Prepful
The quick ways (and where they fall short)
Free, already on your phone, and fine for a one-off.
Text a photo or a screenshot. The fastest way to send a recipe card or a cookbook page. It gets buried in the thread within a week, and nobody can search a photo for "chili" later.
Paste the recipe into a message. Readable on any phone. Long recipes turn into a wall of text, and the person you send it to still has to copy it somewhere they'll find it again.
Send the link. Works for recipes from a food blog or a video. The person you send it to gets the whole page, ads and life story included. A TikTok or Reel link means pausing the video to catch the amounts.
For a family recipe collection
Good when several people add recipes over time.
A shared note. In Apple Notes, a note stored in iCloud can be shared so the people you invite can add to it. In Google Keep, add collaborators to a note by name or email and they can edit it too. One long "Family recipes" note works for a handful of recipes. It gets hard to scroll past twenty.
A shared folder. A Google Drive folder or an iCloud shared album is the right home for scans of old handwritten cards, so cousins get the handwriting too. See how to digitize recipe cards for scanning tips.
A printed family cookbook. The best gift for a reunion or the holidays, and the one relatives without smartphones can use. Collect the recipes digitally first, then print once.
| Method | Easy to read at the stove | Easy to find again | Goes on a shopping list |
|---|---|---|---|
| Photo or screenshot in a text | Depends on the photo | No, it's buried in the thread | No |
| Recipe pasted into a message | Somewhat | No | No |
| Shared note (Apple Notes, Google Keep) | Yes | Yes, by searching the note | No, you copy items over by hand |
| Shared folder of scans | Depends on the handwriting | Yes, if the files are named well | No |
| A Prepful recipe link | Yes, ingredients and steps laid out | Yes, once they save it to their Prepful | Yes, when they plan it in Prepful |
How to share a recipe from Prepful
One link. They don't need the app or an account to read it.
Open the recipe in Prepful.
Tap Share. On a phone it's the share icon at the top of the recipe.
Pick Messages, WhatsApp, email, or wherever your family talks.
They open the link and see the recipe written out: the picture, ingredients, and steps, with a Print button for anyone who cooks from paper.
If they use Prepful too, they tap Save on that page to keep their own copy. That's the part a text can't do: the recipe lands in their library, and its ingredients go onto their shopping list when they plan it.
What to know before you send one
Recipes you imported stay private. A recipe you saved from a link or a photo gets its own private link when you share it. That page is kept out of search engines, so only people who have the link can open it.
Anyone with the link can open it. They can also forward it, the same as a photo. Send it to the people you'd hand the card to.
Once they save it, it's theirs. Someone who saved your recipe keeps it in their library even if you delete it from yours later.
One recipe at a time. Prepful shares single recipes. It doesn't share a whole week's meal plan or your shopping list.
Getting the recipes in first
Before you can share a recipe from Prepful, it has to be in there. Tap Share on a TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, or recipe website and pick Prepful, upload a photo of a card or cookbook page, or paste a recipe someone texted you. Step by step: on iPhone, on Android, and from a photo.
Collecting recipes from family
Going the other way? When someone texts you a recipe, copy the text and use Recipes > Add > Paste a Recipe. When they send a photo of a card, save the photo and use Upload a Photo. For a whole box of cards, see how to digitize recipe cards. Then organize them in one place and put them on your week.