How ListDrop works

What ListDrop is

ListDrop is built around one idea: you follow lists, not people. A person's feed is noisy. A well-kept list is not. So the thing you follow here is the list itself, and when its owner adds something new, you hear about it.

A list can be anything worth keeping: the books you recommend without hesitating, the tacos worth the trip across town, the steps to get a business registered, what to pack for a cold-weather hike. This page explains the parts that are not obvious at first glance.

Making a list

Every list has a title, an optional emoji, an optional description, and items. Items can be plain text or links, and each one can carry a short note underneath.

Paste a URL into the item box and it becomes a titled, linked item automatically: ListDrop fetches the page title so your list reads like a list, not like a wall of URLs. You can reorder items by dragging them, and nest an item under another to make sub-items.

There are limits, kept deliberately tight so lists stay readable: 80 characters for a title, 280 for a description, 200 for an item, 140 for a note.

Who can see your list

Every list is in one of three states, and you control it from the list's settings:

• Private. Only you. This is how every new list starts, including lists an AI assistant makes for you.
• Shared. You invite specific people by handle. They can view and edit it with you.
• Public. Anyone can find it, follow it, fork it, and suggest items. It appears in Explore, on tag pages, and in search engines.

Nothing becomes public by accident. Going public is always an explicit choice you make, and you can take it back at any time by switching the list to private again.

One nuance worth knowing: inviting someone to a shared list makes them a collaborator, so they can edit it with you. If you want someone to only read a private list, that is what the email guest list is for: view-only access for specific addresses, no account needed.

Two more states exist around the edges. A list made by an AI assistant starts as an unclaimed draft: its secret claim link is the only way in, and claiming it turns it into your normal private list (unclaimed drafts are deleted after 30 days). And an assistant can give a list an expiry date, after which only its owner sees it. Your Tray is the one absolute: always private, no exceptions.

Lists shared with specific people

Some private lists are shared with a short guest list of email addresses. If you were sent one of these, opening the link shows an unlock card asking you to confirm your email address, and you do not need a ListDrop account to read it.

Type the address, and we email you a one-time link that opens the list (it expires in an hour). Clicking it proves the address is yours; nothing else is asked.

Access is view-only: you can read the list and tick items off for yourself, but you cannot edit it, and it stays out of Explore, search engines, and everywhere else. Once you confirm an address, your browser remembers it for 90 days, so other lists shared with the same address open without asking again.

If you are the one sharing: this is currently set up by AI assistants through our API rather than in the app, so the owner of the list controls the guest list. See the agent guide for the details.

Following, forking, and the difference

Following a list keeps you connected to the original. New items the owner adds show up in your feed. Use it when you trust someone's taste and want to keep hearing from that list.

Forking a list makes your own copy of it, right then, and the two go their separate ways. Changes the original owner makes afterwards do not reach your fork, and yours do not reach theirs. Use it when a list is a good starting point but you want to make it yours.

You can also follow a public list by email without an account. You confirm the address once, then get a short digest whenever the list changes, at most weekly, with an unsubscribe link in every message.

Your checkmarks are private

You can tick items off on any list you can see, including lists other people own. Those checkmarks are yours alone. The owner does not see them, nobody is notified, and they never bump the list in anyone's feed.

This is what makes a public list usable as a personal tracker. Someone else's list of the best bookshops in the city becomes your record of which ones you have actually visited. Turn on focus mode on a list to see and use your checkmarks: tap anywhere on a row to check it off, and the screen stays awake while you work.

Suggesting items to someone else's list

On a public list you do not own, you can suggest an item. It does not appear on the list right away. It goes into a suggestions tab where the owner can approve it or turn it down, and where other readers can upvote it. The quickest way in is the Suggest an item link at the end of the list, next to Comment.

If the owner approves your suggestion it becomes a real item on the list and you are credited on it. Turned-down suggestions disappear quietly, with no notification.

The Tray

The Tray is your private catch-all: one tap to save something now, sort it later. It is completely private, it can never be made public, and it never appears in anyone's feed.

Anything in the Tray can be moved into a real list with one tap, and moving keeps the item itself intact, along with any reactions and checkmarks on it. The bookmark icon on any item you can see saves a copy straight to your Tray.

Mentions and tags

Three symbols work the same way everywhere you can type on ListDrop:

• @ mentions a person, by handle. They get a notification.
• + mentions a list. It becomes a link to that list, and its owner is told it was referenced.
• # adds a tag. Tags group lists by topic and each one has its own page, which is how people find lists like yours.

Sharing a list

Every public list has one clean URL that shows the whole list, and a share menu with WhatsApp, X, Telegram, and copy-link options. Links get a proper preview card when posted.

You can also embed a public list in another site, or view any list as plain text for pasting elsewhere. If you own the list, a view as visitor toggle shows you exactly what a stranger sees.

AI assistants and ListDrop

Chat assistants produce list-shaped answers constantly and almost all of them die in the transcript. There are two ways to keep one.

• Paste it. Copy any AI answer and drop it at /paste. Bullets, numbers, and checkboxes all become real items. No setup needed.
• Connect your assistant. Add ListDrop as a connector in Claude, ChatGPT, or any MCP-capable app, and say "save this as a list". It saves directly and hands you the link.

Lists an assistant makes for you arrive private. If it made the list without being connected to your account, you get a secret claim link instead: open it, press save, and the list becomes yours. Unclaimed lists are deleted after 30 days. Developers and agent builders want the agent guide.

Your account and your data

Sign in with an email and password or with Google. Your handle, bio, avatar, and public lists are public. Your email address is not, and it is never shown to other people.

ListDrop's interface speaks English and Spanish, set from your browser or pinned in your profile settings. Lists themselves are never translated: they stay in whatever language they were written in. The same settings let you switch the page background from the default greige to a flat off-white.

You can delete your account yourself from your profile settings, which removes your lists and your activity. What we store and why is spelled out in the privacy policy, and anything else goes to contact. If something here is confusing or missing, the feedback box reaches us directly.