[HN Gopher] Apple Invites
___________________________________________________________________
Apple Invites
Author : openchampagne
Score : 242 points
Date : 2025-02-04 16:21 UTC (6 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.apple.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.apple.com)
| sjacob wrote:
| Looks like an Apple version of Partiful?
| sergiomattei wrote:
| Exactly what it is.
| I_ wrote:
| Was about to say this. Though less useful, because Partiful
| doesn't require an app so can be used by anyone.
|
| I wonder how much the network effect may be leveraged for apps
| like these, to the benefit or detriment of apps like Partiful
| in comparison with Invites.
|
| I know Facebook's last useful feature appears to be events in
| many circles.
| killerdhmo wrote:
| Apple Invites can be used on the web.
| https://www.icloud.com/invites/
| yread wrote:
| WTF is this? How do they make money? They have picture of 10+
| people as a "team", on their help page
|
| https://help.partiful.com/hc/en-us/articles/26526557943067-H...
|
| it just says "We offer party add-ons and merch on our online
| store!"
|
| Their online store has like 2 tshirts, stickers, sun glasses
| and a bag?!
| kube-system wrote:
| They probably don't make much money. Their wikipedia page
| says they got $20m series A funding.
| rafram wrote:
| It's... unclear. Right now their stated business model is
| explicitly to burn VC cash:
| https://x.com/partiful/status/1620481353396658176
| kyletns wrote:
| VC for now, offer ticketing with a fee later.
| freedomben wrote:
| That's actually an interesting plan! That totally might
| work
| dogman123 wrote:
| RIP Partiful
| openchampagne wrote:
| Well, Partiful is free, available on Android, and doesn't
| require an iPhone or iCloud+ subscription to use. In contrast,
| this seems more exclusive. For now, Partiful lives to fight
| another day.
| darknavi wrote:
| Hoping they can figure out a funding model before this space
| becomes very crowded with many people ditching Facebook.
| billbrown wrote:
| They have! https://help.partiful.com/hc/en-
| us/articles/26526557943067-H...
| scarface_74 wrote:
| And also doesn't make enough money to be sustainable...
| anotherhue wrote:
| > Creation of invitations requires an iCloud+ subscription.
| nitinreddy88 wrote:
| This is first thing I noticed and Uninstalled
| kylebenzle wrote:
| But think of the status symbolism! To know that someone has
| had to spend so much $$$ just to send you a message! Next
| they should do it for phone calls too!
| nozzlegear wrote:
| Do you really think status symbolism is what they were
| going for when the cheapest iCloud+ plan is $0.99 USD per
| month?
| ARandomerDude wrote:
| > Anyone can reply to invitations. Creation of invitations
| requires an iCloud+ subscription.
| cglan wrote:
| DOA
| kylebenzle wrote:
| I think its great this is an "Apple only" thing. People
| willing to pay extra $$$ for a status symbol should stick
| together.
| crossroadsguy wrote:
| Status symbol? Here's my take on it - iPhone is dozen a
| dime here in my country now (3rd world) but iCloud,
| iMessage are not. iCloud+ is definitely not. People are
| used to WhatsApp here (just to take an example of messaging
| apps) and even if they ever stumble upon iMessage they
| immediately see what a decidedly inferior and opaque oddity
| that thing is.
| nozzlegear wrote:
| It's literally $0.99/month in the US for the cheapest
| iCloud+ plan. That's not much of a status symbol.
|
| Source: https://support.apple.com/en-us/108047
| darknavi wrote:
| I'm surprised more people here don't pay for iCloud for at
| least the bottom tier storage (50GB). The free 5GB is almost
| worthless in 2025 for doing nightly backups. I don't back up
| with Apple Photos but even with "just" app data my nightly
| auto backups are like 10-15GB.
| crossroadsguy wrote:
| Even on iPhone there are much better and much cheaper
| solutions out there (not to mention cross platform) and
| those have everything a couple of times better than
| Photos.app and then a bit more. Maybe except Apple's troupe
| of privacy claims.
| scarface_74 wrote:
| Can I use these more and better alternatives to back up
| everything on all of my iOS devices?
| willseth wrote:
| Like what? I use Backblaze B2 to backup all my non-Apple
| stuff and that's $6/TB/mo. iCloud's 2TB plan is $10/mo,
| so actually cheaper per TB, but with Backblaze you only
| pay for what you use so it may be cheaper. But pricing is
| pretty comparable, and I can't even imagine what a PITA
| it would be to use B2 for Apple stuff, so certainly seems
| like a good value. Are you saying there are even cheaper
| solutions that also have good Apple integration?
| r00fus wrote:
| That's their beta group before releasing it to all for iOS (and
| possibly Android later on).
| pseudalopex wrote:
| Where did they say this?
| king_magic wrote:
| ctrl-f "android", expected result
| tssva wrote:
| "anyone can RSVP, regardless of whether they have an Apple
| Account or Apple device." It's in the 1st paragraph.
| anotherhue wrote:
| > Creation of invitations requires an iCloud+ subscription.
| ZeroCool2u wrote:
| Maybe it's just me, but seems a bit extreme for what amounts to
| a fancy calendar invite.
| turnsout wrote:
| What's really extreme is that you need an iCloud+
| subscription if you want more than 5GB of iCloud storage...
| so requiring the subscription for this app is not much of a
| hurdle
| r00fus wrote:
| Honestly I think it's still a large enough market to get
| traction. They can always open it up further if it really
| catches on.
| turtlebits wrote:
| Extreme? A subscription costs $1/mo and includes other
| features.
| RIMR wrote:
| >other features
|
| Yeah, for people who own Apple hardware...
| turtlebits wrote:
| Of the 12 services/apps that show up in the iCloud web
| UI, only "Find My" isn't usable without Apple hardware.
| microflash wrote:
| Yeah, that's a dealbreaker right there. On a positive note,
| hopefully, this will be enough impedance to prevent widespread
| adoption in my social circle.
| ggm wrote:
| the iBrand hasn't done a good job of explaining that no apple
| hardware product has to be bought, to sign up to this cloud.
|
| In some ways, "Cloud, by Apple" would have been better because
| it could have had a subsidiary tagline 'open to anyone' -where
| iPhone, iPad are pretty solidly walled garden devices.
|
| I'm not in marketing. I am sure smart marketing people would
| point out downsides. I just think iCloud "says" -not for me,
| unless I have an iPhone.
| jppope wrote:
| correct me if I'm wrong but this used to be a main feature of
| facebook. Are they starting to compete?
| punnerud wrote:
| A lot of people are not using Facebook, so it's easier to use
| custom tools that only require a browser and send SMS/e-mail
| for alerts.
|
| Some of them have Facebook, but turned off all notifications
| and never check for updates. So they can be counted as not
| having it.
| ddalex wrote:
| Somebody reinvented the calendar ?
| kube-system wrote:
| If it's like Partiful, which it looks like it is, it simplifies
| the management of events a lot more than just being a calendar.
| Partiful helps to find a time for an event that works for
| everyone, automates reminders, RSVPs for >1 person, and also
| allows the organizer to send messages to attendees without
| creating some big group thread that turns into a mess.
| sebmellen wrote:
| After spending $49 on a crappy baby shower invite sending tool
| I'm glad to hear this. Could save a lot of people a lot of money!
| Hopefully it works for non Apple users too.
| duxup wrote:
| The organizing people ecosystem is a mess. It's nice to see
| something new.
| KolmogorovComp wrote:
| What's missing when sending invites via mail, or a message on a
| social media they're in?
| xcrjm wrote:
| You need to know your friends' addresses for mail. For both,
| you have to send out invites individually. People want to
| make a list of names and phone numbers and send out a blast.
| They then want a low-effort, centralized place to receive and
| manage RSVPs.
| cptcobalt wrote:
| This era of new experimental apps from Apple (Invites, Journal,
| Sports) has me excited about the future of app design. Vibrant
| colors, bold personality-driven typography, etc. The SwiftUI
| style onboarding screen that features the carousel is really fun.
| This approach feels very Apple'y, but gives me more freedom to
| explore designs for my own app to have its own unique voice on
| iOS, while still feeling in-family with Apple's other more
| experimental UI.
|
| There are a few misses.
|
| - I already declined a friend's invite, but that doesn't get auto
| filtered away, so my "decline" is still the primary thing the app
| has to show me. It's still my only invite, so maybe it gets
| filtered to the back of the card stack if there are multiple?
|
| - I also don't seem to be able to see friends I know who were
| invited to the party (but have not yet responded). Perhaps it was
| because it was shared as an invite URL in a group chat rather
| than manually inviting everyone?
| duxup wrote:
| It might be thought of as a bug but I love that the Apple
| Sports app announces scores for a live game before it hits TV.
|
| In this day and age of everyone multitasking ... that's a hell
| of a great feature to be able to say "guys look!".
|
| For a while I was amazing my kids predicting touchdowns, but
| they caught on ;)
| cptcobalt wrote:
| Less latency is a _feature_ , not a bug. We've just grown too
| used to latency in everything we use.
| dylan604 wrote:
| The lag between OTA broadcast and cable/streaming is
| insanely bad. We had several screens tuned in to World Cup,
| and the group watching the OTA broadcast would cheer 15-20
| seconds before the cable/streaming screens would. Knowing
| it exists is one thing, but seeing it in that manner puts
| it on a whole other level
| mrguyorama wrote:
| Why does it matter that information from a sports event
| _that you are 1000 miles away from_ gets to you 3 seconds
| later?
