Snapchat has added a new way to remember friends’ birthdays, and share celebration within the app, with a new ‘Birthdays Mini’ reminder tool.
 Snap’s latest Mini – which are essentially micro-versions of full apps, built within Snapchat – provides an overview of friends’ birthdays, and access to special celebratory features, like AR Lenses, to help mark the occasion.

As explained by Snap:

"See a list of upcoming and recent birthdays, as well as birthdays organized by Zodiac Sign. Wish your friends a happy birthday with unique stickers and fun Lenses to commemorate their big day! You can even countdown your own birthday, right down to the second!"

Clearly, Snap users love Zodiac signs and horoscopes. Last November, Snapchat introduced Astrological Profiles, which give its users information about their star sign, what this means for them, and what it means for their relationships.
At the time, we pointed to research which indicated that star signs had been experiencing a resurgence in popularity among younger audiences, with the pandemic prompting renewed interest as, in fact: "people tend to turn to astrology in times of acute stress.".

As such, the inclusion of specific Zodiac information in the new Birthdays Mini makes sense, as the new AR features and other tools to celebrate birthdays will raise interest and engage more users around birthdays inside the app.

Which could provide a bigger opportunity than you might think. A big part of Facebook's usage today is utility-based—users are checking in to find out if there are any birthdays coming up, and staying on top of key news about family and friends within the app. If Snap can substitute that function, and tap into that engagement potential, then that could see more users relying on Snap instead for the same purpose.

In a similar vein, Facebook has also witnessed intense engagement with its Memories and 'On This Day' prompts, as millions of Facebook users visit their personal 'On This Day' page daily. As a matter of fact, back in 2017, Facebook reported that more than 155 million had opted-in to receive the feature's corresponding notifications specifically.

As Snapchat tries to turn the app into a more focused way of close connections, and interacting with friends, adding reminders of birthdays may have similar purpose and contribute to maximizing the community-building effort of the app.
Snap notices that only those who have turned birthday visibility on will appear in the Birthdays Mini, and it also doesn't show you or your friends' birth year or age. So you can remain young enough to be Snapchat-cool if you want to.

It's a relatively small update, but it could give Snap a further usage and engagement boost.

Snap's Birthday Mini is available now in all regions, and can be discovered by looking for the rocket icon in Chat or finding it using the in-app Search bar.