Testing Apple's New Invites App for Event Planning

Apple today surprised us with a new Invites app, which is designed for planning events like birthday parties, vacations, and baby showers. We checked it out in our latest video to see how it works, what you can use it for, and to demonstrate all of the different features in the app.


Invites is a standalone app that you can download from the App Store, but it's also got an accompanying iCloud+ service. You need an ‌iCloud‌+ subscription to create an invite to an event, but there is no subscription needed to join an event. In fact, you don't even need an Apple device. People without an Apple device can be invited to an event and can join and see event details from a web browser, similar to how ‌iCloud‌ works on any device through a browser.

Creating an event is a simple process. You tap on the "+" button, and then there's an interface that walks you through each step. Apple offers a selection of backgrounds to choose from, some of which feature emoji characters and some that are event appropriate with balloons, confetti candy, popcorn, and more. You can also choose a photo from your Photos app or make an image with Image Playground if you have an Apple Intelligence-capable device.

After selecting a background, you can add an event title, a date and time, a location, and include a description that has information your guests need to know. There are options to set up a Shared Album that all attendees can contribute to during and after the event, plus there is an option to create a collaborative Apple Music playlist.

When an event is ready to go, you can create a link that you can send out to a group of people through Messages or email. You can also send individual invites with a unique link for each person, though you need to give the app access to your Contacts for that. You can choose to allow anyone with the link to join, or you can turn on approvals so you'll need to greenlight anyone who requests to attend. Event creators can cancel an event at any time, change details, and remove attendees.

If you receive a link to an invite, you'll be able to tap in and choose whether you're able to attend, not attend, or maybe attend. All invitees and the event creator can see who is going to an event, and Apple automatically adds weather information and directions to the event location.

Weather information will be general for events that are several weeks or months out, but will get more specific as the event date approaches. The location listing can be tapped and it will open up in Maps with turn-by-turn directions.

Invite creators can add notes that are sent out to everyone to provide updates on an upcoming event, and the selected playlist can be played from the Invite interface. ‌Photos‌ can be added to shared albums at any time, and will be available to all attendees.

Events are shown in a card-style interface in the Invites app, and you can swipe between both events you've created and events you're attending. The app has sections for past events and for drafts that you've created but haven't sent out yet.

Will you use the Invites app? Let us know in the comments below.

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Top Rated Comments

Radin.Y Avatar
12 weeks ago
It looks goofy. These features should have been standard for the calendar app ages ago.
Score: 32 Votes (Like | Disagree)
ignatius345 Avatar
12 weeks ago
I don't entirely hate the idea of this, but any shot I have at using it kinda goes out the window with that fact that it doesn't work on a Mac.

Fact is, if I'm planning an event that's much past the "text or email a few people" level of complexity, that means I'm opening up my calendar, looking through my contacts, maybe making some kind of graphic and writing out the invite text itself... At that point, I'm 1000% sitting down at my Mac, just like I would the minute there are multiple windows and true multitasking involved in putting the information together.

It's the same reason I will generally go to my Mac to plan a trip or comparison shop for something expensive. No way am I going to suffer through all that crap on an iOS screen, switching between apps over and over again. It's just a miserable and error-prone experience.
Score: 20 Votes (Like | Disagree)
cflem Avatar
12 weeks ago
I don't get how a $3T company can put out apps like Journal, Sports, and now Invites... without making them universal... no iPad or Mac apps... Just wild... That is absolutely not difficult to do.
Score: 18 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Jumpthesnark Avatar
12 weeks ago
Like Dan says in the video, it may be a good way to get rid of using FB or invite-specific services like Evite, which mix usefulness with intrusive spam, because they need the intrusive spam - it's their business model.

Which is a good feature. Yes, people in the forums are complaining loudly about "walled garden" and other MR forum clichés, and also that invite creation is restricted to iCloud+ subscribers (at a baseline price of .99/month, oh the humanity!). I'd rather have something like this than something that is 100% guaranteed to spam me with emails and ads. Do people expect services to be free and ad-free? Pick your poison.

In the end, it's an optional app. If you don't want it, don't download it. If Apple had included this as part of the OS, people here would be screaming bloody murder about software bloat and Apple working on software that isn't what they want.
Score: 15 Votes (Like | Disagree)
daio Avatar
12 weeks ago
Yes I’ll use it, if and only if my android-using friends can also respond. Otherwise pointless
Score: 13 Votes (Like | Disagree)
jz0309 Avatar
12 weeks ago

Will you use the Invites app?
No.
Doesn’t add value to me
Score: 11 Votes (Like | Disagree)