|
| Why do you care? Why is it a negative?
| songshu wrote:
| 3 seconds would not matter to me. As it is, latencies are
| much higher and afford time for my family group chat
| (WhatsApp) to "spoil" events that I have not yet seen. I
| don't want to ignore the chat. :(
| Invictus0 wrote:
| The journal app is freaking garbage. It took 2 major iOS
| versions before they added the ability to export your notes!
| p410n3 wrote:
| So since RCS is now here, Apple needed a new way to force people
| into buying iPhones by direct social pressure from peers.
|
| (In the US)
| nozzlegear wrote:
| From the FAQ1:
|
| > _Do invitees need to have an Apple device with the app to
| attend an event?_
|
| > Apple Invites is for everyone. Guests don't need the app, an
| Apple device, or an account to RSVP to an event.
|
| 1 www.icloud.com/invites
| h1fra wrote:
| yes, please one more reason to delete facebook
| koalalorenzo wrote:
| I really needed this, I have not used Facebook Events in a while
| though that is the only way to easily engage and plan: the "ease
| of use" (as lazyness of not having to deal with many other
| issues) is way better than Calendar invites.
|
| I'll try to use it on my next event with my friends, as I am
| avoiding as much as I can Meta, and Calendar / ical are not the
| best to deal with this kind of event! :)
| DashAnimal wrote:
| Why not Partiful? It's already widely adopted, has all the
| features you need, isn't owned by a big tech company, doesn't
| require an account, and is multiplatform.
|
| Signed, an Android user
| cglan wrote:
| everyone I know uses partiful for events these days
| scarface_74 wrote:
| Maybe you should get out of your bubble...
| kyletns wrote:
| Maybe you should get more invites
| scarface_74 wrote:
| How many people do you think really use it?
| rconti wrote:
| The thread on Apple Invites is the first time I'm hearing of
| Partiful, and I suspect that's the case for many here.
| scarface_74 wrote:
| How long do you think a money losing startup will be around
| before you read about "our amazing journey"?
| morsecodist wrote:
| Unfortunately, I have to hope this doesn't see widespread
| adoption. If this becomes the standard it will just add to
| already existing social pressure to get an iPhone in the US.
| xattt wrote:
| That's the point: get an iPhone or be left out. But don't
| worry, there will be a web version...
| kingnothing wrote:
| > anyone can RSVP, regardless of whether they have an Apple
| Account or Apple device.
| pulisse wrote:
| > anyone can RSVP, regardless of whether they have an Apple
| Account or Apple device.
| frereubu wrote:
| But no-one without an Apple Account can create them - you can
| only respond to Apple-having friends. There is social
| pressure in that too.
| EA-3167 wrote:
| A company creating a useful tool that encourages people to
| buy their product is incredibly boring, typical, and not at
| all controversial until it's Apple doing it.
| unethical_ban wrote:
| It may have something to do with the duopolistic nature
| of mobile phones and the absolute size and dominance of
| Apple.
| EA-3167 wrote:
| I suspect it has a lot more to do with the concentration
| of mobile devs and FOSS types here, along with people who
| really can't understand that not everyone wants their
| phone to be something other than "Working out of the
| box."
| freedomben wrote:
| Ah yes the classic false dichotomy, that it either has to
| be closed/proprietary/locked down and "just works" or it
| can be open but unusable. In reality the two are
| completely orthogonal. There's nothing magical about
| publishing the source that suddenly changes the code or
| the product and breaks it. If Apple open sourced ever
| line of code they have tonight, would iPhones suddenly
| stop working?
| EA-3167 wrote:
| So, what's stopping you from becoming Apple's
| competition? If a significant number of people crave your
| idea of FOSS and you have ideas to make a superior
| product, I'm sure the market will reward you.
| nickthegreek wrote:
| Im just excited about a possible alternative to FB for
| this kinda stuff.
| duxup wrote:
| If I'm inviting someone and they RSVP, that transaction is
| successful and done to me.
|
| If they use some other system (and people do) I'll respond
| via that system.
| WorldMaker wrote:
| You need a Google Account to use Google Calendar.
|
| Anyone can have an Apple Account whether or not they own an
| Apple Device.
|
| In this case, too, you can create Invites on icloud.com on
| non-Apple devices. Including the webpage seems nicely
| responsive and can probably make them in an Android Chrome
| tab if you wanted.
|
| The only remaining obstacle is that it isn't a free feature
| of an Apple Account, but requires an iCloud+ subscription.
| But that's useful for Apple Music and Apple TV+ and other
| products, too, many of which work just fine on non-Apple
| devices as well.
| frereubu wrote:
| Fair points.
| cosmotic wrote:
| Non-Apple users cant contribute to the playlist. No mention
| on the impact to the shared photo album. If its just a normal
| shared Photos.app album, non-apple users are locked out
| there, too.
| nickthegreek wrote:
| Non Apple Music users cant contribute. There are currently
| around 93 million Apple Music subscribers.
| morsecodist wrote:
| I think that's preferable to them being totally unable to
| RSVP but you're still going to be the friend that can't make
| the invite. It's comparable to iMessage. You can still talk
| to Android users but it's a notably worse experience.
| ilrwbwrkhv wrote:
| Social pressures aren't real. I have never ever had a facebook
| account, instagram account, a linkedin account, an iphone or
| any other things people fall for.
| ahmeneeroe-v2 wrote:
| Im literally sick over the thought of the increased social
| pressure
| xcrjm wrote:
| Your friends joking with you to get an iPhone is making you
| sick?
| dlachausse wrote:
| I mean this completely seriously and as a concerned internet
| stranger...if that is literally true for you, please go seek
| mental health services right now. That's not normal or
| healthy.
|
| All my social circles where we communicate over SMS/RCS group
| text chats consist of a little gentle ribbing about "those
| darn green bubble people" and that's about the extent of it.
| The Android users occasionally respond in kind by showing off
| some cool new feature that Samsung or Google came up with
| that Apple hasn't copied yet and everybody laughs it all off.
| sentientslug wrote:
| To me this argument makes no sense. Apple should never
| introduce any new features or services to their ecosystem
| because it might increase "social pressure" to get an iPhone?
| morsecodist wrote:
| I would say the more a given app/feature has network effects
| the more invested I am in it being cross-platform. For
| example, iMessage and Facetime are highly social. Apple was
| resistant to adopting the RCS protocol for iMessage, though
| they eventually caved and now the experience of texting
| between iPhones and Androids is better for both parties so it
| seems preferable to me.
|
| Meanwhile, we take it for granted that there is a protocol
| for audio calls and text messages but not for video calls. I
| would like to more easily video call people with iPhones, and
| doing so would be technically possible but I can't because
| Apple benefits from the network effect. If I were to get an
| iPhone it would not be because Apple did a better job at
| creating a video call feature, it will be because people I
| know have iPhones and I want to call them. This seems like it
| gives incumbents in the space a large advantage because they
| can compete on having a user base and not on quality.
|
| Ironically, Apple itself developed such a protocol for events
| and RSVPs (ICS), at a time when they didn't have market
| dominance. This caught on and it is great. I can make a
| calendar event in Google Calendar, Outlook, or Apple Calendar
| and invite anyone from any of those platforms. They can RSVP
| and I can track their RSVPs and they can also create events
| in their systems and invite me. This is the kind of thing I
| like to encourage where possible.
| WorldMaker wrote:
| Apple Invites does provide ICS files for the events. (In
| the web version when not logged in to an Apple Account,
| after RSVPing.)
|
| Technically vCal/iCal/ICS (whichever name you prefer)
| _doesn 't_ actually support RSVPs. It isn't in the
| standards documents. In ancient Microsoft nomenclature that
| pseudo-standard (de facto standard) for RSVPs is the
| "Schedule+ protocol" named after an ancient dead
| predecessor to Outlook's Calendar which originated it. I
| don't know what Google or Apple call it, and it is such a
| weird dance of (usually) auto-deleted email messages, so
| certainly has room for improvement as a protocol.
|
| It would be neat to encourage a new "modern" standard
| there. Seems like something more web-based (JSON REST API?)
| than email-based might be a more "natural" API today.
| (Maybe Apple Invite can help lead the way, I don't know if
| that's on their TODO list.)
| kimi wrote:
| What's wrong with "create a Whatsapp group and invite all your
| friends there, and if they don't care they just mute/leave"?
| duxup wrote:
| For me it would be ... I don't use Whatsapp and I don't know
| many who do.
|
| Can I send invites from Whatsapp and get responses from people
| who don't use it?
|
| Honestly I've never received one.
| frizlab wrote:
| I'm in the EU, don't use whatsapp but know a sh*tton of
| people around me do. It annoys me greatly and I truly hope
| I'll be able to move them away little by little now that RCS
| is here.
| dismalaf wrote:
| Annoys you why? Signing up just requires a phone number...
| It's the least invasive of all the social network type
| things. Also RCS hasn't been widespread until recently,
| WhatsApp has been around for over a decade.
| ggregoire wrote:
| they don't use Whatsapp in the US
| parl_match wrote:
| I don't have Whatsapp, but I do have an iPhone.
| ahmeneeroe-v2 wrote:
| Americans don't really do whatsapp
| tssva wrote:
| In the US WhatsApp is not widely used. I technically have an
| account but never installed the app when I moved to my iPhone.
| I had it installed for years but never used it on my prior
| Android phones.
