A birthday wishlist friends actually use
The awkward part of birthdays is not the list. It is being asked “what do you want?” six times. Put the answer in one link: friends pick, reserve and buy without doubles, and you stay surprised.
- Paste product links from any store: Amazon, Etsy, an Instagram shop, the bookshop round the corner.
- Add a note per item: size, colour, “any edition but the blue one”.
- A price mix helps everyone: a couple of inexpensive things, a few in the middle, one big dream.
- Reservations stay hidden from you until the day after the party.
What to ask for when everyone keeps asking
A birthday wish list works best with three kinds of things on it: one or two you would buy yourself anyway but keep postponing, a few in the price range a colleague or a school friend can afford without thinking, and one bigger item several people can go in on together. Add the boring specifics — the size, the colour, the edition, the shelf it has to fit — because that is exactly what the person shopping does not know and will not ask.
Sharing it without sounding demanding
Send the link a week or two before, in the same chat where the plans are being made, and let it speak for itself: people who want ideas open it, people who already have one ignore it. The link never changes, so you can keep adding things afterwards, and reservations stay hidden from you — you find out who gave what the day after your birthday, which is when the thank-yous get written anyway.
Tips from people who did it
Set the date
Add your birthday and the list tells friends how many days are left, then reveals who got what to you the day after.
Share it as an answer, not a demand
The built-in share text says it for you: “Ideas, not requirements. Anything from here is great, anything not from here too.”
Group gift?
Mark the big item “Most wanted” and say in its note that chipping in together is welcome. Friends coordinate in the reservation.
Why this one
The list goes up weeks early
Birthday gifts get bought the week before, not the day of. A link in the group chat a month out is the difference between a wanted present and a gift card.
Every budget on one page
Colleagues, close friends and your mum all shop from the same list. Price filter sorts it, so nobody has to ask what the others are spending.
No duplicates, no returns
One tap reserves an item and it greys out for everyone else. The second identical headphones never happen.
Built for the giver
Price filter, “bought elsewhere” button, one-tap reserve. The person spending money is treated as a first-class user.
Pairs with Secret Santa
Paste your wishlist link into a Secret Santa profile and your gifter sees pictures and prices instead of a vague text.
Free, no limits
Unlimited lists, unlimited items, unlimited guests. Some store links earn us an affiliate commission; your price never changes.
A wishlist in Telegram
Send the bot a link from any shop and it becomes a wish with a photo and a price. Share the list — friends reserve gifts quietly, and you never see who took what.
- Paste a link — the item lands in the list
- Any store: Amazon, Etsy, IKEA…
- Reservations stay a surprise for you
No Telegram? The site does all of it too, without signing up — start here and move it into the bot with one tap whenever you like.
Secret Gift
bot
➕ Add a wish
Send a link from any shop — or just write what you want.
Tap a button — this is how the bot answers
Questions
Is it rude to send a birthday wishlist?
Etiquette guides agree a list is fine as an answer to “what would you like?”. Share it with the people who ask, or use the Ask-for-a-wishlist link so a friend requests it first.
Do my friends need an account to reserve a gift?
No. Anyone with the link can reserve or mark a gift as bought with one tap. No app, no email, no signup on either side.
Will I see what people reserved?
Not before the day. Reservations are hidden from the list owner and revealed the day after your birthday, so you can say thank you.
Can I reuse the list next year?
Yes. Open your edit link, press “Reset reservations”, remove what you received and share the same link again.
Other occasions
Organizing a gift exchange?
Draw names for Secret Santa in two minutes — free, no email — and paste your wishlist link into your profile.