Skip to main content

Facebook wants you to send birthday greetings in 15-second videos

Video calling
Bland and undeniably brief, those simple “HBD” messages from Facebook friends do a poor job of filling you with the kind of joy and happiness usually associated with such an occasion.

Hoping to infuse a little more charm and cheer into the special day, the social networking giant has just introduced a “birthday video cam” for its mobile app so you can knock together a snappy message for your buddy to wish them all the best.

facebook birthday video

Currently for iOS users but coming to Android soon, the feature lets you quickly record a 15-second birthday greeting that you can jazz up with an overlay before posting it on your friend’s wall.

Facebook’s birthday-alert feature is one of the platform’s most-used offerings, so it’s kind of surprising the company hasn’t rolled out something like this sooner, even more so when you consider how video has become a central part of the company’s expansion efforts over the last 18 months.

“We wanted to find a new way for close friends to post something fun and as quickly as possible,” Facebook’s Henry Soong said of the new feature, adding, “Having [friends] post ‘HBD’ on my wall is awesome, but what’s better than to actually see someone wishing you ‘Happy Birthday?'”

It’s certainly a lot more personal, and we imagine the new feature will be a hit with Facebook users – both senders and recipients.

Trevor Mogg
Contributing Editor
Not so many moons ago, Trevor moved from one tea-loving island nation that drives on the left (Britain) to another (Japan)…
What is TikTok? The 15-second video platform explained
TikTok

It's time for some brutal honesty. If you're still asking your friends, "What is TikTok?" you've either been living under a rock for the past year or you're outside the target age range. With stars including young and upcoming stars, one-hit wonders, and even (for some reason) the Papa John's guy, TikTok is the latest app sensation sweeping the nation. Here's everything you need to know about TikTok.
What is TikTok?
In short, TikTok is a free app for iOS and Android that specializes in 15-second, musically-oriented videos. While the app was previously known as Musical.ly and initially found its fame through videos featuring lip-syncing to good tunes, it has become so much more.

TikTok videos can feature musical genres such as hip-hop, electronic dance music (EDM), pop, rock, rap, and country in video categories like dance, comedy, food, sports, DIY, animals -- pretty much anything. Just to keep it weird, some videos have no music at all.

Read more
You can now video call your Tinder matches within the app
Tinder

In the age of online dating during quarantine, Tinder is now officially getting into the face chat game with one-on-one video calls. 

The video call feature was announced in May as an effort by Tinder to keep people within the app when they want to video chat with a potential date. Face-to-face video is now available to try, but only to members in Virginia, Illinois, Georgia, and Colorado for now. The feature will expand to members in other states after Tinder evaluates the initial testing of video calls. 

Read more
WhatsApp will soon let you send money with Facebook Pay
whatsapp facebook pay brazil rollout

WhatsApp could soon be a platform for sending money as well as messages.

On Monday, WhatsApp began rolling out payments in Brazil, the first country in what is expected to be a wider roll-out of the feature.

Read more