| hombre_fatal wrote:
| It's worse than first class RSVP. Also where I live, it's a
| social faux pas to mass invite people to a Whatsapp group as an
| event invitation for various reasons: it's annoying, it
| publishes your invite list, and everyone's first impression of
| your event would be a bunch of people leaving, lol. And you
| probably don't want a group chat for most events unless it's a
| group of friends who already knows each other. Nobody does it.
| nickthegreek wrote:
| Id prefer to cut Meta's social product use in my life to a
| minimum.
| WorldMaker wrote:
| Some of the timing of this app seems coincided with something
| of a large exodus from Meta/Facebook's apps. WhatsApp never
| quite caught on in the US, but Facebook Events did. (They are
| both Meta/Facebook apps today. The feature sets are, somewhat
| similar here.) A lot of my friends have been looking for
| replacements for Facebook Events, so this is somewhat timely
| for those that like Apple apps as a replacement.
| rconti wrote:
| I don't use WhatsApp, though I probably have it installed on my
| phone.
|
| I'm in a birthday party planning group on Signal, which is
| another app I hadn't used in years. It's easy to forget I have
| messages there because it's not on my home screen, or the
| notification settings are different from my normal Messages
| app, or I just forget to look.
|
| Each time you use a "different" app for something that's not in
| your habit loop, your response time gets delayed and you're
| less likely to notice communications. An app needs to get
| fairly regular use to become as useful as a primary app, even
| if, from a technical standpoint, there's nothing wrong with
| them.
| Zak wrote:
| I would expect most people to turn on notifications for
| anything that's reasonably described as a messaging app with
| similar settings to the ones they're already in the habit of
| using. Certainly disabling or silencing notifications would
| make it less useful.
| scarface_74 wrote:
| WhatsApp is not that popular in the US - especially for adults
| jbentley1 wrote:
| Unless they add some basic functionality to include Android
| users, this is the evilest use of their walled garden yet.
| kube-system wrote:
| From the third sentence of TFA:
|
| > anyone can RSVP, regardless of whether they have an Apple
| Account or Apple device.
| probably_wrong wrote:
| The article also says "collaborative playlists allow Apple
| Music subscribers to create a curated event soundtrack" so
| there's clearly a subset of functionality that's only
| available for certain users. There's "integration with Maps
| and Weather", but how does that look like in Android? Can I
| still "contribute to Shared Albums"?
| killerdhmo wrote:
| Shared Albums, Apple Web, are all available on the web.
| kingnothing wrote:
| > anyone can RSVP, regardless of whether they have an Apple
| Account or Apple device.
| silisili wrote:
| I'm skeptical of the implementation, given iMessage. I'm sure
| Android users RSVPs will show up in a green toxic fume cloud
| or some such.
| furyofantares wrote:
| Did you know that in iMessage, Android user texts are the
| same color as iOS user messages? It's true.
|
| As the iOS user, it is your own messages that are green or
| blue depending on whether it was sent using iMessage or
| SMS. It's useful feedback about whether your message was
| sent on a reliable channel.
|
| I know it became a whole thing and that Apple has allowed
| it to remain as such. But it's not really an apt analogy.
| saagarjha wrote:
| Do you not view RCS as being a reliable channel?
| ahmeneeroe-v2 wrote:
| The EU needs to regulate this
| duxup wrote:
| They don't need to because you can RSVP from an Android
| device.
| xcrjm wrote:
| They don't need to. Android users can do the most important
| thing advertised here (RSVP) without the app or an iPhone.
| Also, hopefully the EU has better things to do than
| constantly force Apple to support Android users (for free!)
| at the same level of quality as their own customers.
| cpach wrote:
| Do you really think so? I'm wary of walled gardens but as an
| EU citizen I think that we in the EU should try to innovate
| more and be more mindful of what regulations we put in place.
| lynndotpy wrote:
| They also seem to have a web-only version too, but it requires
| an Apple account. Refreshing coming from Apple.
| dlachausse wrote:
| In Apple's defense, they tend to have web versions of most of
| their iCloud services. They even recently released a web
| version of Apple Maps.
| dlachausse wrote:
| What's preventing Google from competing and making their own
| better version of this? I don't see where there's anything that
| Apple is doing here that couldn't be easily replicated by them
| using their own ecosystem.
| tonyedgecombe wrote:
| Google would stuff it full of adverts and tracking. For that
| reason it wouldn't be better.
| dlachausse wrote:
| That's not Apple's fault.
| thewebguyd wrote:
| Don't forget rename it a few times, add a messenger into
| it, then kill it.
| deelowe wrote:
| I'm not a fan of either doing this. I'm watching all open
| protocols slowly disappear and it's killing innovation in the
| industry.
| vzaliva wrote:
| then we will have 2 incompativle invite systems: form Apple
| and from Google.
|
| The correct way to do this is to publish an open standard/API
| so 3rd parties can participate.
| paradox460 wrote:
| They did, a decade ago. Google Plus invites had all these
| features and more, and Google decided to kill them off, in
| the usual fashion
| baggachipz wrote:
| Google Invites: Invite your friends!
|
| Google Invites is being discontinued.
|
| Google Party: Invite your friends!
|
| Google Party is being discontinued.
|
| Google Gathering: Invite your friends!
|
| Google Gathering is being discontinued.
| turtlebits wrote:
| You can generate a link to e-mail to anyone, which opens up a
| web page which you can RSVP from.
| nimz wrote:
| I tested it with a sample event and I don't see any way to
| RSVP without logging into an Apple account. Maybe I'm missing
| something?
| blueelephanttea wrote:
| > I tested it with a sample event and I don't see any way
| to RSVP without logging into an Apple account. Maybe I'm
| missing something?
|
| You are. I explicitly created a burner email and invited it
| to an event.
|
| When I navigated from the invite email I was prompted to
| sign in which I declined. It then allowed me to join the
| event after I confirmed with an emailed code.
|
| On joining the event I was able to set my name and send a
| note.
| nimz wrote:
| The way I tested it was to create Share link, then
| navigate to it in an incognito window on Desktop and try
| to RSVP. I am still unable RSVP without login. Perhaps it
| works without login if you explicitly invite a certain
| email.
| hk1337 wrote:
| That's a very pessimistic way to bring that up.
|
| I was thinking similar, except, "I wonder how this works with
| non-Apple users?". Instead of jumping straight to how evil this
| is.
| mvieira38 wrote:
| Imagine being a teen with an Android in the Apple Invite age,
| the bullying will go crazy
| ghaff wrote:
| The whole green bubble thing has got to be one of the
| stupidest status symbol things I've seen in a long time.
| Though I have no doubt there are many of them. If anything,
| it's maybe a good life lesson that many supposed status
| symbols are breathtakingly stupid to care about.
| mrguyorama wrote:
| >some supposed status symbols are breathtakingly stupid to
| care about.
|
| All status symbols are stupid, that's part of the point.
| That has never mattered. It doesn't matter how stupid a
| symbol is, it can still have tangible effects on you and
| your life.
|
| Humans are social animals first and foremost, and are not
| rational in any way. Tribalism is literally the point.
| ghaff wrote:
| You're not entirely wrong but also not my nor Apple's
| problem. Things like universities can be status symbols
| but they're mostly not entirely status symbols. Plenty of
| other things like that too.
|
| But if it's not bubble color, it will be the type of
| sneakers kids wear or whatever else is the fashion of the
| moment.
| probably_wrong wrote:
| Does anyone know how this interacts with guests using Android?
| All I see is "anyone is able to respond" but that was already
| possible with _literally_ anything else.
| dqv wrote:
| They use a web link.
| openchampagne wrote:
| "iCloud+ subscribers can create invitations, and anyone can
| RSVP, regardless of whether they have an Apple Account or Apple
| device"
|
| & When I create an Event in the app i see the ability to share
| via a Public Link, Mail, & Messages
| probably_wrong wrote:
| RSVPing is clearly accessible to everyone, but how about all
| the other features? Namely, the "integration with Maps and
| Weather" and "contribute to Shared Albums". I already know I
| can only contribute to the "curated event soundtrack" if I
| have an Apple Music subscription, but those other ones are
| still unclear.
| roddylindsay wrote:
| Brilliant move.
|
| The transition of the major social networks over the last 10-15
| years -- from being a space for friends to interact to being a
| space to consume content produced by "unconnected" entities like
| influencers -- has created a huge opening for someone to claim
| the friends and family network. There is no one better positioned
| (at least in the U.S. where iPhones are the majority handset)
| than Apple.
| aaronblohowiak wrote:
| Group texts and shared albums (iPhoto or Google photo if you
| have androids in the mix) are most of my social interaction
| already..
| mikepurvis wrote:
| This is what it's been for me as well, for several years--
| all meaningful friend-group interactions are now taking place
| in group chats, sadly this is entirely in Whatsapp and FB
| Messenger for me; would love if there was a reasonable
| migration path to getting these interactions entirely off of
| Meta properties.
| RIMR wrote:
| The problem is that by vendor-locking these services to Apple
| users, they create an environment that alienates non-Apple
| users. If they want to truly claim the friends & family
| network, they need to remember that everyone has friends &
| family that aren't in the Apple ecosystem.
|
| So long as Facebook remains available to everyone, even if the
| content feed is a mess, the event planning space is going to be
| more accessible to everyone and will end up being the defacto
| friends & family ecosystem.
|
| I'm not an iCloud+ member, so I can't go in an look for myself,
| but ideally this would be just a fancy way of extending your
| iCloud Calendar invites where Gmail, Outlook, etc. users can
| still create events and invite people in roughly the same way.
