Private and public lists

On Things To Have you control visibility per list: every list is either private or public. You choose when you create a list and can change it at any time by editing the list.

What everyone can see

• Your profile at thingstohave.app/your-username is a public page. It shows your username, avatar, and your public lists.
• Public lists are visible to everyone — including people without an account. Anyone can open a public list from a link in any browser, which makes them perfect for sharing a birthday or holiday wishlist.
• Public lists also get a nice preview card when the link is shared in a chat or on social media.

What stays private

• Private lists are visible only to you, when you are signed in. They are not shown on your profile, are not reachable by link, and do not appear in search engines.
• Items inherit visibility from their lists: an item is visible to others only if it is in at least one public list. An item that lives only in private lists stays private.
• Your email address is never shown to anyone.

How to tell them apart

You can see a list's visibility at a glance, everywhere it appears:

• A private list has a dashed outline and its name in italics.
• A public list has a solid outline and an upright name.

The same cues follow the list around the app: the tabs on your profile, the list page title, and the list picker all draw private lists dashed and italic.

EveryThing and default visibility

The first tab on every profile is EveryThing — a built-in view of all things, not a list you manage:

• On your own profile, EveryThing shows all of your things, both private and public.
• For everyone else, EveryThing shows only your public things — the ones in at least one public list.

A new thing that is not added to any list is private by default: it appears only in your own EveryThing view. It becomes visible to others when you add it to a public list, and private again when it is removed from all public lists.

Check what others see

Not sure what is public? On your own profile, click What others see? (next to your things). It opens your profile in guest mode — exactly as a logged-out visitor sees it, with only your public lists and things. You can browse around in this mode to double-check before sharing.

Changing a list's visibility

1. Open the list.
2. Edit the list and switch between Private and Public.
3. Save — the change applies immediately. Making a list private immediately removes it from your public profile, and its link stops working for other people.

Followers

Following someone on Things To Have shows their updates in your Activity feed. Followers see only what is already public: your public lists and the items in them. Following does not grant access to anyone's private lists.

Using the app fully privately

You can keep every list private and use Things To Have as a personal wishlist with no social features. Your profile page will exist but show no lists.