The new Apple Invites app
Apple has launched its Apple Invites app for iPhone, a way to help arrange events, parties, and any occasion, with invitations, RSVP managing, plus shared photo albums and music.
Reportedly known internally as Confetti, Apple Invites was expected to be launched for testing among employees. But instead it has now been released publicly, and is appears to be currently rolling out to all users.
“With Apple Invites, an event comes to life from the moment the invitation is created, and users can share lasting memories even after they get together,” Brent Chiu-Watson, Apple’s senior director of Worldwide Product Marketing for Apps and iCloud, said in a statement. “Apple Invites brings together capabilities our users already know and love across iPhone, iCloud, and Apple Music, making it easy to plan special events.”
Apple says that once a user has set up an event in Apple Invites, all their invited attendees can contribute to it. So anyone on the invitation list can add photos and videos, plus there are collaborative Apple Music shared playlists.
The user setting up the event must be an iCloud+ subscriber, but attendees do not have to be — and don’t even have to have an Apple Account.
Any attendee can control what details about them are viewable by others on the invitation list, and can choose to leave the event group at any time. Apple also says that they have the ability to report an event, though it’s not clear to whom.
The organizer can also cancel the whole event. They are certainly in control over Apple Maps directions, plus they can manage all RSVP replies to stay on top of who is and is not coming.
Apple Invites is a free app. It does require an iCloud+ subscription for the event organizer, with costs of that starting at $0.99 per month.
At time of writing, Apple Invites is still rolling out and it’s not clear whether it will be available worldwide, though AppleInsider has downloaded it in the US and the UK. Apple notes only that some features will not be available in all regions or in all languages, but that appears to refer to all of iCloud+.