| If as a Linux & Android user I am only able to RSVP to Apple
| users' invites, but I am never able to invite them to anything
| myself, then I literally cannot embrace this product without
| investing considerable money into their hardware, which I am
| not going to do.
|
| Hell, if they featureset was compelling enough, and they had an
| iCloud app for non-Apple hardware platforms, I might actually
| consider being an iCloud+ member, but I guess it's not worth it
| to Apple to collect a monthly payment from me if I won't make
| the downpayment on an iPhone and a Macbook...
| blueelephanttea wrote:
| > Hell, if they featureset was compelling enough, and they
| had an iCloud app for non-Apple hardware platforms, I might
| actually consider being an iCloud+ member, but I guess it's
| not worth it to Apple to collect a monthly payment from me if
| I won't make the downpayment on an iPhone and a Macbook...
|
| You can create events from the web iCloud interface without
| an Apple device.
| mewse-hn wrote:
| > So long as Facebook remains available to everyone, even if
| the content feed is a mess, the event planning space is going
| to be more accessible to everyone and will end up being the
| defacto friends & family ecosystem.
|
| For now. We're in the process of seeing Twitter die like
| every other social network has died before it, Facebook will
| have it's time as well.
| RIMR wrote:
| Undoubtedly. I agree 100%. I still think that Apple needs
| to consider how accessible Facebook is/was if they want to
| produce a product capable of replacing any part of it.
| dialup_sounds wrote:
| I'm not convinced they're leaving a lot of money on the table
| by pitching a free app at a billion iPhone users vs. the
| famously lucrative Linux desktop market.
| Workaccount2 wrote:
| >If they want to truly claim the friends & family network,
| they need to remember that everyone has friends & family that
| aren't in the Apple ecosystem.
|
| They are completely aware of it an actively leverage it to
| use your friends and family against you to force you into
| Apple's ecosystem. It's the main reason why Android will have
| to get pretty bad before I bend to such incredibly dirty
| tactics.
| distantsounds wrote:
| Brilliant? Launching an app for creating events that requires
| you to 1) own an iDevice and 2) pay into, just to create
| events?
|
| I'll send an email for free, thankyouverymuch.
| sylens wrote:
| While I agree with your points in principle, the paywall may
| act as a way for them to handle spam/misuse more effectively
| stronglikedan wrote:
| This obviously offers more than just sending an email. And
| since the majority of Apple users aren't very tech savvy, I
| can see this catching on quickly.
| blueelephanttea wrote:
| > 1) own an iDevice
|
| You do not need to own an Apple device to either create
| events or join events.
|
| > I'll send an email for free, thankyouverymuch.
|
| This seems fine! There are open protocols (email, ics) if
| they work for you, but Apple specifically developed this in a
| way to neither require an Apple device or Apple Account to
| interact. Which is better than some of the competitors!
| (Facebook and Google tend to create social tools which
| explicitly require everyone to have accounts.)
| pphysch wrote:
| The first line of their press release:
|
| > Apple today introduced Apple Invites, a new app for
| iPhone
|
| If Android users have to login to a website to use this,
| what's the appeal? There are hundreds of simple
| meeting/event webapps out there, many not even requiring
| authentication.
| blueelephanttea wrote:
| > If Android users have to login to a website to use
| this, what's the appeal?
|
| I'm not trying to convince you or anyone else to use
| this. It just was pointing out you don't need Apple
| accounts or devices to participate opposed to something
| like Facebook events.
|
| > There are hundreds of simple meeting/event webapps out
| there
|
| Okay? Go crazy using those! But don't claim that this
| requires an Apple device to create or join events (like
| the OP I was responding to). And don't claim that this
| requires an Apple Account to join events (like many other
| commentators are).
| matsemann wrote:
| > _You do not need to own an Apple device to either create
| events_
|
| You need an "iCloud+" account to create, though. Which I as
| a non-apple user have no idea what is, and probably is
| useless for me to pay for not using anything apple
| beforehand.
| stevage wrote:
| I use a MacBook and I swear this is the first time I have
| heard of iCloud+.
| kmeisthax wrote:
| If you're paying for more iCloud storage, you have
| iCloud+.
| pkamb wrote:
| I think Apple already _has_ claimed the "friends and family
| network" via iMessage. Did Facebook go to a groups/influencer
| algorithm by choice or is it the result of IRL friend posters
| all moving to private chats once everyone got iPhones?
| john2x wrote:
| I'm still waiting for iMessage to work with Android phones.
| thesuitonym wrote:
| iMessage has been compatible with RCS for months now.
| 42772827 wrote:
| Except if you're on Google Fi, right?
|
| https://isgooglefircsyet.com/
| john2x wrote:
| A quick search suggests the Android user end needs to
| install 3rd party apps for it to work? Has that changed
| recently?
| Melatonic wrote:
| Usually you actually need to not use third party apps.
| RCS on Android is usually restricted to Google Messages
| (or maybe Samsungs built in messages app). Everyone else
| got the boot
|
| You also sometimes have to enable in the settings for
| Android Messages (and have a supported carrier). iMessage
| also has an option to enable RCS but I believe its on by
| default in the newer versions of iOS
| skissane wrote:
| > I think Apple already has claimed the "friends and family
| network" via iMessage.
|
| All the family/friends group chats I am in are WhatsApp.
|
| I use iMessage every day for 1-to-1 messaging but I don't
| really view it as distinct from SMS.
|
| For international communication, even 1-on-1 tends to be
| WhatsApp.
| eknkc wrote:
| Everytime iMessage is mentioned, I do a double take because
| it is almost non existent here in Turkey. And from what I
| hear, seems like most Europeans do not use it too.
|
| WhatsApp has like 99.9% market share here and I assume it is
| a lot bigger than anything else in the EU too.
|
| I wonder why is that though. Everyone around me has an iPhone
| basically and I haven't received a blue bubble in years. The
| messages app is not even on my home screen.
| stevage wrote:
| Can also report WhatsApp has 100% of the backpackers
| meeting each other market.
| pkamb wrote:
| As I understand it, many Americans (and all iPhones?) had
| unlimited-SMS phone plans circa 2009. So the pay-per-
| message economic conditions that caused many Europeans,
| etc., to switch to WhatsApp back in the day didn't do
| anything in the USA.
|
| Then when the same iPhone app seamlessly started sending
| iMessages (blue bubbles) to other iPhones rather than SMS
| (green bubbles), people just kept using that.
| brap wrote:
| Same, I'm not even European, but literally everyone uses
| WhatsApp for everything where I live, iPhones or not.
|
| The only thing I get in my Messages app is verification
| codes and spam.
|
| I don't think I got a _single_ SMS /iMessage from a human
| in the last 5 years.
| stevage wrote:
| Nobody I know uses iMessage.
| ghaff wrote:
| In the US, using iMessage involves flipping a switch in
| some Messages setting--and everyone I know in the US just
| texts, except for texting with international folks.
| dboreham wrote:
| Quick note that I'm in the US and my experience is: most
| random people use SMS; closer friends and family some use
| Signal, some Discord, some email; colleagues use Slack;
| overseas taxi drivers etc. use WhatsApp.
| pkamb wrote:
| By "use SMS" you surely mean "use iMessage" much of the
| time.
| Zak wrote:
| That's only true if everyone in the group has an Apple phone,
| which has decreasing probability with every additional
| member. Excluding people from a conversation because they
| don't have the right brand of phone would be pretty
| antisocial.
| pkamb wrote:
| In the USA, someone insisting on using an Android when
| everyone else in their social circle has an iPhone (and
| they do!) is what's seen as anti-social. No one wants to
| use the degraded green bubble SMS experience so they simply
| exclude the Android user and continue using blue bubble
| iMessage.
| wrfrmers wrote:
| I'll do you one better: in this specific situation, the
| antisocial buck stops at the friend group who doesn't all
| chip in and buy their Android friend a "keep in touch"
| iPhone.
|
| But the point remains that a cynical
| UX/technical/business decision _that does not need to be
| so_ is rending real relationships between actual people.
| If Tim Cook had the power to render anyone who didn 't
| pay him $400+ mute to their friends and family through
| some sort of black magic, we'd call him a comic book
| supervillain.
| Zak wrote:
| It surprises me people who actually have this problem
| don't just switch to a different messaging app. There are
| many, and the effort required is minimal.
| crmd wrote:
| Unfortunately it happens all the time in my friends circle,
| and it's for technical not anti-social reasons. Group texts
| that include Android users are so buggy that they tend to
| die out, whereas iMessage-only groups tend to be long
| lasting. For this reason we use WhatsApp for the core group
| chat, but there's still a ton of side-conversations and
| meme-ing in iMessage groups.
| canucker2016 wrote:
| Unless you're a teen in the USA.
|
| Non-iPhone users are the minority in this demographic (<=
| 13%), see my demographic comment elsewhere for this
| subject.
| cma wrote:
| Apple and Meta's wet dream is exclusionary friends and family
| networks tied to their future AR hardware. Half the people at
| the Christmas party pointing and zooming around an AR globe to
| talk about their travels and the other half with the wrong
| brand not able to see anything. Maybe they just place the
| virtual globe on top of one of them and completely block them
| out to get more space since they aren't seeming relevant.
| system7rocks wrote:
| This is small but a cool way to integrate those various features
| across different apps and services. Like adding the Music
| playlist is not something I would ever use by my daughter, a
| teenager, probably would. Cute.
