The Facebook Blog

Don't you hate being late for friends' birthdays? Well, today, we're helping to put an end to "belated" birthdays on Facebook. Now, on your friend's profiles, you'll be able to schedule the delivery of a gift up to seven days in advance of a birthday.

There are two ways to do this:

1. When your friends have upcoming birthdays, you'll now receive a reminder when you visit their profiles. Here's how: under the Profile Publisher—which allows you to post content directly onto someone's Wall—you'll see a new option in the "Give Gift" tab to hide your gift until it becomes your friend's birthday.



2. If you subscribe to e-mail birthday reminders, you'll see a link in the email that will take you directly to your friend's profile to give your gift in advance.

Your friends will be able to see that you are giving a birthday gift, but the recipients will only be able to see the gift when the clock strikes midnight on their birthday.



If you don't see these new features just yet, don't worry. We're starting to roll them out today, and they will be available to everyone in the coming weeks.


Harry Wang, a Facebook Engineer, is excited about not having to worry about being "late" ever again.