Show HN: Listo – Your Social Watchlist

Proud to be on HN!

we are unhappy with the information flow in current social media, like Facebook and twitter. We found that the problem lies in the follower-concept itself. By default, everyone shares content with ALL their followers. That way there is too much content that isn't tailored to the preferences of the user - the signal to noise ratio is very low. Therefore, most content in my stream is irrelevant to me.

Our goal, through Listo, is to turn this around and make sharing and recommendations personal again. We want to enable a much higher recommendation quality than current social media systems can offer.

Our idea is very simple, but the consequences are profound. It boils down to this:

Let your friends add items to your reading, movies, and music lists all in one space.

This is in fact very similar to what is already happening today. People are sending you personal recommendations about HN articles, books or movies via email/WhatsApp. But you have to add them to your reading list yourself, otherwise they will get lost in several chat histories. We created an app for this use-case, that requires zero discipline from your side: Let your friends put interesting articles and books directly into your personal reading list. Let them put movies, tv shows and youtube videos into your watchlist. The same goes for music, podcasts and anything else.

It reflects word of mouth in the real world. Our app allows you to send recommendations to specific people. Instead of telling the world that you like an article, you send it to friends you know will like it. That way, recommendations become more personal and of much higher quality.

Information can still spread exponentially, but in a more controlled way than retweet-feedback-loops. Every single person acts as a filter in the information flow.

FAQ: Q: But doesn't this app need a critical mass to be useful at all? A: Actually no. Only two friends sending links to each other already have a benefit. But the more friends are sending you recommendations via the app, the better for everyone.

Q: What if my friends don't have the app yet? A: In this case, our app makes it easy to send recommendations via other apps, e.g. WhatsApp. Once the receivers sign up, they will find all items in their list.

The app is developed with Flutter/Firebase and available in Play Store and App Store.

Play Store: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.listo

App Store: https://apps.apple.com/app/apple-store/id1502284126

A challenge we are facing right now is to find out how we can make the product more viral. Any insights on this topic would be greatly appreciated.

We're looking forward to hearing your thoughts and questions!