| financetechbro wrote:
| Separate app download which requires iOS 18. Neat but will be a
| pass from me
| timewizard wrote:
| Hallmark cards as an app.
|
| Silicon valley is entirely out of ideas.
| nineplay wrote:
| I just sent out some invitations with evite and it's one of those
| 'begging for disruption' applications. Everything about it is
| unnecessarily difficult and stupid.
| xattt wrote:
| I am curious about the potential of this app for community
| organizing, or if any neutering has taken place in the same way
| AirDrop was limited during Hong Kong protests in 2020.
| duxup wrote:
| There's little to no magic as far as "this app can't be
| censored by the local government" goes if we're talking about
| something offered from a private company.
| cglan wrote:
| I don't see how this competes with partiful. Feels like it'll be
| another half baked never updated app from apple. I wish they'd
| open their apis and integrations more. Feels silly that these
| apps get first class access to apple apis, meanwhile better made
| apps are forced to do weird workarounds, or simply have no
| integrations.
| dewey wrote:
| It's based on the new GroupKit API, which sounds like something
| that would be available to other apps in the future. Otherwise
| it would just use some private API.
| kittikitti wrote:
| You're being disingenuous, or you're incompetent, if you
| think Apple isn't going to keep this API in their closed
| garden.
| dewey wrote:
| It's not the first time that a new API is used in a first
| party app and then opened to all developers.
| Invictus0 wrote:
| They're shipping the org chart: this app is someone's ticket to
| a promotion.
| nozzlegear wrote:
| I see this app as more like the Notes, iMessage or Freeform
| apps. There are tons of apps out there that do XYZ better, but
| Apple wants to ship a polished version that does 90% of
| everything the average user needs. It accomplishes three things
| (in my eyes):
|
| 1. It helps grow Apple's ecosystem by covering just enough
| ground to make third-party alternatives less necessary for most
| users.
|
| 2. It reduces one of the major "sticky" points that keep people
| in Facebook's own moat. Events and Marketplace are the two
| reasons I still use Facebook.
|
| 3. It encourages competition from the people who want to do
| that last 10% better than Apple's apps, raising the baseline
| and hopefully forcing innovation as well. Those apps lead to
| more App Store revenue, so, cynically, it's a win-win for
| Apple.
| cleverwebble wrote:
| I'm in my mid-thirties and most of my friends have ditched
| Facebook. I didn't really realize this until when I used it to
| create an event for a house party... I was somewhat surprised
| that only 2 people out of 15 even saw it. I ended up resorting to
| good old text message and that worked, but it was tedious. Not
| sure how popular this will become, but having a social-media-less
| event invite/broadcasting system would be nice, and having one
| that most people with an iPhone have access to covers much of my
| friend base
| crossroadsguy wrote:
| Here friends just send a message on WhatsApp. I do not know
| anyone who has hosted a house party of 79800 people so that
| they are struggling with this. But then again I guess some
| geographies have it more complicated, isn't it?
| lxgr wrote:
| A (for most of the world, in any case) possibly surprising
| fact about the US is that WhatsApp is not very popular there.
|
| This indeed causes problems when wanting to create a quick
| ad-hoc group for a party invitation etc., if at least one of
| the invitees is not an iPhone user.
| talldayo wrote:
| It causes problems if one of the iPhone owners isn't an
| active iCloud+ subscriber:
|
| > Creation of invitations requires an iCloud+ subscription.
|
| This isn't about making life easier on people, this is
| about getting you to subscribe to Apple's services for
| access to a REST API. Apple gets some benefit of the doubt,
| but this is literally Slop-as-a-Service.
| nozzlegear wrote:
| I can't tell what you're arguing here - are you
| misunderstanding what you quoted from the FAQ? Only the
| person who creates the event needs to have an iCloud+
| subscription. Everyone else can RSVP to it regardless of
| whether they have an iCloud+ subscription or even an
| Apple device at all.
|
| > _Do invitees need to have an Apple device with the app
| to attend an event?_
|
| > Apple Invites is for everyone. Guests don't need the
| app, an Apple device, or an account to RSVP to an event.
|
| Source: www.icloud.com/invites
| ghaff wrote:
| The only reason I have WhatsApp is that a couple non-US
| friends use it from time to time. No one I know in the US
| does anything other than standard text messaging whether or
| not it ends up being iMessage.
| ninininino wrote:
| For people in their early 20s to mid 30s in the NYC area, I'm
| starting to see mass adoption of an app called Partiful for
| managing social invites and events, it has a lot of nice
| features for sending invites, RSVP management, sending text
| blasts out to attendees (you can schedule reminders the day
| before or whatever).
| Analemma_ wrote:
| My social group also uses Partiful. It works great, but it's
| a little worrying that it's so useful while being free: I
| can't see how this possibly could make money, so I assume the
| enshittification is coming any second now.
| bobbylarrybobby wrote:
| My guess: certain features will just become pro-only
| kyletns wrote:
| Literally they just need to add ticketing with a small fee.
| They are sitting on a huge revenue stream they just haven't
| need to roll out yet.
| wenc wrote:
| Partiful works but to me it lacks polish. It feels like
| MySpace when FB first came out.
| npinsker wrote:
| I'm curious in what way you think so? It's both attractive
| and easy to use for me.
| Reason077 wrote:
| In fact, Apple Invites appears to be a direct response to the
| popularity of Partiful.
| surfpel wrote:
| My first thought. I'm surprised it's not everyone's first
| thought. Everyone in the bay that I know uses that for
| parties. Clearly every tech company is aware off the
| ubiquity of that app at least
| ghaff wrote:
| And in the Northeast, this is the first time I've even
| heard of it. (Though I doubt I'm the target market.)
| RRL wrote:
| Yeah, this is straight up f.lux 2.0 where Apple saw an idea
| take off, and unlike 'Nightshift' where they connected it
| to their new 'Health' product to stimulate Apple Watch
| purchases, they connected Apple Invites to social behaviors
| to stimulate iMessage and iCloud adoption and revenues.
| Mindwipe wrote:
| I don't think it's that they've entirely ditched FB, but FB is
| genuinely terrible at surfacing event invites. It would prefer
| you to have to scroll through a bunch of irrelevant garbage in
| your feed that it had "recommended" instead so the product team
| can high five themselves over badly designed engagement metrics
| rather than worry if the users don't actively despise their
| product.
| talldayo wrote:
| > Not sure how popular this will become
|
| Since Apple was too lazy to make it into a standard, it will
| probably go the way of App Clips. Niche idea, too few users to
| adopt it and no stakeholders with enough control to make it
| popular on other platforms.
| astrange wrote:
| What would a standard for party invites be?
|
| ics files and CalDAV are sort of an Apple standard.
| anton96 wrote:
| I'm still on facebook and a lot of my friends still are, the
| main problem we have with facebook events it that almost no one
| sees them. This section has been over loaded with suggestions
| to event you might have no links with of things your remote
| friends are going to take part of.
| wenc wrote:
| Platform fragmentation is a generational thing.
|
| I thought email was a common denominator but I learned most
| people don't check email or check it rarely. So different from
| the days when everyone had email.
|
| I still use FB and so do many of my friends my age (mid to late
| 40s). But a bunch have also migrated to Instagram.
|
| Among the younger generation, you're a millennial if you're on
| instagram because they've moved to TikTok. FB folks are over
| the hill. There's a generational divide and pride in being
| trendy.
|
| WhatsApp is only a thing among my international friends -- many
| Americans don't have it.
|
| The only universal now is text messages but it feels so clunky
| (even with iMessage).
| tcmart14 wrote:
| I wonder if it is rooted in similar things though. Right,
| like with email. People don't really read or check emails
| because spam became a serious problem. Then with social
| media, looking at facebook, there is definitely a big
| different in ad space in facebook between the time I used to
| use it to now. Where ads have effectively become the "spam"
| equivalent for social media. Ultimately, did success of these
| technologies also lead to its demise. Email was so good, so
| it made sense for a market of spammers. Facebook became a
| prime place for ads, and as ads become more and more of the
| platform, people started to consciously or subconsciously
| step away to other platforms.
| inetknght wrote:
| I think you've hit the nail on the head of the problem.
|
| A lot of comments online claim that people don't care about
| spam, or think that advertisements are a good thing for a
| free service, or at the very least won't change their
| habits if given an alternative. If that's the case then
| what's a better explanation for your observations?
|
| I argue that people _do_ care, even if it 's perhaps not
| expressed in words.
| PaulHoule wrote:
| A lot of legitimate email (password resets and stuff)
| gets eaten up by spam filters
| mikeyouse wrote:
| We have a family email domain for my extended family,
| administered by a few retired but very tech-savvy
| relatives (both had long IT careers) and it's roughly
| 50:50 whether a message sent to everyone@ lastname.com
| will actually show up in people's inboxes or not. It's
| probably 75:25 that a reply all to that list will show
| up, but modern email is a dumpster fire.
| ghaff wrote:
| >People don't really read or check emails because spam
| became a serious problem.
|
| With the tabs in Gmail, very little leaks through to my
| primary inbox that isn't relatively immediately relevant
| (and not a lot of mail total). Often don't look at
| Promotions at all and maybe glance at Updates once a day or
| so.
|
| Email is useful for me though, yes, a lot of my interaction
| with my circle of friends is over texts.
| whstl wrote:
| The problem for me is not so much real spam, this gets
| filtered. The problem is the massive amount of work
| required to unsubscribe or clean up automated emails from
| apps and websites, both transactional and non-
| transactional.
