LinkedIn has become one of the most popular professional networking platforms, with over 800 million members worldwide as of 2022. One feature of LinkedIn that some users find annoying is that it automatically notifies your connections that it’s your birthday. If you prefer to keep your birthday private or don’t want LinkedIn broadcasting it to your entire network, here are some tips on how to prevent LinkedIn from automatically announcing your birthday.
Understanding LinkedIn’s Birthday Feature
When you set up your LinkedIn profile, you have the option to include your birthday. If you provide this info, LinkedIn will automatically generate a birthday notification that is shared with your 1st-degree connections on that day.
This notification will appear in your connections’ feeds and says “[Your name] has a birthday today.” It also includes a prompt for them to comment or like the post to wish you a happy birthday.
LinkedIn says they include this feature “to encourage engagement between you and your network.” So it’s meant to help your connections interact with you and strengthen relationships.
Why You May Want to Disable the Birthday Notification
While some people enjoy the birthday wishes they receive through LinkedIn, others find the automatic notification annoying or unnecessary for professional relationships. Here are some common reasons you may want to turn off the birthday notice:
- You want to keep your birthday private
- You don’t think a notification is necessary for professional contacts
- You don’t want the attention or don’t care about birthday wishes from connections
- You find it distracting or cluttering up your notifications
- You don’t like having your age or birthday widely known
Essentially, if you don’t find value in LinkedIn broadcasting your birthday or want it kept private, you can opt-out of this feature.
How to Stop LinkedIn From Automatically Announcing Your Birthday
If you want to prevent LinkedIn from notifying your network about your birthday, here are a few methods you can use:
Remove Your Birthday Entirely
The simplest option is to delete your birthday from your profile altogether. Here’s how:
- Go to your LinkedIn profile
- Click “View profile” to edit your profile
- In the sidebar, click “Contact Info”
- Delete the date listed in the Birthday field and leave it blank
- Click “Save” at the bottom of the sidebar
Once you remove your birthday, LinkedIn will no longer have the info to send a notification to your connections. This is the most definitive way to ensure no automated birthday messages are sent.
Hide Your Birthday
If you don’t necessarily want to permanently delete your birthday but don’t want it visible to your network, you can hide it instead. Here’s how:
- Go to your LinkedIn profile
- Click “View profile” to edit your profile
- In the sidebar, click “Contact Info”
- Uncheck the “Show my full birthday” box
- Click “Save” at the bottom of the sidebar
This will remove the specific birthday date from your profile. However, LinkedIn may still announce when you have a birthday occurring, even if the exact date is hidden.
Turn Off Activity Broadcasts
Another option is to turn off all LinkedIn activity broadcasts, which will prevent any notifications about your birthday from being shared. To do this:
- Click on your profile image in the top right
- Select “Settings & Privacy” from the dropdown menu
- Click “Privacy” on the left side
- Under “How others see your LinkedIn activity,” uncheck “Share job changes, education changes, work anniversaries, birthdays, etc. on your profile”
- Scroll down and click “Save changes”
With activity broadcasts disabled, your birthday will no longer automatically show up in your connections’ feeds. However, this will also prevent notifications about job changes, profile updates, etc. So it’s a more far-reaching option.
Temporarily Hide Your Birthday
You can also choose to temporarily hide your birthday around the time of your special day. Here’s how:
- Go to your profile and click “View profile”
- Click the gear icon to access “Privacy settings”
- Under “Profile viewing options,” click “Customize your public profile”
- Temporarily uncheck the “Show birthday” box
- Be sure to re-enable it after your birthday passes
By temporarily hiding your birthday for a short period, you can prevent the notification from going out on your actual birthday. Just don’t forget to make it visible again afterward.
What Happens if You Remove Your Birthday
If you decide to delete or hide your birthday on LinkedIn using any of the steps above, here’s an overview of what will happen:
- No automatic birthday notification will be shared with your 1st-degree connections
- Your profile will no longer display your birthday or age to any LinkedIn member
- You can still wish connections a happy birthday and see notifications for other’s birthdays
- Some connections may still remember and wish you a happy birthday manually
- Your profile will not indicate it’s your birthday if connections visit it
In summary, removing your birthday information eliminates the LinkedIn-generated birthday notice. Your profile becomes age and birthday-free to your network. You can still participate in sending and receiving birthday wishes with connections, just without your special day being broadcasted.
How to Re-Enable LinkedIn Birthday Notifications
If you change your mind later on, you can re-enable LinkedIn birthday notifications. Here’s how:
- Go back to your profile’s “Contact Info” and re-add your birthday date
- Make sure “Show my full birthday” is checked if you want the specific date displayed
- Go to “Settings & Privacy” and check “Share job changes, education changes, work anniversaries, birthdays, etc. on your profile” under activity broadcasts
- Disable any temporary birthday hiding you may have enabled
Once your birthday is visible again, the notifications will automatically start going out yearly on your special day.
Customizing Birthday Notification Settings
Beyond fully removing or showing your birthday, LinkedIn does give you some customization options:
- Only share month and day, not year – This hides your age while still allowing basic birthday wishes
- Select which groups see your birthday – You can limit it just to connections, coworkers, etc.
- Set a custom privacy level – Choose from acquaintances, connections only, public, etc.
Explore your settings to see if you can find a middle ground that makes you comfortable. You can still allow basic notification without revealing age or date specifics.
Send Annual LinkedIn Birthday Wishes
Even if you disable notifications about your own birthday, you can still send birthday wishes to your connections. Here are some tips for sending annual birthday messages:
- Add your close connections’ birthdays to your calendar so you remember to reach out
- Personalize messages by mentioning shared experiences or inside jokes
- Offer to connect over the phone or meet up in person for a birthday coffee or lunch
- Send a customized LinkedIn message if you can’t do a call or meetup
- Share a celebratory photo from a time you were together if appropriate
- Don’t feel obligated to message every connection – focus on close relationships
With or without LinkedIn notifications, birthdays present a great opportunity to strengthen your relationships and show you care. An annual personalized message can go a long way.
Is Removing Your Birthday Necessary?
Before completely deleting your birthday on LinkedIn, pause to consider if it’s truly necessary for your situation. Here are some pros and cons:
Potential Pros
- Increased privacy if you don’t want your age widely known
- Avoid unwanted attention on your special day
- Prevent clutter in your notifications feed
- Stop an annual task of responding to birthday wishes
- Keep professional network focused on career, not personal life
Potential Cons
- Miss out on interacting with your network and strengthening connections
- Lose chance to hear from contacts you haven’t spoken to in a while
- Appear unfriendly or aloof by not sharing basic personal info like birth date
- Need to remember to wish your close connections happy birthday annually without reminders
- Some contacts may still post about your birthday publicly if they remember the date
Assess your own preferences, priorities and reasons for wanting to remove your birthday. Make sure the pros outweigh any potential cons based on your professional relationships and goals.
Conclusion
LinkedIn’s automated birthday broadcasts are intended to help you engage with your network, but can feel intrusive for some users. If you want to stop LinkedIn telling your connections about your special day, you have options like removing your birthday, hiding your birthday date, and disabling profile activity broadcasts.
Take some time to consider if you really want or need to opt-out of this feature completely. But if you decide it’s right for you, you can easily control whether your birthday is shared on LinkedIn moving forward. Focus on using the platform in the way that best supports your professional networking needs.