List Owl: Grocery & Shopping List

Open the side menu and tap Meal planner. Answer four quick questions — who you're cooking for, anything to leave out, how much time you have on a weeknight, and what you like to eat — and you get a week of dinners with one aisle-sorted shopping list and an estimated total. Swap any dish for one of three alternatives, open Cook for step-by-step instructions, then tap Add all to list. It's a Premium feature with 8 plans a month, and you can try it free for 3 days.

Yes. When someone starts ticking items off the family list, everyone else gets an "Anna is shopping" notification, so you can add what you need before they reach the till. When members add items you get one summary about a minute later, naming up to three of them. Both alerts can be switched off in Side menu → Reminder settings → Family list, and family members receive them without Premium.

Yes. Open the side menu → Themes → Effects and switch off Glass effects; every surface becomes solid straight away. On iPhone, turning on Reduce Transparency in your accessibility settings does the same automatically.

Badges are achievements you earn as you shop — streaks, items bought, lists completed, favourite products, meal plans, meals cooked, recipes viewed and barcode scans, 38 in all. Locked badges show a progress ring and how to earn them. Open the side menu → Activity Timeline → Badges.

Tap the microphone icon in the add-item field and speak. List Owl uses your device's built-in speech recognition, so it works in all 4 supported languages (English, Spanish, Russian, Chinese). On-device recognition is used when available, with a cloud fallback for less common languages. No audio is stored by us — only the transcribed text reaches the app.

Tap the barcode icon next to the add-item field, point your camera at any product barcode, and List Owl automatically looks up the product and adds it with the correct name and emoji. You get 5 free scans; Premium members get 150 scans per month. A free Google or Apple account is required to use the scanner.

Tap the chef hat icon, name your dish, set how many people you're cooking for, and get a complete ingredient list automatically. AI generates the recipe in your chosen language!

You get 3 free recipe uses for life. Premium subscribers get 60 recipe uses per month.

Two ways: tap the chef hat, switch to the "Recipe URL" tab, and paste a link to any recipe page — or share a recipe link from your browser or another app straight into List Owl and the import starts automatically. The ingredients are pulled in with the right name, quantity, emoji, and store aisle, with units translated to your language. You get 5 free imports; Premium members get 30 imports per month.

Shared lists are now stored behind a short code, so even large, multi-item lists produce a small, crisp QR code that scans on the first try. It works reliably across iPhone, Android, WhatsApp, Messages/iMessage, and any app you share a link into. Your data stays encrypted — only the recipient who scans the code can open the list.

Recipes work in all 4 supported languages: English, Spanish, Russian, and Chinese.

Mochi, our Alexa skill, is being retired. It still works if you already set it up, but it is no longer part of new releases and we do not recommend it for new users. Voice input inside the app — the microphone in the add-item field — works in all four languages and is the easiest way to add items by voice.

The app shows the number of unbought items right on your app icon. It updates in real-time as you check off items, and even syncs when family members modify the shared list!

Yes. New subscribers can try every Premium feature free for 3 days — the Meal Planner, family sharing, cloud sync, more recipes and cost tracking. You start it after onboarding or from the upgrade screen (a free Google or Apple account is required), and it converts to a paid subscription unless you cancel first — on iPhone, at least 24 hours before the trial ends. Cancel anytime in your Google Play or Apple ID account settings.

No! The app works great without signing in. A free Google or Apple account is only needed for cloud backup, family sharing, the barcode scanner, and starting the free trial.

Yes, your data is protected with multiple security layers: HTTPS Encryption (all data transmission is encrypted using industry-standard TLS), Google Authentication (we use Google's secure sign-in system), Google Cloud Infrastructure (data is stored in Google Cloud Storage with Google's standard cloud security measures), and Access Controls (your data is only accessible to you and people you explicitly share with). Note: While Google provides infrastructure-level encryption, we recommend not storing highly sensitive personal information in your shopping lists.

That's totally fine! All core features work without Premium, including smart reminders, aisles, voice input, quick list switching, and free recipe uses. You just won't have the Meal Planner, cloud backup or family sharing.

With Premium, yes! Sign in on any device and your lists sync automatically.

One person creates the family list (that person needs Premium), then shares a QR code. Up to 5 people scan it to join — they do not need Premium, and they get the family notifications too. Everyone sees changes in real time, and the list keeps working offline.

List Owl detects it instead of quietly overwriting: the later change is kept and a message names the item that changed. "Clear all" and "Clear bought" only remove the items you could see when you tapped, so anything a member added a moment earlier stays on the list.

Yes, anytime! Go to Family Sharing and tap "Leave". You'll keep your personal lists.

On Android, manage your subscription in Google Play Store settings; on iPhone, in your Apple ID subscription settings. You'll keep Premium until the end of your billing period.

Yes! Your lists work fully offline, with no account needed. The cloud icon at the top shows when you're offline. On a family list you can tick, add, delete and clear offline too — your changes queue up and sync as soon as you're back.

If you're signed in with Premium: Your data remains safely stored in the cloud. Just reinstall and sign in to restore it. If you're not signed in or using Free version: Your data is only stored locally on your device and will be lost if you uninstall.