How to Send a Broadcast on a Client's Birthday
Sending an automatic message on each contact's birthday isn't natively supported in Chatfuel yet — it's on our roadmap and we're actively working on it.
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Overview
Sending an automatic message on each contact's birthday isn't natively supported in Chatfuel yet — it's on our roadmap and we're actively working on it. Until it ships, you can approximate the flow with a manual workaround: store each contact's birthday as a custom attribute, then send a broadcast to the contacts whose birthday matches today's date.
Current Status
- Not available natively — there's no built-in trigger that fires a message automatically on a contact's birthday.
- In development — a birthday-based audience and scheduling option is planned. Once released, you'll be able to configure it directly inside the Broadcasts tab without manual work.
Workaround Until It Ships
1. Capture the birthday
Store each contact's birthday as a custom attribute (for example birthday in MM-DD format). You can collect it through the conversation flow — ask the contact for their birthday and save the answer to the attribute.
2. Build a birthday audience
Each day, filter your contacts by the birthday attribute to find everyone whose birthday matches today's date. This becomes the audience for your broadcast.
3. Send the broadcast
Create a re-engage / broadcast with a friendly birthday WhatsApp template and send it to the audience from step 2. Because this goes out as a template message, it will reach contacts even after the 24-hour messaging window has closed — and Meta will charge per message sent.
4. Repeat daily
Since there's no automatic scheduler for birthdays yet, this filter-and-send step needs to be done each day. Some teams batch it weekly instead (for example, greet everyone with a birthday in the next 7 days), which is less precise but easier to operate.
Good to Know
- Template must be pre-approved — the birthday message goes out as a WhatsApp template, so Meta has to approve it before you can send. Get it approved once and reuse it every day.
- Coming soon — once native birthday broadcasts are released, you'll be able to migrate the same template and attribute into the automated flow without recreating anything.
- Delivery issues? — check Problems with sending messages on WhatsApp if your birthday messages aren't arriving.