User guide

Everything in Genie's Wishlists V1, in the order you'll meet it. The app is a personal planner: your own wishlist plus every gift you're planning for other people, kept on your phone.

Getting started

Install Genie's Wishlists free from Google Play (Android). On first launch a short setup asks for your name, currency and clothing sizes, offers a first wish or two, and lets you set a couple of preferences. Every step can be skipped and finished later from Profile. Nothing here creates an account — there isn't one.

Home

Your dashboard: a greeting, three counters (lists, people, events) that jump to each section, an Upcoming Occasions carousel for the next 30 days with a countdown on each card, and your most recently updated lists. The + button in the bottom bar adds a list, an item or a person from anywhere.

Lists

All your wish lists in one grid. Filter by type (Birthday, Christmas, Wedding, Baby Shower, Other), show or hide archived lists, and sort newest-first or A–Z. Each list can have a cover image, the person it's for, an event date with an optional repeat, a description and a budget. Open a list to manage its items; its menu offers Start new season, Edit, Archive and Delete.

Items & statuses

Add items to a list with a name and, optionally, a description, price and currency, link, photo, priority (None · Nice-to-have · Must-have) and quantity. After saving, “Add another item” keeps the form open for quick bulk entry.

Four statuses: Available → Reserved → Purchased → Received. Purchased and Received both count as “spent”; Received exists because online orders arrive separately from the purchase, and the gap between the two is where duplicate gifts happen. Status is always shown as an icon and a word, never colour alone.
Reserved by: a free-text note on Reserved items so you remember who has claimed what. You maintain it yourself — see Sharing.
Your order: drag items with the handle to arrange them; that “My order” is the default sort. The sort menu also offers price (either way), name, status and priority, and the status chips above the list filter it. Both are just views — the list itself doesn't change.
Hide when sharing: keeps a specific item out of every shared copy (useful for the surprise you're planning inside someone else's list).

Fetch details

Paste a product link into an item and a Fetch details button appears beside it. Tap it and the app asks that shop's page for the product's name, price and photo, then fills in whichever of those you left blank — anything you've already typed is kept.

This is the only feature in the app that uses the internet. It runs only when you tap, sends one request from your phone straight to that site (plus one for the product photo, if the page offers one and your item has none), attaches nothing else, and never contacts us — there is no Genie's server. Like opening the same link in a browser, the shop can see the request and the internet address it came from.

Not every shop cooperates: some serve pages that hold no product details, and a few block requests that don't come from a browser they recognise. When that happens the app says so plainly and explains why; you can turn those explanations off under Preferences → Help → Explain fetch problems, and you can always type the details in.

Budgets & totals

Every list has a totals footer: the list total, what's still to buy, and — if you set one — a budget meter showing spent against the limit. “Spent” means Purchased or Received, counted as price × quantity; unpriced items count nothing. Items in another currency are totalled separately rather than silently converted. A person can carry a budget too, counted across the current (unarchived) lists linked to them.

People

Everyone you gift for, grouped alphabetically. A person can have a nickname, relationship (shown as a chip), date of birth, photo, gift-idea notes, a gifting budget, and any number of important dates. Open a person to see their countdowns and the lists linked to them.

Dates & reminders

Important Dates is one timeline of upcoming birthdays and occasions. Add a date to a person with an optional repeat (weekly, monthly, annually). Wish-list event dates can appear on the same timeline — toggle that in Preferences.

Turn on Wish Reminders to get a notification a chosen number of days before each occasion (1–30). Reminders are scheduled locally by your phone — no server is involved. Android delivers them at roughly the scheduled time (it may shift a little to save battery), and they need the notification permission you're asked for when you turn them on.

Search

Search wishes, lists and people by name as you type. Recent searches are saved on your device for one-tap reuse and can be cleared from Settings.

Season rollover

When an occasion has passed, choose Start new season from the list's menu. The app archives the old list and creates a fresh one carrying everything you haven't bought yet (Available and Reserved items) — names, prices, links, photos, priorities and quantities intact, statuses reset to Available and “Reserved by” cleared. Purchased and Received gifts stay behind on the archived list, and the new list keeps a “last year” link back to it.

Backup, export & import

Export Data — writes a JSON archive of everything: profile, sizes, lists, items, people and dates. Small and quick, but it references photos rather than containing them.
Export with photos (zip) — the full archive including your photo files. This is the copy that survives a new phone.
Import Archive — opens either kind of file and lets you Replace everything or Add to your previous wishlists.
Automatic backup — an off-by-default switch that lets Android's own backup service keep a copy of the app's data and photos in your Google Drive for restore on a new phone. We can't access it. Turning it off stops future backups.
Clear All Data — permanently deletes everything in the app.

Profile & sizes

Your name, date of birth, currency, photo and a completeness indicator. From here you reach My Sizes (shoes, tops, bottoms, dresses in UK / US / EU), Preferences, Important Dates, App Settings, and Help & About.

Preferences

Reduce Transparency — solid surfaces instead of frosted glass (also follows your Android accessibility setting).
Pulsing Highlights — a gentle pulse on the suggested next step; turn it off if you'd rather not have motion.
Wish Reminders and Remind Me — the reminder switch and how many days ahead (1–30).
Show List Dates on Important Dates — include wish-list event dates alongside personal ones.
Explain fetch problems — whether Fetch details explains itself when a site doesn't cooperate.

Privacy

In this version (V1) Genie's Wishlists has no account and no Genie's server. Everything you enter stays in the app's private storage on your phone; nothing is collected, and nothing is sent to us. Data goes elsewhere only when you choose to: Share, Export, the optional Google Drive backup, or a tap on Fetch details, which contacts that one shop directly. A future Pro version (V2) will add optional remote storage to sync across your own devices and share lists two-way; it will always be opt-in. See the full Privacy Policy and Terms.

FAQ

Do I need an account? No.

Is my data private? Yes — in this version nothing you enter is sent to us. It leaves your phone only when you Share or Export, turn on the optional Google Drive backup, or tap Fetch details (which contacts only the shop whose link you pasted).

How do I move to a new phone? Export with photos (zip), then Import Archive → Replace on the new phone — or turn on Automatic backup beforehand and restore during phone setup.

Can friends reserve items on my list? Not yet — sharing is one-way in this version. See Sharing.

What's coming next? An optional Pro version with sync across your own devices and two-way sharing with friends and family who also use the app.