The Listo Blog

Stories from the making of Listo — a shared shopping list app built by a solo developer.

Reader treat

Three months of Premium, on us

The LISTO2026 code used to be a Listo code on both platforms; Apple asked for it to go through their own system on iPhone, and as of the latest update it does. What Premium does, how to get three months of it on each platform, and why I would rather give it away than advertise it.

Andrei Timofte October 15, 2026 3 min read Read →
Behind the scenes

Some of you never got a notification

While chasing a notification that showed up without its items, I found that about one in ten people who joined in September had never received a push at all. What was wrong, why nobody could tell, and the Fix it button that now lives in Settings.

Andrei Timofte October 3, 2026 3 min read Read →
New feature

Three shops, one scan

Two shops on one Saturday, two receipts, one scan — and the second shop vanished. The receipt scanner now takes several receipts in one go: every page from every shop, items grouped per receipt with each total, quantities that add up across trips.

Andrei Timofte September 30, 2026 2 min read Read →
New languages

Listo now speaks 22 languages

Greek, Finnish, Swedish, Norwegian, Danish, Hungarian, Slovenian, Bulgarian, Hindi, Indonesian, Turkish and Polish arrived in one update — every screen, the tutorial, notifications and voice input. How a one-person app ships that, and why your corrections are welcome.

Andrei Timofte September 21, 2026 4 min read Read →
New feature

Your data is yours

The one-star reviews of list apps all say the same thing: no way to get my data out. Listo now exports everything — lists, prices, shops, cards, saved recipes — as JSON, CSV or text, built on your phone. Most people will never tap it. That's the point.

Andrei Timofte September 7, 2026 3 min read Read →
Feature

Any text is a shopping list now

The list arrives as a WhatsApp message while I'm already pushing the cart — and I retype it. Not anymore: share or paste any text into Listo and it becomes a real list, with quantities read, duplicates merged, and item names matched to how you've always written them. Entirely on your phone.

Andrei Timofte September 4, 2026 4 min read Read →
New feature

Dinner from what you already have

I build an app that knows exactly what I buy — and I was still composting my groceries. Use it up suggests real recipes built around what's probably lingering in your fridge: tick what you have, type "1 egg" and mean it, add "no mushrooms", cook. Saved recipes stay on your phone.

Andrei Timofte August 21, 2026 4 min read Read →
New feature

Your shopping list now takes dictation

Tap the mic and say it like you'd say it to a person — "add two bottles of milk from Lidl". Speech recognition on your phone, natural-language understanding, and a list that learns from its own mishearings. The first time I tried it, it added an entire sentence as an item.

Andrei Timofte August 19, 2026 4 min read Read →
Feature tour

Whose order is your shopping list in, anyway?

I believed in the One Correct Sort Order at least three times — then watched a real person use the app. Category groups, drag-and-drop manual order, and pinned lists: three small features that arrange the list around how you actually shop.

Andrei Timofte August 6, 2026 4 min read Read →
New feature

The list that notices you're almost out of coffee

Staples never make it onto the list because they're staples — until the tin is empty. Listo now learns how often you buy the things you always buy and quietly suggests them when it's time to restock. All on your phone, no cloud profile, no creepy tracking.

Andrei Timofte July 27, 2026 4 min read Read →
Feature spotlight

Shop together without stepping on each other

Two people, one list, zero double-bought milk. How Listo's shared lists and linked accounts keep a household in sync — even when the store kills your signal.

Andrei Timofte July 8, 2026 4 min read Read →
New feature

Scan a receipt, and the discounts come too

A REWE receipt's total didn't add up — twenty-one lei of loyalty-card discounts hid at the bottom, unlabeled, impossible to tie to any one item. Here's why Listo stopped trying to guess, and now reads the discounts off the receipt and takes them off your total.

Andrei Timofte June 30, 2026 4 min read Read →
Behind the feature

Sort your list the way you walk the store

A list in the wrong order doesn't feel broken — it just quietly makes you walk the store twice. Here's how to reorder Listo's categories to match your route, and shop in one clean pass from entrance to till. Free, and set up in about a minute.

Andrei Timofte June 16, 2026 4 min read Read →
New feature

Scan a receipt, get next week's shopping list

Point your phone at last Saturday's receipt. A few seconds later your list for next Saturday is half-written. Here's how the scanner works — including the Romanian Lidl receipt that forced a model switch — and why this one piece of Listo is in the optional subscription.

Andrei Timofte May 25, 2026 5 min read Read →
Behind Listo

Why I built Listo

My wife sent me shopping items buried inside a WhatsApp thread full of everything else. I kept missing them, U-turning on the way home, and losing messages to bad store signal. So I built the shopping list I actually wanted.

Andrei Timofte April 22, 2026 3 min read Read →