Birthday Buddy

FAQ

Here are the answers to common questions some have regarding Birthday Buddy.

What is Birthday Buddy:
Birthday Buddy is an automation tool which allows you to send birthday wishes to your friends. Create a Schedule that will check daily if you have any friends with birthdays, and if so, it will wish your friends a happy birthday using one of your custom-created birthday wishes!

Where does Birthday Buddy send wishes to:
Currently, Birthday Buddy supports wishing happy birthday to your Facebook friends, LinkedIn Connections, and Email contacts. Facebook and LinkedIn are not associated with Birthday Buddy. Messages are posted to your friend's wall on Facebook, and via direct-message on LinkedIn

Is it only available as a paid service:
While there is a free version (the Chrome Extension), it lacks many updates, automation tools, and features that the Schedule version contains. The Chrome Extension only works with the old version of Facebook (pre-2020). You may revert your Facebook to use this classic version.
The Subscription version allows you to create fully-automated schedules so that you do not have to log in each day to send your wishes. You can instead "Set it and forget it."
The free version of Birthday Buddy allows you to create up to three birthday messages.
The subscription version allows you to create up to ten messages.
All of the questions that follow relate to the fully-automated, subscription version of Birthday Buddy.

How can I set up fully-automated, daily birthday wishes:
Once you have registered an account on BdayBud.com and subscribed to either the plans (Monthly or Yearly), you will be able to create a Schedule. This may be done on the "Automation" section of the website once you are logged in.
Once you have a "validated" schedule, Birthday Buddy will send your birthday wishes out at the time you set for the schedule (takes a couple minutes after the time you scheduled).

What messages does Birthday Buddy send?:
Birthday Buddy will only send messages that you create!
At this time you have the ability to create ten custom birthday messages for subscribed users. Free users may create up to three custom birthday messages.
Birthday Buddy will always select one of your messages at random each time the Schedule finds that it is your friend's birthday each day.

How many messages can I create:
At this time you may create ten birthday messages if you are a subscribed user. Free users may create three custom birthday messages.

What can a message consist of:
A message may contain the mixture of text (birthday message), a picture (you may upload a custom picture that is not a .GIF), and emojis.
You may use BdayBud Markdown to make dynamic changes to your message such as:
[NAME] will be replaced with your friend's first name in the message
[FULL_NAME] will be replaced with your friend's full name in the message.
You must comply with the Terms of Service that BdayBud.com has established, as well as the service's (to which your messages will be sent to) Terms of Service.

Can I skip certain birthdays from being automated:
Once logged in to BdayBud.com, you may navigate to the Do-Not-Wish List and add the full names of those whom you do not want Birthday Buddy to automatically send wishes to via the fully-automated Schedule.

I created a schedule but it is not sending automated wishes:
In order for your schedule to send wishes, it must be in a "validated" state. You may check the status of your schedule by logging in to BdayBud.com, navigating to the "Automation" part of the site, and clicking on the email address you used to generate the schedule. If the status says anything other than "validated" then you do not have a "validated" schedule. You should proceed by clicking on "Delete."
When creating a Schedule, it is important to follow the directions and be prepared to promptly act upon the directions.
If you have changed the password you use for the service you set up a schedule for, you will need to recreate the schedule.
To successfully validate your Facebook Schedule, you will need to enable 2-factor authentication via a third-party application (e.g. Google Authenticator, LastPass, 1Password, etc). 2-factor authenticaiton via a third-party application is a security feature used to ensure you are the owner of the account and has the additional benefit of better protecting your account from unauthorized use. Directions from Facebook on how to enable 2-factor authentication via third-party application: https://www.facebook.com/help/358336074294704

Is there a video tutorial on how to successfully validate my Facebook Schedule:
Facebook Schedule Video Tutorial