The Wishlist review

It’s the holiday season (meaning Thanksgiving hasn’t even hit yet) and already you’re feeling the gift-buying pressure. The perfect gift can’t be too cheap, but it can’t break you wallet, either… Why can’t your friends just tell you what they want?? So much pressure would be relieved! So in the spirit of giving and social networking, Josh Lehman has created The Wishlist, an app designed to make the gift-giving process a little easier on your shoulders.

The idea behind The Wishlist isn’t all that complicated: after creating a free account, start adding all the things your greedy little heart desires. Other than the name of the object, there are optional entries for its description and a link. After you successfully create a Wish entry, you can add a photo or mark it as a Favorite. Tapping on the item also gives you the option to share it on through Facebook or email (what about Twitter?), mark it as a specific item, or check it off once you’ve received the item. The great thing is, as you’re busy setting up your Wishlist, your friends can be, as well–and then all those Wishlists can be shared! You didn’t think signing up for an account was random, right?

The app works with http://www.MakeAWishlist.net to keep track of everyone’s Wishlist, and you can make a group within the app to exchange them. Use the search feature under the Friends tab to find people you know (unless you’re feeling particularly generous this year). One powerful button when viewing someone else’s Wishlist is the Take This Item button, in which you can reserve somebody else’s Wish all for yourself, ensuring that there be no double gifts. Best of all, the creator of the Wish won’t be able to see who has signed up to be their Santa; feel free to add a comment, though. And with the latest update, The Wishlist even features a Reminders tab, so you can keep track of whose gift you still have to buy and/or wrap.

The Wishlist has basically taken all the frustrating second-guessing out of the holiday season, so you can relax and be bombarded by other seasonal worries. The interface is slick and intuitive, so there should be no problems figuring out what to do. The only problem I had with using the app was that the photos just wouldn’t stick; a lot of the times, they’d be gone after I uploaded one and tapped out of the item view. But the fact that The Wishlist incorporates a social networking aspect is a little bit of genius and increases efficiency by about a ton. Unfortunately, this is only true if all your friends use this app or the website (so there’s no excuse, even if you don’t have an Apple device). In fact, since using the website is free, I’m not really sure why you would pay $2.99 to download the app, unless you really need to be holding everybody’s Wishlist in your hands at all times. But if you crave efficiency and are fully in support of capitalism, then this app is definitely for you. Also, this review is obviously Christmas themed, but can be used for any occasion that warrants mass gift-giving…and you know you can reuse it again next year.

AppSafari Rating: 4/5

AppSafari review of The Wishlist was written by Julie Guan on November 25th, 2010 and categorized under App Store, Events, Productivity, Shopping, Social. Page viewed 5931 times, 1 so far today. Need help on using these apps? Please read the Help Page.