FB, Snapchat Encourage Fancier B’Day Wishing

Birthday wishing just got more exciting on social media platforms like Facebook & Snapchat.

The pioneer of the space, Facebook, introduced a Happy Birthday video tool that allows its users to record a 15-second birthday greeting video that can be jazzed up with an overlay before posting it on the friend’s wall. Facebook has always notified the users about their friends’ birthday, but it also realized a plain brief happy birthday message is not going to make them feel exceptional. Infusing more charm into the special day, the social networking giant has introduced ‘Birthday Videocam’ on its mobile app. This feature is currently active on iOS and will be introduced on Android soon.

“We wanted to find a new way for close friends to post something fun and as quickly as possible,” said Henry Soong, Product Manager, Facebook about 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?’”

Snapchat, a relatively younger player on the scene, has put out its own special way to celebrate birthdays. People can enable the ‘Birthday Party’ feature in the settings tab on their app. They will have access to two birthday-themed lenses, one for their own birthday and one for their friends’ birthdays. On their own birthday they can use the lens to decorate photos and videos they send to their friends via Snapchat, or post in their Story. And on their friends’ birthdays, a cake icon with a suggestion to ‘Double tap to Birthday Snap’ will appear next to their name in the user’s app, from which they can activate that special lens to send a wish. The new feature is available on both iOS and Android.

Celebrating birthday on social media is surely no simple affair.

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