birthdays you choose). Data is encrypted at rest. We don’t sell user data, and the app is supported by the yearly subscription fee - https://birthdays.app/privacy

The app sends WhatsApp texts through Twilio's API. It's not exactly the same pricing model, but so far is approximately the same as SMS costs

Thanks! And yeah it's nice to remember birthdays

Love to hear that! Texting apps are interesting ui

That would work, you could do it manually or sync with the app. Right now just supports Google Calendar sync, but would make sense to allow for any .ics file. Hoping to add that

Adding birthdays to a calendar would save you the $9/yr and may be preferable for some users.

I just prefer text reminders—they are hard to miss. For me it's the simplest, least intrusive way to remember. And I like being able to add new friends via text as well.

I'd rather wake up to a text that says "Happy birthday to ____!" than check my calendar to see a friend's birthday next to random events.

That's great to hear, I really appreciate it! Love the attitude of simply wanting the thing to exist.

Feel free to reach out on here or X (@sam_feldman_) if any questions or ideas ever come up.

Thank you, I really appreciate it!

And I agree, I don't want the app to fall victim to a "big feature set" that ultimately makes it too complex.

My mindset is to make it the simplest app for importing and remembering birthdays. Some feature (iPhone contacts sync, easier FB birthday importing, etc) feel like they truly will improve the user experience, while others (general reminders, random social features) don't excite me too much.

It can be tempting to put my head down and build new features. At this point with the app, you're right that marketing could be fruitful—definitely want to lean more into this. My current mindset is that celebrating strangers' birthdays (and making videos from it) will be enough. Creating a brand around generosity, connection, and celebrating birthdays.

Recently recored a birthday giveaway video at a farmers market in Boone, NC and met the sweetest lady whose birthday it was. Could feel that it made a positive impact, and has me excited to make more of these (and to edit the videos well so it makes people feel something)

Excited to keep building (product and marketing), and appreciate your input :)

Thanks! It depends on the week, maybe averages 1 hour per week or so.

Every so often, there's a bug or random issue with some account (ex: someone texted "stop" and didn't know how to re-subscribe), but for the most part it's run smoothly.

Love hearing user input, and usually try to build any requested features over time.

Thank you! Most of the users so far have come from X ads (like this, for example - https://x.com/sam_feldman_/status/1930488932132671529)

Some have also come from Google ads and organic search.

I'm hoping to expand more into wholesome / viral birthday videos where we give strangers gifts on their birthdays. Kind of like this one (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gSOt2_dIiPI).

Thank you!

There's currently no simple way to import via Facebook, but a workaround should let you do it.

(as a disclaimer, you'll need an unrelated Chrome extension that I didn't build. Hope I can built an official birthdays.app version at some point)

Essentially, you can: 1. Export your Facebook friends to a .ics file using the extension called "Birthday Calendar Exporter for Facebook" from https://chromewebstore.google.com

2. Upload your friends and their birthdays to your Google Calendar

3. Go to https://birthdays.app, login via text code, and click "import via Google Calendar"

Let me know if any thoughts or questions come up :)

Yeah nicely said, it's currently in a middle area between a big app vs an app that's not used at all.

So far most of the birthdays.app users have come from X ads (ex: https://x.com/sam_feldman_/status/1930488932132671529) and some from Google Ads, organic search, etc.

I'm now starting to think in terms of high-leverage videos that celebrate strangers on their birthdays (that are more likely to spread based on merit / wholesomeness rather than ad budget alone). Here's an example of one of these videos (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gSOt2_dIiPI)—hoping to keep iterating and testing out various ideas (with the same core idea of celebrating strangers on their birthdays).

Thanks for your comment, and feel free to let me know if you have any ideas or follow up questions :)

What is your monetization strategy for this? (being open source)