New in iOS 27 is a birthday reminder that means if you are on a call with someone, your iPhone will tell you if it's their special day with fireworks! The gift is still on you, though.
There may not be a smaller addition to iOS 27, but the Phone app's birthday reminder is a really nice touch. In the current betas, if you call someone, the Phone app checks the contact card you've got for them.
It does exactly the same if they call you, and it always has, as that's how it displays their name and probably a contact photo. But now it does one more thing.
If that contact card has their birthday, and if that's today, you'll get an unmissable notification about it whether you're calling them or they're calling you. Either way, unless you're really fast at putting the phone to your ear, you will see a birthday banner right there on your iPhone screen.
It's even animated, so that as the banner shows you that today is their birthday, it also has animated fireworks. You can't miss the banner and you can't miss the fireworks.
But that animation of fireworks can mean that you miss a detail. Apple's constant emphasis on privacy means that it won't even tell you a birthday without making sure you know how it knows.
Specifically, in the banner itself there will be a tiny note saying "Birthday - Found in Contacts." If you tap on that banner, you are taken through to the full Contacts card where, presumably, you can verify that the date is right.
Sweating the details
You can't really call this Apple Intelligence when it's just looking up the contact card of whoever you're talking to. But it is an example of the same thinking that makes Apple Intelligence useful.
That's because this is another case of Apple using the information you have on your device, and surfacing it to you when you need it. No passing your data to third-party firms, just making what you already have be more useful.
True, you could argue that you actually need a birthday reminder a little ahead of the day, in order to buy that gift. And if they're sitting there waiting for you to phone them on their birthday, you won't get this alert and now you're dead to them.
But still, it's a thoughtful addition and just another example of Apple thinking about people's use of iPhones rather than of the technological possibilities.
Thank you to AppleInsider reader Brae for reminding us about this!
