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On iPhone and Android

A birthday reminder app that opens to your notes about them.

Kinu reminds you up to a month ahead, then opens on the page you keep about them, so a note you wrote in March is right there.

Start on your phone. The reminders come from there.

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Free for your first 10 people.

Amelia Grant's page in Kinu on an iPhone, with a reminder that her birthday is in 7 days and two notes beside it: she wanted the blue kettle, and her interview went well
The year
optional
Your contacts
you tick the ones you want
Your dates
on your device first

Add them once.
The date comes back every year.

Kinu is a birthday reminder app that brings birthdays in from your phone's contacts and reminds you anywhere from a day to a month ahead, at the hour you pick. Each reminder opens on that person's page in Kinu, so the message you send sounds like you know them.

  1. Start with a name.

    Type a name and a date, or open your contacts and tick the people you want. Their birthdays come across with them, and anything you wrote yourself stays as you wrote it.

  2. Allow notifications once.

    Kinu takes it from there. Each reminder arrives as far ahead as you chose for that date, and outside your quiet hours. One setup, then years of it.

  3. Open the reminder.

    It opens on their page. Whatever you've written about them is right there, while there's still time to use it.

Tell me ahead

Kinu

Amelia Grant's Birthday

In 7 days. A good time to plan something.

Kinu

Amelia Grant's Birthday

Today is a special day

The reminder is the easy part.
The rest is knowing what to say.

Every birthday in Kinu is filed under the person it belongs to, so when the reminder comes, the things worth mentioning are already written down.

  • The thing she kept talking about.

    Three months ago you wrote down the blue kettle, and it's still sitting under her name the week her birthday comes round.

  • The last thing you talked about.

    Her interview went better than she expected, two weeks back, so that's the question you open with instead of the weather.

  • The birthday before the baby.

    Her first child is due before her next birthday, so this one is the last with the house still quiet, and your message can say so.

Amelia Grant's page in Kinu: her wedding anniversary, her birthday on 11 January, a baby on the way and a memory of backyard sleepovers

Happy birthday, Amelia. Love you

Check your doorstep. Yes, it's the blue one. The baby's about to keep you up later than the backyard sleepovers ever did, so the tea might as well be good.

Ten people free.
Everything you write stays yours.

Kinu is free for your first 10 people, on your phone or in a browser. Kinu Plus is $69.99 a year or $6.99 a month for unlimited people and encrypted sync.

It isn't a trial, so there's no clock running.

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Private by default, encrypted if you sync.

Six ways to get a birthday reminder.
One of them is ours.

This table compares Kinu with five other apps for birthdays, from Google Calendar to apps built for nothing else, on when each one reminds you and how far ahead you can choose.

  • Birthday Calendar and Reminder

    When it reminds you
    “Set the days before the birthday you want to be reminded of”
    How far ahead you choose
    Yes
    Where it runs
    iPhone, Android, Mac, Windows

  • birthdays.app

    When it reminds you
    Day of, on Basic. Early reminders on Premium
    How far ahead you choose
    Only on the paid tier
    Where it runs
    Text message, web

  • Cake

    When it reminds you
    “Set alerts for 3 days before, 1 week out, and/or day-of”
    How far ahead you choose
    Yes
    Where it runs
    iPhone

  • Google Calendar

    When it reminds you
    Whatever you set
    How far ahead you choose
    Yes
    Where it runs
    Everywhere

  • hip

    When it reminds you
    “control everything down to the day, time, and frequency”
    How far ahead you choose
    Yes
    Where it runs
    iPhone

  • Kinu

    When it reminds you
    At the hour you set, outside your quiet hours.
    How far ahead you choose
    1 day, 3 days, 1 week, 2 weeks or 1 month ahead, then again on the day.
    Where it runs
    iPhone, Android and any browser. Reminders come from the phone.

Checked 12 September 2026 against each app's own page.

The table stops at the reminder. Kinu keeps going: tap it and Amelia's page opens, with the blue kettle and the interview waiting where you wrote them.

  • Google Calendar is free, runs everywhere, and you probably use it already. If the date is enough, stay with it. If you want to open the reminder knowing what to say, use Kinu.

Bring your birthdays with you.
Start from your contacts.

Years of birthdays are probably already in your phone. Kinu imports them from your contacts: choose the people you want, and each one arrives with their birthday, year included when the contact has one.

If your birthdays live in your contacts, there's nothing to export and nothing to type twice. Start with the ten you'd drop anything for.

Kinu's Add from Contacts screen on an iPhone, filtered to contacts with a birthday, with three people ticked
FAQ

What you'd want to know first.
Answered before you download.

If something you want to know isn't covered here, write to us and we'll reply.

Contact us

Yes. Your first 10 people are free on iPhone, Android and in the browser, with every core feature. Kinu Plus is $69.99 a year or $6.99 a month and adds unlimited people and encrypted sync across your devices.

You choose, for each date. It can be the day itself, or 1 day, 3 days, 1 week, 2 weeks or 1 month ahead with a second reminder on the day. It arrives at the hour you pick and stays out of your quiet hours. A birthday that needs a present can reach you a week out. One that needs a message can reach you with your coffee.

Yes. Month and day are enough, and the reminder comes back every year. Add the year and Kinu tells you how old they're turning.

Yes, on iPhone and Android. Nothing comes across until you tick it. Choose the people you want and Kinu brings each birthday with them, year included when it's there, and leaves any birthday you wrote yourself exactly as you wrote it. The free plan holds ten people, so start with the ones closest to you.

Yes. Add people and read their pages in any browser. Reminders come from the phone, and Kinu Plus keeps the same people on both.

It's built around people rather than dates. You see what's coming in the next seven days and how far off each one is, and every date sits with what you've written about that person.

Yes, any number of them, with any title you like. An anniversary, the day you met, a sobriety milestone, a child's birthday filed under their parent. Each one comes back every year.

They live on your device. Turn on the free encrypted backup or Kinu Plus sync and they are encrypted on your device before they leave it. We do not access your relationship content as part of running Kinu, and your private notes stay out of everything: no processing, no analytics, no exceptions.

No. Kinu isn't a social network and doesn't connect to one. The only birthdays in it are the ones you add or bring over from your own contacts, and it looks nobody up online.

Nobody forgets a birthday on purpose.
Remembering just needs to be simpler.

★★★★★App Store
It's a great app to remember important events in your friend's lives - birthdays (their children's birthdays), anniversaries... Simple to use.

Reply from Kinu

Thank you, this made my day. Kids' birthdays are the ones that always slip, so I'm really glad Kinu helps with those. A calmer home screen is coming in the next update.

Artistb11

App Store review · 6 August 2026

Read it on the App Store
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