|
| I know way too many techy and non-techy people who have
| thousands of unread email messages from those apps.
|
| A lot of people I know don't really answer to real email
| anymore, unless they know something is coming. It became
| just something you use to make accounts with.
|
| Even corporate email is dying. 99% of my inbox is
| transactional emails from SaaS apps and spam from apps I
| forgot to delete. And 90% of the rest is spam from
| recruiters or people trying to sell me some product. Only
| 0.1% is legitimate.
|
| Statistically, email is not for people anymore, period.
| ghaff wrote:
| Experiences differ. I did go on unsubscribe jags from
| time to time at my last employer because I ended up on
| email lists from a lot of events.
|
| But really, I get 5-10 emails a day now in my primary
| inbox and I don't really have many filters. I DO get a
| lot in Promotions and Updates, but most of the stuff in
| Promos I can safely ignore and I mostly keep my eye on
| Updates if I'm expecting something I might want to deal
| with there.
|
| Email is still my primary channel for the most part.
| xboxnolifes wrote:
| There is still a lot of "spam" if you don't spend the
| effort creating filters or unsubscribing to the new
| notification list that companies like to make every few
| months. Hell, my inbox is covered in invoices, receipts,
| disclosures, required actions, ToS changes, etc., even
| though I've spent _some_ time setting up filters for some
| of the common receipts.
| ojhughes wrote:
| It's interesting that WhatsApp never caught on in the US.
| It's ubiquitous amongst everyone I know. Android use also
| seems to be much larger in Europe
| ghaff wrote:
| I don't remember the exact timeline but I think SMS became
| free (bundled with mobile phone plan) in the US before
| WhatsApp became popular. And most of us don't interact via
| chat very much internationally. So (probably) most people
| just default to SMS/iMessage unless there's a reason to do
| something differently. And even the one person I regularly
| communicate with chat in Europe, we default to Facebook
| Messenger.
| briandear wrote:
| People in Europe are poorer. Android is cheaper.
| stevage wrote:
| I'm in my mid 40s, my friends mostly use email for organising
| events more than a week or two in the future, google chat or
| WhatsApp for more spontaneous things.
|
| Very occasional FB invites for things when casting the net
| wide, like, I'm back in town and having a picnic, everyone
| come.
| leptons wrote:
| My wife is late 40s and just deleted her facebook account,
| and she's the most FOMO-centric person I know - and she did
| this because of zuck capitulating to trump. A lot of people
| have had it with companies supporting fascists.
| leptons wrote:
| My wife is late 40s and just deleted her facebook account,
| and she's the most FOMO person I know - and she did this
| because of zuck capitulating to trump. A lot of people have
| had it with companies supporting fascists.
| throw0101d wrote:
| > _I 'm in my mid-thirties and most of my friends have ditched
| Facebook._
|
| Marketplace seems to be one of the main use cases that's still
| relatively popular.
| smackeyacky wrote:
| It's also the only bit of Facebook that hasn't turned into an
| endless stream of trash. I expect that not to last either, if
| you're looking for an idea then a localised marketplace
| alternative with social proof should be on your radar.
| gs17 wrote:
| It still has a lot of trash, but 90% of it is trash you
| experience as a seller. Scammers are still really common,
| and I doubt the moderation has gotten much better since I
| failed to sell an empty aquarium because they couldn't be
| convinced it didn't have fish in it (although based on
| everything else on Facebook, there probably is just no
| moderation now).
| pkamb wrote:
| For a long time they were heavily promoting "Ships to You"
| non-local goods. Annoying. Lots of dropshipper type stuff
| rather than a local unique items. Marketplace seems to have
| backed off that in the last year(s) though, my feed seems
| very local, one-off, and "real.
| 2muchcoffeeman wrote:
| Marketplace and groups. Most of my friends are on WhatsApp so
| we ditched FB.
|
| Apple would be smart to build those things and make it
| available on Android too. Then we could ditch FB altogether.
| joshstrange wrote:
| Yep, groups was essentially all I used FB for until we
| moved to Discord (which much better for us), I was so glad
| when I could stop checking FB completely.
| 2muchcoffeeman wrote:
| It's the community and interest groups that are really
| hard to migrate. There needs to be an easy migration
| route or something.
|
| Other wise FB is really garbage. Just irrelevant
| suggestions and no amount of blocking trains the
| algorithm since they are just trying to make money.
| pridkett wrote:
| > having one that most people with an iPhone have access to
| covers much of my friend base
|
| Luckily - you don't need an iPhone or iCloud account to receive
| an invite and RSVP to it. Might be harder (or impossible?) to
| add to photos and music, but you can still get an invite and
| RSVP to it.
| maratc wrote:
| It's always nice to see some first-party apps from Apple[0], but
| historically the "iPhone-only social networking" hasn't been very
| successful -- iTunes Ping or Game Center haven't been a huge hit,
| while group messaging in iMessage has only gained some traction
| within the US and virtually non-existent almost everywhere else.
|
| ---
|
| [0] One can even say "first first-party party app" in this case
| :)
| infecto wrote:
| In this case they don't need an Iphone to RSVP though. Seems
| like a good implementation. The challenge is for the organizer
| not the folks rsvping.
| Jeremy1026 wrote:
| Fortunately you don't need everyone to be on iOS to reply. So
| you can send your Android using friends invited and they'll
| just get a weblink.
| Mindwipe wrote:
| It still requires people to read a text message.
|
| It may as well be delivered via carrier pigeon outside the
| US.
| barbazoo wrote:
| Genuine question, is SMS text delivery unreliable where in
| certain countries?
| ASalazarMX wrote:
| It's unneeded because phones have affordable/free access
| to the Internet these days, SMS is a relic of the 20th
| century.
| cyberax wrote:
| And the alternative on iOS is...? What exactly?
|
| RCS is a flaming trash dump of failure.
| ZekeSulastin wrote:
| Other messaging platforms; the one most commonly cited
| seems to be WhatsApp.
| ghaff wrote:
| Apple may not be exactly jumping in joy about it but,
| even if it's mostly only useful for people in the US,
| they probably don't see that as a showstopper either.
| patrickkidger wrote:
| I have a US number and live in Switzerland. At least for
| me, I only receive SMS messages whenever I visit the US
| -- the rest of the time they're just dropped and I'll
| never see them.
|
| (Doesn't really bother me, my friends and I all use
| WhatsApp/etc. anyway.)
|
| n=1 though, maybe this is some quirk of my phone
| provider.
| astrange wrote:
| Somehow they're unreliable just in the US. I had someone
| think I was mad at them because when I texted them to
| hang out it never made it. Had to remember to switch
| messaging apps.
|
| I think they were on a cheap prepaid plan though.
| eloisant wrote:
| So that's a green bubble situation. You get a subpar
| experience, your iPhone friends get a subpar experience from
| including you, and eventually they'll yell at you "well just
| get an iPhone already!"
| ghaff wrote:
| I don't really see that at all. I have a circle of friends,
| some of whom have iPhones and some not (to say nothing of
| companies/doctors sending me reminders and the like), and
| the non-iPhones seem to work just fine. I sure don't care
| what color their text bubble is.
| barbazoo wrote:
| Will it show them as green or blue though? :)
| ASalazarMX wrote:
| Unfortunately you need an iPhone to create the invite, or
| contribute anything else than a reply. They have to know
| their uncoolness is tolerated but not welcomed in the walled
| garden.
| r00fus wrote:
| Mission Accomplished. iOS is a significantly large enough
| market that it will have some success for those looking to
| replace FB/evite.
|
| You can say the same thing about FB/Whatsapp or any other
| social network - you have to be in-network to get the
| invite even.
|
| Looking forward to testing this out for some events.
| Synaesthesia wrote:
| In the US yeah it is. In the rest of the world, not so
| much.
| criddell wrote:
| The US market is probably big enough to make the service
| a success. Sometimes you don't need to be the biggest to
| be good enough.
| joshuamorton wrote:
| Most social networks don't have a $5-600 buy-in cost
| though.
| baggachipz wrote:
| I sure wish they did. It would reduce the number of bots
| to nearly zero.
| in_cahoots wrote:
| I just spent $70 to send out birthday party invites to 40
| parents on Evite. The free version sends an invite with
| ads, links to Amazon, and other tacky stuff. As an iPhone
| user with two kids switching to iCloud+ is cheaper than
| the alternatives. And I think many other parents will
| agree.
| joshuamorton wrote:
| ...Why?
|
| The competition I see for this is partiful
| (https://partiful.com/), which is free, handles invites
| for folks without accounts (I don't have one, I am
| invited to parties via text message), and is clearly the
| inspiration/competition apples for this app given the
| visual similarities.
| briandear wrote:
| Free how? Who pays? Just benevolence?
| crossroadsguy wrote:
| If you have watched the launch video, and if there was one to
| begin with, did they say [First Time Ever in an iCloud+
| Account](tm)?
| sambamonkey wrote:
| I'm unclear what your comment has to do with this app, which
| isn't a social network, and which communicates just fine with
| other phones.
| pgwhalen wrote:
| "iPhone-only social networking" _has_ been very successful
| (amongst my US-based peer group, at least), once you include
| iMessage - that's the point. I don't know much about apple
| invites, but if it integrates well into iMessaging then this is
| a very strong play.
| ghaff wrote:
| Though iMessage largely works in part because it's pretty
| much transparent if you send a text message.
