Many people have an entry in their calendar to call their parents and grandparents. It’s also about making time for people you care about instead of work and other things taking over.
I use my app for birthdays like that. There’s a button that opens the conversation in whatever app I use for this person (WhatsApp, Telegram, Email, …).
It’s definitely good to maintain your own contact data somewhere. People delete FB accounts and FB changes all the time. They used to have APIs for birthdays, but they’re gone. So there’s no control unless you own the data.
I made a personal CRM iOS app for myself and others. It supports these features besides special dates, which is on my road map. It’s basically a privacy and offline friendly UI around a SQLite db.
That’s some of the reasons why I made https://nomorefacebook.xyz/ with privacy-friendly alternatives. I hope the list gets bigger as new things emerge.
I wonder if, I'm next after making https://nomorefacebook.xyz but that's why it's good to export contacts and other data now and not when it's too late. And don't use it as login provider.
I do the same, but not with fixed schedules in a calendar, but slightly randomized reminders with my iOS app.
Calendar events are simple, but I like that I can snooze in my app or reach out spontaneously. It's more flexible. But before I lose touch I will get that reminder.
https://amicu.app