FACEBOOK IS PRETTY incessant when reminding you about someone’s birthday, sending you both a update and a push notification to remind you.

It’s something that required little thought. Write “happy birthday [insert name here]” and if you were feeling creative, you could add “hope it’s a great day” or a ‘happy birthday x’ video from YouTube (it’s a safe bet to assume every real name you can think of has a happy birthday video dedicated to it, it’s just a matter of picking one).

Now Facebook seems to be reducing the action even further by turning it into an instant reply, specifically replying ’1′ to a SMS message.

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The feature is part of Facebook’s SMS notifications, which allow users to interact through text messages. This usually applies to whenever you receive a message, a response to a status update, or if you receive a friend request.

It also allows you to post photos and status updates and is generally used by those who have a limited data plan or are usually in an area with patchy 2G/3G coverage.

So if someone only posts “Happy Birthday” the next time your big day arrives, it’s probably best to assume very little thought or effort went into it.

Still, at least cake will make up for the disappointment.

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