| pgwhalen wrote:
| I'm not sure I understand the "though" in this message but
| yeah, definitely the user interface of this social network
| is messaging.
| ghaff wrote:
| Just the way I wrote the reply. It's unnecessary. Yes,
| you send a text and it's iMessage or not iMessage.
| Doesn't matter. There are some nuances if you're on your
| Mac with your phone off/on an international SIM (which I
| admit to not totally understanding).
| saghm wrote:
| If the plethora of iCalendar email attachments I've seen over
| the years (despite not owning any Apple devices or using their
| software) is any indication, I'm not sure that only being on
| Apple devices will be a significant barrier to people trying to
| coordinate stuff with this.
| paradox460 wrote:
| iCalendar files predate Mac OS X, and are an ietf standard
| i_have_an_idea wrote:
| No one will use this
| nozzlegear wrote:
| I will literally use this.
| i_have_an_idea wrote:
| alright
| moralestapia wrote:
| I hope this doesn't take off at all as it would be a net-negative
| for everyone involved.
|
| The whole "app for events" experience is a complete piece of crap
| with the exception of lu.ma perhaps.
|
| "Oh you're not an Apple user, whoops you can't RSVP" is a giant
| step towards enshittifying them even more.
| readdit wrote:
| Anyone can rsvp.
| itishappy wrote:
| > iCloud+ subscribers can create invitations, and anyone can
| RSVP, regardless of whether they have an Apple Account or Apple
| device.
|
| Only paying customers are allowed to construct their digital
| social life, but at least they're allowed to invite those filthy
| Android users!
| DRAGONERO wrote:
| "Additionally, participants can easily contribute photos and
| videos to a dedicated Shared Album within each invite to help
| preserve memories and relive the event."
|
| This sounds like a great feature. Post event photo sharing is
| always a bit of a mess.
| duxup wrote:
| Yes, I've had tons of invites to share on google photos and it
| has always been a cluster in some way.
| mmmlinux wrote:
| Seriously, this is a killer feature.
| racl101 wrote:
| It would be nice to move away from Facebook for this sort of
| thing.
| syassami wrote:
| Now is the perfect time for Apple to enter this space. Facebook
| and Instagram have shifted away from personal connections and
| are now dominated by promoted content.
| resource_waste wrote:
| Can't wait to see this thread in 60 minutes when the Apple
| marketers/astroturfers pick a positive organic comment and upvote
| it to the roof.
| dewey wrote:
| Or maybe people are just excited that there's something new in
| this space that's not Facebook Events?
| kittikitti wrote:
| Wrong thread?
| crossroadsguy wrote:
| Do we get to deploy a litmus test now to discern between
| simple excitement or fetid fanboyism? Not to mention unpaid
| shilling which is just sad and utterly demoralising. I mean
| at least get paid (disc: I don't mean you directly and
| personally).
| bilbo0s wrote:
| Look on the bright side!
|
| You could just as easily see the anti-Apple professional
| influence campaigns astroturf this thread by upvoting negative
| organic comments!
|
| Am I right!?!?!?!
| kittikitti wrote:
| When I did this almost 2 years ago with Midjourney, people came
| at me and started harassing me. It was just a party invite but
| people hated that I used AI. I guess I just needed to wait until
| the gatekeepers or a rich white man to do it for it to be
| socially acceptable. The pain from these AI luddites was real. I
| have strongly negative feelings for how Big Tech manipulated
| everyone into attacking everyone who was doing AI but them. They
| made it seem like the only ones to protect us from AI was them
| but the pain this caused didn't go away.
| dewey wrote:
| Wrong thread?
| kittikitti wrote:
| How is this the wrong thread? Apple Invites is exactly like
| what I was doing with Midjourney a GenAI image generator.
| dewey wrote:
| I had a hard time connecting your comment to an event
| booking app. But I guess you are talking about the Memoji
| integration?
| WorldMaker wrote:
| The article mentions in the future being able to use
| Apple Intelligence to create "splash artwork" for invites
| rather than just uploading a photo or using emoji/memoji
| backgrounds.
| rconti wrote:
| Sure seems like it would have been a fun party.
| beeflet wrote:
| you probably released your thing right when anti-AI art started
| taking off online. Even though people generally dislike AI art
| now and see it as tacky, you have to remember that Apple can do
| no wrong. So when they use AI image generation as a gimmick, no
| one wants to embarrass themselves and be like the next ballmer
| saying that the iphone won't take off.
|
| Same goes for Apple's moves in the VR space: no one wants to
| come out and say that it's a stupid idea, because weirder
| things have worked in the past. Airpods are a counterexample
| and were initially seen as gimmicky and overpriced, but are now
| everywhere.
|
| I think it just goes to show that a lot of consumer tech
| depends on the company image and wider culture. Google glass
| was pretty much ahead of its time, but was killed due to
| terrible rep, even though thats exactly the type of thing
| people are trying to make now.
| reureu wrote:
| All I want is for my calendar invites from my custom-domain
| iCloud email to consistently work for gmail users.
| mrcwinn wrote:
| Apple always sweats the details and I so respect it! Upon
| arriving at the kid's birthday party Android users get green
| balloons.
| freedomben wrote:
| Green balloons, but they are deflated enough so that the
| #555555 (grey) balloons are clearly the superior experience.
| And then when people point out that the green balloons are
| intentionally hobbled, a voice tells them to just buy their mom
| an iphone if she wants a balloon that properly bounces.
| renecito wrote:
| I'd like some of what you are having.
| HumblyTossed wrote:
| Interesting. So a lot of people still use FB for doing this. I
| wonder if this will be the tool for getting them off of FB
| finally.
| egypturnash wrote:
| "Requires iOS 18 or later". Well nobody will be inviting me to
| any parties with this, I'm still using a 6s.
| lxgr wrote:
| Invitees can apparently use a webapp to RSVP.
| ChrisArchitect wrote:
| Official release: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42934513
| reader9274 wrote:
| Another service offering from Apple, where iCloud+ is required to
| send invites. They can't be more clear that services are their
| future.
| bredren wrote:
| Pretty cool. I created a birthday party invite exactly to modern
| iPhone portrait size and sent it out over text last year and it
| was successful.
|
| I suspect Apple has a prioritized list of products that collect
| personal data that their ecosystem has some of the best potential
| to disrupt.
| nxobject wrote:
| Just release the damn thing for everyone and take advantage of
| the halo effect.
|
| Sure, in an age where every social media app tries to do
| everything - Reels and statuses and DMs - it's nice to see an app
| trying to do one thing. Unfortunately, Apple seems to have done
| everything possible to to stymie it. It'll go the way of Game
| Central.
| 42772827 wrote:
| It's not an app I have any use for personally, but it looks cool.
| Thankfully they did not push it to my iPhone during an update
| like they did Image Playground.
| hoppp wrote:
| Tricky. Now all your friends must have Iphones else they are not
| invited to your birthday party.
|
| It's like the green bubble - blue bubble thing.
| HumblyTossed wrote:
| ...or access it on the web through icloud.com/invites. iCloud+
| subscribers can create invitations, and anyone can RSVP,
| regardless of whether they have an Apple Account or Apple
| device.
|
| https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2025/02/introducing-apple-inv...
|
| Not perfect, but something.
| jillyboel wrote:
| And how does it work for people who aren't indoctrinated by
| Apple? Are you even allowed to invite them or is it verboten?
| AnonMO wrote:
| I had a section in class back in highschool and we were told you
| should never base you opinions on titles instead you should read
| the content then come to a conclusion. seeing so many > "anyone
| can RSVP, regardless of whether they have an Apple Account or
| Apple device." in the comments proves the problems still exists
| today.
| ChrisArchitect wrote:
| What year is it? After all of Apple's failed incursions into the
| social/media sphere, surprised they're trying this one. But I
| guess at least it has a web version which is where the
| competition lives like Facebook Events and Google calendar, not
| to mention eventbrite or whatever other things. Not really
| groundbreaking news from them, but interesting to see if this
| will hold on after awhile with users or just another tossed aside
| feature.
| gioazzi wrote:
| If anyone's looking for an open source alternative (and maybe
| wants to contribute to it) we're working on it here! [1]
|
| We actually started before this was announced, and initially it
| was developed for a somewhat different use case (more focusing on
| "recurring invites"), but since it was asked a few times, I think
| we can offer a good alternative with it. [2]
|
| [1]: https://github.com/gruprsvp/grup.
|
| [2]: https://github.com/gruprsvp/grup/discussions/148
| halostatue wrote:
| Looks neat, but I won't use it or recommend it to anyone
| because it's built with Flutter.
|
| I understand your reasons for choosing it, but that does not
| change that Flutter apps feel completely _wrong_ on any
| platform except Android, but most especially on iOS/macOS and
| the web. (This is unsurprising because Flutter is essentially a
| modern day implementation of Swing complete with personalities,
| and it's just as incorrect in its styling as Swing was. It's
| worse for the web because Flutter explicitly eschews standard
| web technologies in favour of either one big canvas or lots of
| little canvases.)
|
| Best of luck.
| m0zzie wrote:
| > Flutter apps feel completely _wrong_ on any platform except
| Android [...] Flutter explicitly eschews standard web
| technologies in favour of either one big canvas or lots of
| little canvases.
|
| I think you're confused about how Flutter works on Android.
| It's not native to Android, it uses canvas with custom drawn
| implementations of most components there too - same as it
| does for iOS/macOS/web.
| dkobia wrote:
| These lite apps are a way for Apple to dip its toes into popular
| niches in the App Store while not killing the goose.
