Movie Watchlist App: Keep Every Tip, Pick One Tonight (2026)

Shortlist is a free app for iPhone and Android. Its watchlist remembers who recommended each title, and when it is time to watch something it picks from the watchlists of everyone on the couch, not just yours.

Why a Movie Watchlist Stops Working

Adding a title costs one tap and removing one feels like a decision, so a watchlist only ever grows. Three things go wrong as it does:

• The reason goes missing: a few months later a title is just a poster. You no longer remember that a friend with good taste insisted on it, or that you were saving it for a quiet Sunday.
• Started and unstarted get mixed together: a series you are halfway through sits next to fifty you have not begun, so the list stops telling you what is next.
• Nothing is in order: every title looks equally urgent, which means none of them is, and the evening goes to scrolling.

How to Keep a Watchlist You Will Actually Use

1. Save the reason with the title: who recommended it and why, in a few words. “My sister, said the ending is worth the slow start” is worth more than any rating next to it.
2. Keep watching apart from want to watch: a show you are mid-season on belongs on its own short list, where it cannot get buried.
3. Take a title off the day you finish it: and put it somewhere that records what you thought of it, or the watchlist fills up with things you have seen.
4. Put the top of the list in order, not all of it: take the ten you would say yes to tonight and rank them two at a time. The watchlist picker does this in your browser in about twenty-two taps.
5. Choose with the people you are watching with: a watchlist is personal, a movie night rarely is. Start from the titles more than one of you saved.

How the Shortlist App Handles Each Step

Shortlist is built around ranking what you watch, two titles at a time, across a database of over 500,000 movies and TV shows. Its watchlist covers every step above:

Picking From a Watchlist Tonight

When the list is already long, the fastest fix is to rank its top ten rather than read all of it. The watchlist picker runs that in the browser with no signup: you tap which of two titles you would rather watch and it hands the list back in order.

In the app, Tonight’s Pick does the same job for a couch instead of one person. Add the friends watching with you and it favors titles more than one of you saved, leaves out anything someone there has already ranked, and puts forward one pick with up to two backups.

Keep your watchlist in the app

Free on iPhone and Android.

If Your Watchlist Lived in TV Time

TV Time shut down on July 15, 2026, and its watch data went with it. If that is where your list was, the TV Time alternatives guide compares where to move it.

More Ways to Decide What to Watch

• Watchlist Picker: rank the top of your watchlist in the browser
• Best Movie Ranking Apps: how the ranking apps compare
• Letterboxd Alternatives: other places to log what you watch
• Movie Tier List: sort what you have seen, S through D

Movie Watchlist App FAQ

What is the best app for a movie watchlist?

One that keeps why a title is on the list and helps you choose from it. Shortlist, a free app for iPhone and Android, lets you add a note to any title, keeps what you are watching separate from what you want to watch, and has a Tonight's Pick button that chooses from the watchlists of the friends watching with you.

How do I keep my watchlist from getting too long?

Take a title off the day you finish it, keep shows you are partway through on their own list, and every so often drop anything you would no longer say yes to on a free night. A watchlist only grows unless something takes titles off it.

How do I pick a movie from a long watchlist?

Rank the top of it instead of reading all of it. Take the ten titles you would say yes to tonight and compare them two at a time; ten titles take about twenty-two taps, and the one on top is your answer. The watchlist picker on shortlist.watch does this in the browser with no signup.

Can I share a watchlist with friends?

In Shortlist, people you follow see in their activity feed when you add a title to your watchlist, and Tonight's Pick mixes the watchlists of everyone watching together. You can also make collaborative lists with friends or family.

Does a watchlist app work for TV shows too?

Yes. Shortlist keeps movies and TV shows on the same watchlist, and a show you mark as Watching sits on its own list, so it does not get buried under the ones you have not begun.