Apple Invites App Updated With Two New Features

[turbineseaplane]

Waste of developer resources. This is the kind of app that a third-party should make, not Apple.

That's exactly where Apple stole from when "making" Apple Invites.

(third party App Partiful)

 

[chuckles235]

Bracing myself for the "Who even uses this app?" comments...

I’ve literally never seen this app used by anyone

 

[chuckles235]

iInvites would sound much better and be consistent with Apple's branding.

Or just iInvite

 

[DoctorMesmer]

If, like me, you understand “invite” to be a verb (and “invitation” to be the noun”), you probably struggled to decode the headline too!

 

[VPrime]

I tried using this once, none of my guests could figure it out or it just wasn't a smooth process.
Its nice on the host side, but the guest side has too much friction to be usable.

 

[MysteriousStain]

Is there an app to make people show up for the things that they promised to attend?

 

[Rafagon]

Super embarrassing for Apple that this is *still* an iPhone-only app.

This fact contributed to Tim's early retirement.

 

[Brother Cavil]

Look, I get why people think this is a weird place to spend resources but look ahead. Almost all of Apple's Apple Intelligence scenarios end in some sort of an event or gathering. This app is being developed to become an agentic application.

Apple has long been positioning itself as the company that fosters real world interactions, the antidote to the brain rot social media tech giants that want you buried in your phone scrolling. Modern Apple's DNA wants you spending time with people, taking photos (iPhone), participating in outdoor activities (Watch), etc. The Invite app is a means to that end.

So long as those people use an iPhone. I think you're reading a lot into this, but even if you're right, Invites will never become ubiquitous unless it's available across all platforms. I'd never consider using this app because plenty of people I know aren't iPhone users. I realize that non-Apple users can respond to invites, but that's about it. So of course I'm going to use an app/service that gives everyone the best experience and doesn't require my invitees to be hooked into the Apple ecosystem.

Some of these newer first party apps seems really unnecessary and smack of distraction. Instead of fixing bugs that have lingered in apps like Mail and Music for, in some cases, decades, Apple pumps out mediocre crap like Invites and Freeform.

 

[goobot]

This app exists just to promote Apple services, nothing more.

 

[p96]

requires subscribing to an iCloud+ plan

Ah, that's why I have never heard about it.

 

[platinumaqua]

Some developer’s pet project

 

[NufSaid]

These update articles are helpful. It reminds me that this app even exists.

 

[macrlz9]

To everyone trashing the Invites app, are you really happy with Evite? Every time I get an Evite invitation I’m like UGGHHGGGHH!

I get it’s free but the ads, popups and horrible UI just don’t do it for me.

I do wish Apple Invites had an option to remind guests when the date is approaching so I don’t have to manually, but that’s probably my only complaint.

 

[verdi1987]

If, like me, you understand “invite” to be a verb (and “invitation” to be the noun”), you probably struggled to decode the headline too!

Personally, I hate it, but “invite” as a noun has been around since the 17th Century.

 

[WilliApple]

 

[jbc25]

Hilarious. This app represents everything wrong with Apple right now.

 

[JustARumor]

I tried using this once, none of my guests could figure it out or it just wasn't a smooth process.
Its nice on the host side, but the guest side has too much friction to be usable.

Agreed. It’s not too bad for iOS users, but our Android friends consistently get confused about the whole account thing. To be fair, however, at least some of that is because many of them see “Apple” and just assume it’s something from an alien planet that they can’t use in any shape or form. They don’t actually read the screen.

That said, we have gotten our Android friends to RSVP in the app, albeit with some explanation from us and encouragement to go ahead and try it. The biggest hurdle we’ve run into is the number of people who are participating, which is limited to 100. My wife throws an annual party where she invites maybe 60-80 people. First of all, they don’t mention the 100 limit in the interface until you actually hit it, but the bigger issue is that it also counts guests that invitees add. So if someone says they want to bring two people with them (maybe their spouse and a kid), then they’re going to count as three participants. And with 60 to 80 initial invitees, you can quickly run into that 100 limit. And when you hit it, you’re just stuck; people can’t even continue to RSVP, including the ones that you initially sent it to. So now you have a real mess on your hands. When this happened to us last year, we ended up having to create a secondary invitation and send it to a couple dozen of the people on the initial list (and also uninvited them from that initial list) so that we spread the load, but that created complete mass because we had two lists to manage and the guests on each list couldn’t see the other list’s guests to know who is coming, defeating one of the key points of the app.

To everyone trashing the Invites app, are you really happy with Evite? Every time I get an Evite invitation I’m like UGGHHGGGHH!

I get it’s free but the ads, popups and horrible UI just don’t do it for me.

I do wish Apple Invites had an option to remind guests when the date is approaching so I don’t have to manually, but that’s probably my only complaint.

Yes, all of the free solutions that are out there that people use all the time, including Evite, are super annoying with all of the ads and spam that I’m sure they’re setting me up for. It would be great if Apple’s solution worked better.

 

[jole]

I am an Apple fanboy, BUT have completely given up Apple ever understanding the following:

A collaboration app/service MUST work equally well for everyone regardless if they own an Apple device.

Apple logic remains "we'll make it work best (or only) on Apple devices, and this way our users will sell Apple devices to others". This does not work. Committed Apple users (like me) would never have the audacity of insisting to have a video call on Facetime, discussion on Apple Messages, or document collaboration on Apple Pages unless they are 100% certain everyone involved in the collaboration — now or in future — has an Apple device. This practically means never in work settings where you cannot be sure.

 

[Gsmaniac]

This app would be so much better if you could use it to create and send e-greeting cards.

 

[hagar]

Typical Tim Cook app. He probably giggles when he talks about it.

A trillion dollar company and you think Tim Cook even knows about the existence of this app?

 

[RealE]

It doesn’t require an Apple account for RSVPing guests. They can just use an email address. If the email is associated with an existing Apple account it’ll ask them to log in with that but it does not require them to have an Apple account.

I still find that intrusive and too much to ask for. If I send you the link to the invite then you should have all the info you need and be able to RSVP.