Run a secret draw online where each person sees one name

A random generator shows the full result to whoever clicks, so someone always knows every pair. In Wichtlify each person has their own link. After the draw it shows only who they are buying for, with that person’s wish list, the budget and the date. No full list exists, not even for you.

Only the organiser needs an account. Everyone else opens their link in the browser, with no account and no app; the app is there for iPhone and Android. Creating the group, drawing and sharing the links cost nothing.

Wichtlify fits when each person should see only their own result. It is not made for open draws where everyone sees the outcome, for picking a single winner or for building teams. A plain wheel or list tool does that job. If no present is involved, assigning people in secret works the same way.

Ruth and ten other nurses work nights on Ward 7 in Newcastle. Before the summer rota splits them up, they want a gift swap: everyone brings one present for one colleague, £10 (or €10) at most, on Friday 3 July.

Paper slips in a mug would need all eleven in the staff room at once, which never happens on nights. So on her day off Ruth creates the group and adds the eleven first names, the budget and the date. On Monday 22 June she runs the draw. Kofi opens his link at 3 a.m. and sees Aisha, with Aisha’s wish list underneath; nobody else’s name appears. Groups that do like slips from a hat can keep the ritual and swap the paper for links.

An exclusion says who must not draw whom. Grace and Tom share a flat and buy for each other anyway, so Ruth adds them as an exclusion in both directions. Nobody draws themselves, and if the exclusions leave no possible draw, Wichtlify says so before drawing.

Each person’s link exists from the moment their name is added, so they can write wishes before the draw. With an email address entered, Wichtlify emails the link; without one you send it yourself, as in a Secret Santa without email addresses. Someone who joins late can be added and the group drawn again, best before anyone has looked at their name.

Each step of the draw is laid out in how the Secret Santa draw works.

Ruth sees which nurses have opened their link and whose wish list is still empty. Wichtlify reminds those people for free: a notice in the link, a push in the app and an email once the address is confirmed.

When Joe, one of the nurses, moves to days after the draw, Ruth removes him and Wichtlify asks who steps in. Only the people affected get a new name; everyone else keeps theirs. This emergency repair is free, and so is a new round with this group, where the draw avoids the pairs of the last round.

Nothing here is tied to summer. Drawing names works the same way for a birthday or the Christmas party.