The Shortcuts app already knows your contacts’ birthdays if you’ve filled them in, but it won’t tell you the countdown without a little wiring. Birthday calculation does that math for you. Tell it your birthday once, then ask how long until yours, a partner’s, or a friend’s comes around.
How it works
You set the shortcut up with your own birthday the first time, something like December 26 1992. After that, you pick whose date you want from a list, and it returns the number of days left until that birthday rolls around again. For a friend, it goes one step further and tells you the age they’ll be turning. It can also check whether anyone has a birthday today and prompt you to send a greeting, so the date doesn’t slip past unnoticed.
There’s nothing to log in to and no account behind it. The whole thing runs on the dates you give it.
Getting it set up
- Tap Add Shortcut on this page to open it in the Shortcuts app.
- Approve the import when prompted.
- Run it once and enter your own birthday when it asks, so the personal countdown has something to work from.
Running the shortcut
Launch it from the Shortcuts app or a Home Screen icon and you get a short list to choose from: your birthday, or a friend’s. Pick yours and it counts the days until your next one. Choose a friend’s and you get the countdown plus the age they’re about to reach. Asking Siri to run it works too, which is handy when your hands are busy and you just want a quick number out loud.
The “today” check is the part worth keeping close. Run it in the morning and it flags anyone whose birthday lands on the current date, then offers to fire off a greeting before the day gets away from you.
Quick answers
Do I have to re-enter my birthday every time?
No, you set it once during the first run and the shortcut holds onto it. You only revisit that step if you want to change the stored date later.
Can it track more than just my own birthday?
That’s the point of the list. Alongside your own date it handles a partner’s or a friend’s, giving you both the countdown and the age they’ll turn for the people you add.
Will it remind me on its own, or do I have to open it?
It checks for today’s birthdays when you run it, so opening it is the trigger. If you want a hands-off nudge, pair it with a daily Personal Automation in the Shortcuts app to run it each morning.
