To stop forgetting birthdays, you need two alerts, not one: the first a few days before, for the present or the call to plan, the second on the day, for the message. You also need to write the date down the moment you learn it. XNeuronal does both: you tell it the date once, it also picks up the birthdays in your phone's calendar, reminds you when you asked it to, and gathers under the birthday what you've said the person loves.

Why we forget, even the people we love

Nobody forgets a birthday because they don't care. We forget because the date isn't written down anywhere, or because the alert comes at the wrong moment.

Social networks played that role for a long time, and many people barely use them now. The phone's contacts have a "birthday" field that almost nobody fills in. When the date is in the calendar, the notification arrives that very morning: enough for a message, too late for a present, and sometimes in the middle of a meeting where you swipe it away unread.

Habits that work

  • Write the date down when you learn it. At the dinner where someone says "my birthday is on the 12th", not "later". Later, you won't remember.
  • Two alerts, not one. A week before for the present or to organise something, on the day for the message. For the closest people, add the day before.
  • Keep track of what they love. Throughout the year, people say what they'd like: a book, a trip they dream of, a recipe they want to try. Noted on the spot, it's a present found in advance.
  • One place. Dates scattered across a calendar, a notebook and messages are a guarantee of missing one.

And when you've missed it?

It happens. The best answer is still a simple one: write as soon as you realise, without hiding behind a complicated excuse. "I'm late, and I'm thinking of you anyway" beats an awkward silence. A call the next day, a card that arrives two days late or a coffee offered for the following week repair things very well. What hurts is rarely the delay, it's the feeling of having been forgotten.

What XNeuronal does

XNeuronal is an app that remembers what you tell it, and a birthday is exactly the kind of thing it knows not to let slip.

  • You say the date once. "Emma's birthday is on the 12th of March." It's remembered, and it comes back every year.
  • Birthdays you've already saved count too. XNeuronal can read your phone's calendar: the birthdays already there, often coming from your contacts, become cards like any other. In the calendar they carry a pink badge with a cake, and the age when the year of birth is known.
  • You choose when to be reminded. "For birthdays, remind me a week before and on the day." The rule applies to every upcoming birthday, and XNeuronal asks whether it should also apply it to the ones already saved. You change it in one sentence whenever you like.
  • The reminder can be read aloud. Handy when the phone is in your pocket and your hands are busy.
  • Under the birthday, what they love. Conversation after conversation, you mention things about people: she's taken up pottery, he dreams of going to Japan. Under a birthday card, XNeuronal gathers what you've said the person loves. It's right there when you're looking for a present.

And if you want to mark the day differently, XNeuronal can compose a birthday song with their name, written from what you know about them.

The day you no longer need to think about it

The real comfort isn't one more alert. It's no longer carrying those dates around in the back of your mind. You say them once, and when the day comes, the app reminds you of the date, and of what will make them happy.

To go further: reminders and calendar, the phone calendar and a memory that remembers for you.