Apple Invites App Gets Co-Hosting

[gummybear2026]

Apple loves making useless apps.

 

[enigmatut]

…

Given Apple’s privacy stance, I trust (and actually prefer) them for this sort of thing versus one of the many other evite platforms. I simply don’t trust those platforms with my data… either as the sender or the receiver. (Nothing pisses me off more than getting a text invite to something and when I RSVP, I find that someone has uploaded my contact details to some random platform I’ve never heard of.)

…

I’m not militant about not using the other apps, but my Apple-hating friends who (somewhat ironically) are also very privacy-focused will never be convinced of Apple’s privacy record, and they sure as spit won’t create (or use some dusty bygone-and-now-unused) Apple account to RSVP.

So honestly when I host I just use Partiful and occasionally someone will directly text me their RSVP instead of using the app and I take a breath a move on, haha.

 

[enigmatut]

Let me know when you go multi-platform and this app becomes actually useful.

It’s possible to RSVP on the web, but requires using your Apple ID, which my Apple-hating green-bubble friends don’t have and certainly have no plans to create one. So I’m rooting for no-login RSVP.

EDIT: apparently one can RSVP without logging in, but it still requires entering an email address.

 

[Rafagon]

There should be different levels of co-host.

Co-host level 10 can change the event title.
Can uninvite people.
Can promote an invitee to Co-host.
Can cancel an event.
Can demote co-hosts to a lower level.
Can promote co-hosts to a higher level.
Can control the weather at the event.

Level 9 has several nice abilities but cannot touch a level 10 co-host.

Level 8... etc.

All the way down to Level 1 Co-host, which has barely any special powers.

 

[danieldk]

If you dig even deeper, Apple has stayed out of online social media and instead fosters real world social interactions

Real-world social interactions, but only with people that also have iPhones and speak English (or maybe Spanish).

By the way, it's not completely true that Apple has stayed out of online social media. Does anyone remember Ping?

iTunes Ping - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

I think they hoped to bootstrap their own social media thing by leveraging the large iTunes user base they had, but yeah, not a big success.

Also, arguably iMessage is social media.

 

[ifxf]

I know nobody that uses their Apple account for email.

 

[PsykX]

Let me know when you go multi-platform and this app becomes actually useful.

Anyone can join. The creation is iOS only though.

 

[jacquesvfd]

I'm surprised at how many updates this app gets. Seems like lots of other apps, that seem to be way more useful, wither on the vine & are eventually removed. But somehow, this one keeps getting upgrades.

It might be an intern project or something.

 

[hoytisay!]

does anyone still use this app

Actually for anyone hosting personal events such as children’s, teenagers’ and family parties, Christmas gatherings etc, it’s an absolute GODSEND app. With the shared playlist & photo album options, gone are the days of sharing pics from events via individual messages. As someone who project-managed domestic and international graduate student recruitment and engagement events for a world top-30 institution in my professional life, I’m very familiar with the commercial event platforms on the market. There is NOTHING like this app for ordinary folks. I hosted a surprise party last month, sending out 60 invites via the app. I had a 65% uptake on using it (some with begging, some with a wee bit of coaxing). The other 35% who refused to engage — and for different reasons (including one iPhone owner who displayed their neo-Luddite ignorance by telling me, “it asked me to create an account, and I’m not doing that”) — meant I had to manage comms for this surprise party via SMS, email, 4 meta apps, and the telephone! Many of us forget and probably quite a few of us don’t know that when we receive a printed “hard copy” invitation via snail mail, the etiquette (aka SOPs) about RSVP-ing is that one follows a host’s lead about how/when to respond. The vast array of digital tools, OS, devices and communications preferences make hosting private functions far more stressful, not less. Can Invites be improved? Absolutely. There are some essential features and integrations I would love to see in a future build. But as it already stands, it’s a game-changer! It already features calendar integration, weather, map directions to the location, the ability to track rsvps, and allow hosts to send guests notifications about any last-minute changes, etc. It provides a “single source of truth” about the event! And it creates a source of digital memory for everyone that easily sits within iCloud storage. In my opinion and based on my experience, it’s one of Apple’s truly community-building innovations.