Disclosure: this article is published by the team that builds Tote. Tote is included as one option for organizing things to try. Every other app and platform mentioned is a third party we have no affiliation with.
You saved a pasta recipe on TikTok, bookmarked a pottery class on Instagram, screenshotted a hiking trail from a friend's Story, and left three Safari tabs open for products you wanted to order. That was two weeks ago. Tonight you have free time and cannot remember any of them. You need a running list of things to try — and it does not exist in any single app on your iPhone.
The problem is not that you forgot to save. You saved everything. The problem is that saving and intending are different actions. A TikTok favorite is passive — you liked it, you might re-watch it. A “thing to try” is active — you plan to cook it, visit it, buy it, or do it. But every save feature on every app treats both the same way: a flat, unsearchable list with no way to surface the right save at the right moment.
Why a try list needs to work across apps
The average social media user engages with over six different platforms. Recipes come from TikTok. Restaurant recommendations arrive in group chats. Product finds come from Instagram ads and Safari browsing. Activity ideas come from friends, newsletters, and Stories. Your things to try are scattered across all of them, and no platform can search another platform's saves.
A cross-app save tool like Tote (free on the App Store) solves this by accepting shares from any iPhone app through the share sheet, extracting the useful details, and making them searchable by topic. The full workflow is below — but first, here is why each platform's built-in save feature fails as a try list.
Why every try-later save system on iPhone breaks
TikTok favorites
TikTok has nearly 2 billion monthly active users, and the favorites tab fills up fast. But there is no search within favorites. You cannot type “pasta recipe” or “yoga flow” and find the matching video. Collections let you sort favorites into folders, but each collection has a cap, there is no search within collections, and videos you saved before creating a collection need to be moved one at a time. Worse, TikTok removed 211 million videos in Q1 2025 alone. If a creator deletes the video or TikTok removes it, your saved version disappears without warning.
Instagram bookmarks
Instagram bookmarks have no native search feature. You can sort saves into collections manually, but you cannot type a restaurant name, a recipe ingredient, or an activity type and find a matching bookmark. As your collection grows, so does the scrolling.
Apple Notes
Notes is the most common workaround. You paste a link or type a quick reminder. But a bare URL in Notes tells you nothing about what the page contains. A pasted TikTok link is just a string of characters with no dish name, no restaurant, no product brand. Notes searches typed text only — not link content, not image text, not the context of what you saved. And keeping a single note called “things to try” turns into an unsorted dump within a week.
Apple Reminders
Reminders has checkboxes, which is closer to a try list than most apps. But adding a TikTok recipe to Reminders means typing the dish name manually, and the reminder has no link preview, no image, and no extracted context. Reminders is designed for tasks with deadlines, not for a growing library of things you want to try when the moment is right.
How to keep a running list of things to try on iPhone
Here is how the Tote workflow turns scattered saves into a searchable try list you can act on.
Step 1: Share the moment you see it
When you see something you want to try — a recipe to cook, a place to visit, a product to test, an activity to do — tap the share button in whatever app you are using and select Tote from the share sheet. Keep using TikTok favorites and Instagram bookmarks for casual browsing. The share-to-Tote step is for saves you genuinely plan to act on.
Step 2: Context gets extracted automatically
Tote reads the link metadata, caption text, and visible content to extract the details that matter. A recipe TikTok becomes a save with the dish name and key ingredients. A restaurant Reel becomes a save with the place name and cuisine. You do not need to type anything.
Step 3: Organize by category with checkboxes
Create lists for the types of things you try most: “recipes to cook,” “places to visit,” “workouts to do,” “products to try.” Lists in Tote have checkboxes, so you can mark things off as you try them. Shared lists let a partner or friend group add their finds and browse together — useful when restaurant recommendations arrive in a group chat and nobody can find them a week later.
