This grocery list app creates lists with the greatest of ease using the simple Free iPhone Productivity app called AnyList Grocery List (by Purple Cover, Inc). I, like most other people, am always looking for applications that will make my life easier, especially dreaded tasks like grocery shopping. Having tested this iPhone application out, I’m convinced this is going to be my new handy dandy grocery/everything list maker to put me on the fast track. In a very short period of time I was able to create a couple of complete and nicely categorized shopping lists, snag a few dinner ideas on the fly and quickly place their ingredients into my shopping list, and shared my grocery list through both email and text with my family members — lightening fast. There’s no doubt in my mind as to why this intuitive app has been featured on Apple’s “New and Noteworthy” section of the App Store.
Just about anyone can jump into this app and quickly create a list without knowing all the nuances that this application provides. But, it does make using it all that much more amazing if you know how everything is meant to work. If you need help or want to learn more about this application, AnyList Grocery List app does provide plenty of useful information in the Settings area: FAQ section, info graphs, brief explanations, Privacy Policy, etc. You get started by either signing in or creating an account with your first and last name, email address and password. Although this application is meant to predominately be a grocery making list, AnyList Grocery List allows you to create a nice variety of list types: Grocery, Basic and Custom, and the ability to customize a few key functions. One really beneficial feature about the “My Grocery List” area is that you can change the order of the category headers (allows you to breeze through the grocery store) to match the aisle-by-aisle layout of your favorite grocery store (that is if you know the layout by heart — and you should by now).
Another useful feature is the autocomplete function that does a pretty good job of completing your entries as you type them in (which can be turned on or off depending on your preference). In addition to being able create a specific type of list (Grocery, Basic, and Custom), you can also quickly create multiple lists and quickly switch between them (checking off items) as you run around completing your errands at the variety of different stores you need to go to: pharmacy, grocery, bulk shopping store, etc. If you’ve shared the lists with family or friends, these lists will be updated as each person marks off the individual items. You can also easily make this app multi-task for you as your “ToDo” list by creating a Basic list for the things you need to get done. Remember, it’s all about making your life easier and getting the dreaded things done so that you can enjoy a little more time with your family and other fun things.
Although you have the option to turn off the autocomplete (which fills in mostly grocery items when making lists), I noticed that when I was creating a Basic list, this list by default turns off Category Headers and Autocomplete (grocery items). It didn’t appear to pre-populate items like it did for me when testing the same items (raisins) on both the Custom and Grocery lists. I liked using the Autocomplete to make my grocery list because there wasn’t anything on my normal shopping list that didn’t readily populate for me. But what I liked even more was that the item immediately appeared on my list under an automatic category title, which my usual list maker does not do until I’ve manually selected it to do so — which takes a little longer to create a list. The only oddity here was when I added milk to the list, it went under the “Other” category instead of Dairy, but eggs went under the “Dairy” category, and when I added cotton balls to the list, they fell automatically under “Health & Personal,” while Q-tips also went under “Other” category. These are not deal breakers because you can quickly edit item categories and have items regularly placed under your category preference for all lists you make (if you choose).
As happy as I was with the ease and convenience of making lists, my absolute favorite feature in this app is the built in recipe function that allows you to browse through pre-set categories like: Saved Recipes, Popular Recipes, New Recipes, Main Ingredient (Beef, Chicken, Fish, Pasta, Pork, and Turkey), and also Publisher (5 Featured publishers and approximately 90 in the More category) to find interesting-looking meal ideas, but the best part about this is that all the listed ingredients can be placed in your list in a snap! However, the recipes are not very well organized under their specific categories, and you’ll find an odd, hodge-podge range of recipe types listed in random order (Raspberry Oatmeal Dumplings, Mushroom Stroganoff, Roasted Apple Spice Sheet Cake, Homemade Wheat Thins, Skinny Chicken Pesto Bake). It would be better listed under these categories as: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner, Desserts, etc. But, the search function is a nice feature and when I put in Fried Chicken it brought back 10 results (ranging from Korean Fried Chicken, Gluten-Free Fried Chx Strips to Southern Fried Chicken), which does allow you to find a wide range of recipes from a ton of popular web-based publishers. Lastly, if you don’t want to look too hard just choose the one Featured Recipe idea (Slow Cooker Middle Eastern Garlic Chicken) given to you.
So, until some other amazing iPhone Productivity Grocery app comes along to make my dreaded grocery shopping task even better, I’m very content to use this handy-dandy-any-type-list-maker app — that gives me more than the usual. Have you used this app yet? Know of a better grocery app? Leave a comment below and let us know. Check out all our iPhone app reviews. Crazy Mike
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