Snapchat update adds new birthday filters that will only appear once a year

Encouraging people to add their birthday also gives Snapchat access to valuable data

Two men were shown 'humiliating' the woman who attempted to fight back in the social media video (Getty Images)

Snapchat is rolling out special features that will only be available one day a year: people’s birthdays.

The app has added new filters and emoji that will show on people’s birthdays, if they hand over that information.

The app will give people new lenses: one that shows up on your own birthday, and a shot of confetti that shows when snaps are sent to people on their birthdays.

The app will also add a cake emoji next to people’s usernames. That means that people will be able to know when to wish them a happy birthday, as well as knowing when the “birthday snap” filter will appear.

The new feature arrived in an update that was pushed out today.

The feature needs to be manually enabled by heading to Settings and choosing the Birthday option. (Since the update only appears to bring the birthday features, if those features aren’t enabled then nothing will have changed.)

Enabling the feature also helps Snapchat, since a person’s birthday is valuable data that can be sold on again to advertisers. Twitter took advantage of the same thing last year when it added special animations that come up on a person’s birthday, and a field showing it on people’s profiles — which also worked as a way of encouraging people to make their personal information public.