Step 4: Search when the moment comes
When the moment arrives — Friday evening choosing a restaurant, Sunday morning picking a recipe, at the gym looking for a routine — search by what you remember. Typing “pasta” finds the TikTok recipe, the Italian restaurant Reel, and the pasta maker product page all in one result set, regardless of which app you originally saved from.
What a try list looks like by category
| Category | Where saves come from | What gets lost without context | What you search when ready |
|---|---|---|---|
| Recipe to cook | TikTok, Instagram, Pinterest, Safari | Dish name, ingredients, cooking time | “chicken parm” or “30 minute dinner” |
| Workout to follow | TikTok, YouTube, Instagram | Exercise type, muscle group, duration | “leg day” or “HIIT 20 minutes” |
| Restaurant to visit | Instagram, TikTok, Google Maps, texts | Place name, cuisine, neighborhood | “thai food” or “brunch downtown” |
| Product to buy | TikTok, Instagram, Safari, Amazon | Brand, price, product name | “retinol serum” or “running shoes” |
| Activity to do | TikTok, Instagram, newsletters, texts | Event name, location, date | “pottery class” or “farmers market” |
The search works the same regardless of category. Whether you saved a recipe from TikTok, a restaurant from Instagram, or a product from Safari, the details you need at the moment of action are extracted and searchable.
How try-list methods compare
| Method | Search | Cross-app saves | Context extraction | Tracking | Survives deletion |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| TikTok favorites | No | No | No | No | No |
| Instagram bookmarks | No | No | No | No | No |
| Apple Notes | Typed text only | Manual copy-paste | No | Manual checkboxes | Yes (typed text) |
| Apple Reminders | Title only | Manual entry | No | Yes | Yes (typed text) |
| Bucket list app | Varies | Manual entry | No | Yes | Yes (typed text) |
| Share to Tote | Yes (full content) | Yes (share sheet) | Yes | Lists with checkboxes | Yes |
Bucket list apps like Life Listr and Bucket handle life goals well, but they require manual entry for each item. None of them accept shares directly from TikTok, Instagram, or Safari through the share sheet, and none extract context from social posts or web pages automatically.
When to use your try list vs. platform saves
Not everything you save needs to be on a try list. Keep using TikTok favorites and Instagram bookmarks for content you want to re-watch or browse. The share-to-Tote step is for saves with a specific intention behind them — cook this recipe, visit that restaurant, follow this workout, buy that product. Those are the saves with a retrieval moment, and if you cannot find them when that moment arrives, you lose the chance to act.
Frequently asked questions
What is the best app for a try-later list on iPhone?
It depends on what you are tracking. Apple Reminders works for simple typed tasks with deadlines. Bucket list apps like Life Listr and Bucket handle life goals. For things to try that you discover across TikTok, Instagram, Safari, and other apps, Tote collects all sources through the share sheet and makes them searchable by topic with list checkboxes for tracking.
Can you search TikTok favorites by topic?
No. TikTok does not offer search within favorites or collections. The only way to find a specific saved video is to scroll through the full list or browse individual collections one at a time.
Is Apple Notes good enough for a things-to-try list?
Notes is better than texting yourself because it has folders and full-text search of typed content. But Notes does not extract context from links or screenshots. A TikTok link in Notes is a bare URL with no dish name, place name, or product brand. Keeping a single note as a try list becomes an unsorted dump quickly.
Should I stop saving things on TikTok and Instagram?
No. Keep using platform saves for casual browsing and re-watching. The try-list workflow is an additional step for saves you genuinely plan to act on. Those saves need to be findable when the moment comes — not buried in a reverse-chronological list of everything you ever liked.
Can I share a try list with my partner or friends?
Yes. Tote supports shared lists that multiple people can add to and browse. A shared “restaurants to try” list between partners or a shared “recipes to cook” list with roommates lets everyone contribute finds from any app.
What happens if the original post gets deleted?
TikTok favorites and Instagram bookmarks are references to the original post. If it gets deleted, your save disappears. Sharing the post to Tote first extracts the content details, so the dish name, product brand, or place name stays in your library even after the original is removed.
