Most of you have an Apple iPhone in your hand or a Mac on your desk. And chances you’ve got a birthday or a special event coming. If you’re thinking of sending out an event invite, you might as well try Apple’s new Invites app, which launched today. The app almost replaces ad-filled third-party options like Evite and Partiful, at least for Apple users, to corral folks together in the well-coifed, walled garden way.
We knew Apple Invites was coming this week. The rumors about what’s next from Apple are usually on the money if it’s loud enough that it’s circulating the blogs and on Bloomberg, too. Apple describes the Invites app as a tool for creating “unique invitations” and bringing “people together for life’s most exciting moments.” Yes, that means celebrating that you finally figured out how to unclog a drain without an expensive phone call to a plumber. That’s something worth celebrating! Most people would melt into a puddle and cry in front of the kitchen sink. But you? You conquered the fear of domesticity alone. You deserve to throw yourself a party.
You can create an invite through the browser-based app for Apple Invites, which you log into using your Apple account or the app on a mobile device. I made an event invite through Chrome on my Windows machine, and it’s about as seamless as using one of those other services I mentioned, but without all the pop-ups and interstitials asking me to attach an Amazon wish list to the event.
Pick a name for the event, the date and time, and don’t forget to establish a location. Once that’s in there, Invites will populate information on the weather outlook for that specific day, and a quick Apple Maps shortcut will be provided so people can see where they need to be. You can select to add a collaborative Apple Music playlist and/or Photos album, which you can pre-populate with pictures to help set the stage for the event.
Apple Invites on the Web.
The iCloud integration for Apple Invites lets you start the invitation on the web and finish it later on the iPhone. If your connection is solid, it’s instantaneous for all devices pinging the cloud. When you’re done setting up the invitation, you can invite people from other platforms to RSVP using a shareable link or from your contacts. I sent the link to some friends and colleagues to see how the RSVP mechanism works. The only person who had trouble with Apple Invites was on a developer account, which required them to log in to see it. Everyone else was able to pop in and leave their reply.
The other essential part of Apple Invites is its integration with Apple Intelligence. Any RSVP updates you receive will be bundled into the periodic daily summary on the lock screen. Apple also hopes you’ll use Image Playground to generate images of yourself as the header imagery for these invitations. As you can imagine, I used it to create a picture of myself with a hard hat on and confetti in the background. Because when you’re celebrating the little wins in life, like unclogging a drain, being silly about it with the image generation tool is at least one way to call out the absurdity of what we call life.
If you want to use the Apple Invites app, grab it from the App Store or try it on the web at iCloud. Apple notes you must have an iCloud+ subscription to host an event, though anyone can attend.