The list speaks up. Otherwise it keeps quiet.
A shared shopping list only works if everyone knows what is on it. But an app that buzzes at every item gets switched off within two days — and then it also stops telling you the one thing you wanted to know. This page shows both: what Listification tells you, and how much work went into leaving you alone.
One sentence per notification. The app says nothing else.
Every notification carries the name of the list as its title and usually a single sentence underneath. No marketing, no “we miss you”, no offers — that is a rule, not a setting. The five below are the ones you see day to day; if the app has been closed for a while, the system fetches the changes itself and may then also tell you that somebody has ticked items off, removed them or renamed the list.
The invitation arrived
You sent a link and have no idea whether it worked. This answers exactly that — it goes only to you, as the owner of the list, and once: when the first person accepts.
The heart of it
The reason anybody shares a shopping list in the first place. The names come along, so you do not have to open the app to find out whether it concerns you — because you are standing in the shop already.
An assignment that actually arrives
An item somebody hands you is not an assignment while you know nothing about it. Assigning is a Pro feature — being told about it is not.
Assigning is Pro
You do not have to go out
The most useful moment in the whole thing, and it comes at most once per shop. It names the person who ticked the items off — not the one who wrote the list; in most households those are two different people.
The things you buy on a rhythm
Recurring items put themselves back on the list and tell you in the morning. The only notification here that has nothing to do with sharing — and the only one that works without iCloud.
ProAnd when it keeps quiet
This is the part that took the work. The rules are not buried in a settings screen; they are in the code, and they hold without you having to find them.
Never about you
The app tells you nothing about what you add or tick off yourself — not from your second device either. The comparison is against your iCloud account, not just against this phone.
Never about the list you have open
Anyone looking at it sees the row appear anyway, and a banner about that would be litter in the notification centre. It is still said — briefly, on that very list.
Never about private lists
Only lists you share with somebody speak up — a list that is yours alone cannot change by itself. The one exception is the reminder for recurring items, and that one comes from you.
The first sound is loud, every follow-up is silent
When more items arrive, the same notification is updated silently. Your phone does not buzz twice for one shop.
No badge
Listification never puts a number on the app icon. A shopping list is never “read” — that number would never go away again.
Never ads, never “we miss you”
No offers, no flyers, no win-backs. This channel belongs to your household, not to marketing.
And the one limit we do not keep quiet about
The wake-up call is sent by iCloud to every device on your account, and an app is not allowed to suppress it. If no sentence can be built from it — because the list is open, or muted, or the change was your own — what is left is a toneless line: “New in a shared list”. No sound, no name, no content.
One notification instead of twenty
Anna spends five minutes writing the weekly shop. Without a collector that would be five notifications — exactly the behaviour that makes somebody switch notifications off. Instead the app waits for the typing to stop: every new change resets the clock.
And nobody in a hurry waits for ever: five minutes after the first unreported change the notification goes out regardless, even if the typing is still going. The case that matters most is the one where you are already between the shelves.
Like a group chat having a loud afternoon
Press and hold a list in the overview — or open its settings — and mute it. For a day, a week or for good. The other lists are untouched.
A mute is a date, not a switch. “Muted”, with no end to it, is the setting people forget they set — so the menu names the end, and the list gets a crossed-out bell in the overview. When it runs out, the quiet week is not delivered afterwards: things carry on from now.
And if no notification arrives?
A notification is a bonus signal, never the mechanism. iOS decides for itself when to wake an app in the background, and if a notification does not turn up, nothing may be lost by it. So the list remembers on its own as well.
“3 new” sits beside the list until you look, whether or not a notification ever arrived. It stays there on a muted list too: muted means quiet, not blind.
14 items · shared with Anna 3 new
6 items · shared with Toni 🔕
Three steps, and none of them at first launch
Listification never asks for notification permission when you open it. It asks at the moment the question makes sense: when you share a list or accept an invitation. And if you decline, the question does not come back.
- Share a list — via the share symbol in the list, by link or straight to a person.
- Allow the notifications when iOS asks. That happens when you share, not at launch — the switch in the settings is on from the start.
- Choose what you want to hear: “Somebody joins a list”, “Items are added”, “The shopping is finished”, “An item is assigned to you”. All four start switched on.
If notifications are switched off for Listification in the iOS settings, the section shows no dead switches — just a row that takes you there.
Questions about notifications
Do I need Pro for the notifications?
No. Sharing and notifications are in the free version — both would be worth little if only one side of the share had them. Pro is assigning items; being told that something was assigned to you comes either way.
Why did I not get a notification?
The commonest reason: the change was your own, the list is not shared at all, or you had it open — all three are deliberate. Otherwise check under Settings → “Notifications” that the switch is on and the list is not muted, and check in the iOS settings that Listification is allowed to show notifications at all. Either way, “3 new” sits beside the list as soon as something has arrived.
Does the other person see me ticking items off?
If their app is open or in the background: only once, at the end — “Anna finished the shopping — all 14 items done”, and at most once per shop. If their app has been closed for a while, their phone fetches the changes itself and can then also report that you “checked off 3 items”. A buzz at every carrot does not happen in either case.
Can I mute a single list?
Yes. Press and hold it in the overview, or open its settings: 1 day, 1 week or for ever. The other lists stay loud, and the “3 new” marker still appears.
What language do the notifications arrive in?
The language you set inside the app, not the system one. If you change it, notifications that have not been delivered yet are dropped; the next change speaks up in the new language.
Who sees my lists in all this?
Only the people you explicitly share a list with. The data lives in the list owner's iCloud, not on a server of ours, and the text of the notification is written on your device. Details in the privacy policy.
Coming soon for iPhone
Built by one person in Switzerland, without investors and without analytics. If you like that, Pro is the way to support it — and your lists stay free either way.