birthday.video

Someone's birthday is tomorrow, and a plain text message feels a little thin. birthday.video makes a short animated birthday card with the person's name on it. You pick a template, type their name, age and a message, and save the result as an MP4 with music or as a GIF that loops in a chat.

The templates are sorted by who the card is for. Family has 34 of them, Friends 32, Milestone ages 24 with a big number up front, and Funny 21. Smaller sets cover kids' parties, pets, a card signed by the whole team at work and belated wishes. There are party invitations too, and two quiet cards for a birthday after someone has died, with no confetti, which is a thoughtful thing to include.

You can change every word on a card. Before you start you pick the shape: 9:16 for a Story, 4:5 for a feed post, square, or 16:9 for a TV.

The picture scenes take your own photos and short clips, played in the order you set. For sound, the site has its own arrangements of Happy Birthday. The tune is in the public domain, and the FAQ says these arrangements were made for the site and are free to use, including in public posts. You can add a song file of your own instead, though the FAQ warns that social networks may mute well-known songs.

A GIF has no sound, so it suits replies and comments. When you export one, the sheet estimates the file size first. There's also a full-screen countdown with the person's name that bursts into confetti at zero, and you can record a spoken message with your microphone.

Asked why it exists, the team behind birthday.video says birthday video apps tend to want an account, add a watermark, charge for the music or upload family photos to a server. This one was made so that everything happens on your own device.

They're direct about the trade-off. It's template-based. You change the words, photos, music and shape, but it isn't a free-form timeline editor, and friends can't add clips to one shared video online.

The privacy page, updated November 9, 2026, says the editor builds the video inside your browser tab and never receives your photos, clips, music or the words you type. Projects are saved in the browser so you can close the tab and finish later, and the projects page lets you delete them. Visits are counted by two cookieless services and by Google Analytics, which sets cookies and can be switched off from any page. Star ratings are stored without a cookie or identifier and deleted within 24 months.

It's free, with no trial, paid upgrade, account or watermark. The policy describes birthday.video as an independent, self-funded project with no investors or advertisers. If there's a birthday coming up and you have a few photos on hand, pick a template and make one.