How to automate birthday messages in Slack
Set up Billy once and every birthday and work anniversary in your Slack workspace is celebrated automatically, with no spreadsheet of dates to maintain.
SlackUpdated Oct 5, 20261 min readTo automate birthday and work anniversary messages in Slack, install Billy, the BuddiesHR birthday bot: it collects everyone's dates for you and posts the celebrations in the channel of your choice. Slack can't do this on its own, and a spreadsheet of dates never stays up to date.
Step 1: Install Billy#
Follow Install Billy in Slack. It takes about 30 seconds. Using Microsoft Teams? See Install Billy in Microsoft Teams.
Step 2: Answer the four setup questions#
Right after installing, a setup page asks:
- Channel: where Billy posts the celebrations.
- Work anniversaries: turn them on to celebrate them too.
- Scope: everyone in the workspace, or only the channel's members.
- Date collection: choose
Automatic.
Full details: set up Billy after installing it.
Step 3: Let Billy collect the dates#
With automatic collection, Billy messages your teammates to ask for their dates, and contacts newcomers when they join, so you never have to chase anyone.
You can also import an Excel file or enter dates yourself: see collect birthdays and work anniversary dates.
Step 4: Fine-tune the celebrations (optional)#
- Choose the announcement time, timezone, language and style: update a channel's settings.
- Move celebrations that fall on a weekend or public holiday to the Friday before or the Monday after: manage public holidays.
- Personalize the message or the GIF: customize celebration messages and GIFs.
That's it. From now on, every birthday and work anniversary is celebrated automatically.