How to join a gift exchange with the link

Somebody sent you a link to a gift exchange. This guide explains what will happen when you open it, what you will be asked for, and how to get back in afterwards.

The short answer: you do not have to create an account or invent a password.

What you see when you open the link

Before handing over any details you see the full description of the exchange:

• The name of the exchange and who is organising it
• How many people have joined already
• The welcome message the organizer wrote
• The place and date of the celebration
• The gift category and the suggested budget

It is there so you can decide whether this is the exchange you were expecting before leaving your email address.

How to join

Two routes, both equally valid:

• Type your name and email. The name needs at least two characters and the address has to be a valid one. That is all.
• Continue with Google. It saves typing, and it also records that the address really is yours.

Neither route creates an account or asks you for a password.

Why there is no account

Gift2Gift has no accounts for participants. Your identity inside an exchange is your verified email address, and the page address itself carries the token that identifies you.

That has one very concrete practical consequence: the link you get after joining is your key. Keep it.

• Do not post it in a group chat or forward it: whoever opens it gets in as you and sees what you see.
• If you lose it, the confirmation email you received when joining contains it.

The link you were originally sent, the invitation one, is a different thing: that one is public and is the same for the whole group.

If you join twice

Nothing is duplicated. If you type an address that was already in the exchange, the system recognises you and takes you back to your usual place, with your wishlist and your assignment if there is one.

Capitalisation and stray spaces do not count: "Ana@Mail.com" and "ana@mail.com" are the same person.

If the link no longer works

There is one reason this happens, and it is a normal one: the draw has already been run.

The moment the organizer runs the draw, the link stops accepting new people. If you open it afterwards you get a screen telling you the exchange is already closed, along with its details and the number of participants.

It is not an error and it is not something you did wrong. If you think you should be inside, talk to whoever is organising it: they are the only person who can sort it out.

The first thing to do once you are in

As soon as you join you are invited to fill in your wishlist, and it is worth doing right then.

It is the only thing that controls what you receive. If you leave the list empty, whoever draws you has to guess from the exchange category.

You can do it with the product search, by pasting links from any store, or by letting it fill itself with five suggestions.

What happens after the draw

When the organizer runs the draw, you get an email and, on opening the exchange, you see:

• Who you are giving to, with their name shown prominently on the overview.
• Their wishlist, if they filled it. If not, you get suggestions based on the exchange details.

Who is giving to you is something you will never find out. That is the whole point.

Worth knowing

• Everybody can see the exchange's participant list. Email addresses, on the other hand, are only visible to the organizer.
• If you mistyped your address, tell the organizer: they can correct it from their participants screen.
• The country carried by the link determines which store products are searched in. Use the link exactly as it was sent to you, without editing it.
• Once you have bought the gift, you can mark it as bought. That is just for you, to stop the reminders.