iOS 27 has a fun new animation when you call a contact on their birthday

iOS 27 introduces a whimsical animation in the Phone app that celebrates users' contacts on their birthdays. This adorable feature appears when making a call to an individual whose birthday is saved within the Contacts app. As detailed by Tiino-X83 on X, the animation joins the familiar "Happy Birthday!" notification that appears on the Apple Watch at midnight, accompanied by the same fireworks effect used to mark the start of each new year.

The addition of this birthday-themed animation in iOS 27 is part of a growing trend, as evidenced by Apple's release notes for watchOS 27, which highlights the Smart Stack's new capability to display "birthday reminders for a close contact." This trend of incorporating birthday-related reminders and animations across Apple's devices suggests that birthdays have become an increasingly noteworthy occasion in the Apple ecosystem.