|
| In this case, Evite, Partiful and Hobnob have been put on notice
| as Apples expands its services revenues which have grown to
| roughly 25% of its annual earnings.
| jug wrote:
| App without iPad version. This is so weird, Apple.
| killerdhmo wrote:
| what would you get from an iPad app that the web app doesn't?
| leshokunin wrote:
| Considering all the event invites I've gotten in the past two
| years are either Partiful or SecretParty, this is a cool
| development. Wonder which service people will end up using more.
|
| This might integrate better with Calendar and Wallet. That said I
| can see web and Android users being apprehensive.
|
| Also your Apple ID is t necessarily your "party id".
| offsky wrote:
| It would be cool if Apple made something like this for public
| events with a way to browse local events. I acknowledge that
| moderation of spam would be an issue.
| rchaud wrote:
| A trojan horse for Apple Intelligence, soon to be powered with a
| social graph.
| yalogin wrote:
| Looks like they brainstormed and found a way to use AI for their
| users. It could be useful as an engagement tool but weird that
| they found evites as the way to go
| nipponese wrote:
| If you have young kids, this is a huge time saver -- Evites
| without all the upsells and ads + photo sharing without meta
| Gothmog69 wrote:
| Apple has lost its way. Who is this for?
| RIMR wrote:
| For people who have enough drive to plan an event, but not
| enough drive to use a real photograph for the invite instead of
| GenAI.
| happyopossum wrote:
| My wife is in a position (board chair for a co-op) that results
| in her sending out a lot of invites to events. Evite has kinda
| been the go-to in her social/co-op group for ages, but man it
| suuuuuuucks these days. Ads everywhere, annoying patterns, and
| lacks a bunch of nice features that this seems to have.
|
| Very happy to see this
| boringg wrote:
| Evite was hot for awhile - totally gone downhill. Same as
| meetups. Tough to make those things as paid businesses which is
| probably necessary to keep them operating well (or at least
| take VC money and try and make a return).
| ghaff wrote:
| I see very little use of either Evite or Meetup at this point
| though I imagine if I sought them out I'd see some continued
| use. (I do run into an Evite signup from time to time for a
| paid event.)
| slt2021 wrote:
| I see people using Luma everywhere these days
| 42772827 wrote:
| Luma and Gemini have very similar logos, it's kind of off
| putting
| nostromo wrote:
| I organize a lot of events for a rugby team, and our events are
| now all on Partiful.
|
| Maybe it'll go downhill like Evite and Facebook Events - but
| for now it's quite good.
| svnt wrote:
| How is it funded? That is your answer.
| echelon wrote:
| Not everything is in the position or can afford to
| transitionally tax the whole of the internet itself like
| big tech.
|
| You're paying for Apple Invites whether you realize it or
| not. There's immense value in making their platform more
| sticky.
|
| In a few years you'll read articles about uncool Android
| kids not getting invited to parties. And that's your
| answer.
|
| One of these behaviors is way more insidious.
| ToucanLoucan wrote:
| > You're paying for Apple Invites whether you realize it
| or not. There's immense value in making their platform
| more sticky.
|
| I'm not _stuck_ to Apple 's platform, I'm quite happy
| here. Apple services aren't drenched in ads end to end.
| Apple's services aren't constantly asking for nickels and
| dimes; it's one charge, every month, for a buffet of
| services that are regularly added to and actually
| _improved_ , making them distinct from... fuck, the rest
| of the Internet basically, which seems to boil down to a
| revolving door of stupidly named services backed by VC
| funding that get popular, quickly, because they don't
| charge anything and aren't drenched in ads, and then
| slowly they add the ads, but there's an ad free tier for
| not much money, oh but now there's ads in that tier,
| which is also more expensive, and then the service shuts
| down because they didn't hit 60 billion users before
| their runway ran out, but there's this new service...
|
| And while I'm certain they do some spying and whatnot to
| facilitate targeted ads, they at least pay lip service to
| my privacy, and my experiences developing stuff for their
| hardware tells me that at least there is a whiff of
| security to their hardware. There are a lot of things as
| a developer I'm straight up not allowed to do.
|
| The "insidiousness" of Apple's plan so far seems to be,
| largely, making damn good products that people want to
| use, and backing them up with cloud services that work
| well. I wish more tech firms took that approach to be
| totally honest.
| briandear wrote:
| I don't want the uncool Android kids at my parties.
| Because then I have to listen to them droning on about
| the kids of things Android people drone on about.
| mjamesaustin wrote:
| Currently Partiful doesn't generate revenue, which is
| evidence for its quality. As soon as the purse strings get
| attached, it'll be time to get out. But for now, it's an
| excellent service.
| echelon wrote:
| Luma and Partiful are really good.
|
| This Apple thing is going to turn into a "green text" social
| signalling thing all over again. If you have an Android, you
| won't be invited.
|
| More scummy Apple social engineering bullshit. Kids that
| already hate on those having Android colored text bubbles are
| going to bully each other even more. And of course kids need
| the _latest_ iPhone, too.
|
| Apple is playing into this brilliantly and it's disgusting.
| astrange wrote:
| This green text thing only happens in the US. Nobody really
| uses iMessage elsewhere.
| echelon wrote:
| It shouldn't be allowed in the US. Lina Khan was going to
| put a stop to it, but tragically that didn't reach its
| culmination.
| briandear wrote:
| Why? Does the color affect functionality or are we going
| to pass laws based on feelings?
| echelon wrote:
| > are we going to pass laws based on feelings?
|
| This is very concrete fuckery.
|
| https://www.politico.com/news/2024/03/21/apple-doj-
| antitrust...
|
| https://www.npr.org/2024/03/28/1241473453/why-green-text-
| bub...
|
| https://techcrunch.com/2024/03/21/doj-claims-green-
| bubbles-a...
| simplify wrote:
| The concrete fuckery:
|
| (Politico) Lower video quality
|
| (NPR) Feeling unwelcome
|
| (TechCrunch) Peer pressure
| TheDong wrote:
| It does. If you try to send a photo in an inferior green
| bubble chat, you get an error. Face time calls don't
| work.
|
| The text is harder to read for me because it's low
| contrast and can't be configured.
|
| It's significantly less secure, and a government agent
| required I use blue bubble imessage to submit an
| important document for security, and wouldn't accept it
| by sms or email since both were not secure enough
| astrange wrote:
| That should work now because of RCS.
|
| Email is secure enough though. People make up security
| rules in their heads all the time, doesn't mean it's
| true.
| Spivak wrote:
| What are you talking about? Photos have worked in MSS
| group chats for 10+ years now. They send as shit quality
| but they work. And now mixed group chats are RCS which
| has all the important features of iMessage.
| afavour wrote:
| Non-Apple users are able to reply to invites so no one is
| going to miss any parties.
| elwillbo wrote:
| yeah, Evite used to really shine but now I feel like it's just
| an invitation to see ads
| aeturnum wrote:
| Event organization has been fractured for some time. Folks in my
| area have been using Partiful[1]. Bash[2] (now theBash) used to
| be in this space a bit but they left. Facebook has even added the
| ability for people without facebook to attend events on Facebook
| (they get an interface that shows them the event details and lets
| them put a name in "on" the event that isn't connected to an
| account).
|
| I think Partiful is pretty good at what it does - no ads, can
| specify reminders, manages text blasts. The problem, to me, is
| messaging - how do you tell people about a thing? We are all
| getting tons of spam texts all day. Apple can cheat here because
| they own iMessage so maybe they will win overall - but still,
| what about your android friends? Time will tell. Good luck to
| everyone organizing events.
|
| [1] https://partiful.com/
|
| [2] https://www.thebash.com/
| PaulHoule wrote:
| Even though "... anyone can RSVP, regardless of whether they have
| an Apple Account or Apple device" I think this being an Apple
| branded service is going to make this appear exclusionary and
| will mean some people won't participate even if they could.
|
| I see the same risk involved with Apple TV's branding; Apple TV
| works great on Xbox, on NVIDIA Shield and on PC. I'm sure though
| there are a lot of people who just decide that shows like
| _Foundation_ and subscriptions like _MLS Season 's Pass_ just
| aren't for them. I don't know if it is a 5% or a 20% drop but it
| has to be real.
| Brystephor wrote:
| Software engineer here with an android phone. I've never
| bothered to look into Apple TV because I assumed it'd only be
| available on Apple devices. Similarly, I saw this post and
| thought there may be a reason for me to get an iPhone now as I
| assumed this would be available on apple devices only.
| echelon wrote:
| > "there may be a reason for me to get an iPhone now as I
| assumed this would be available on apple devices only."
|
| That's the objective. Green text and all. To force everyone
| to adopt one platform because of network effects and social
| stigma.
|
| These platform plays by the god tier trillion dollar
| companies are insidious and should be given scrutiny by the
| DOJ / FTC.
|
| A breakup of these platforms would make none of this matter.
| You could pick and choose services across devices. We might
| even see some competition for Android and iPhone if the DOJ
| would step in and break this up.
|
| Big tech is too big. A breakup would oxygenate the entire
| tech sector. It would probably even make the MAGMA stock go
| up because the sum of parts are being given away for free
| just to get eyeballs.
|
| Billions of dollars are being given away for free to scrape
| in network effect advantages. It's at a level where
| competition from new players is virtually impossible. They
| can tax anything that moves. Every transaction, every
| relationship, every quanta of information.
| jbl0ndie wrote:
| It's pretty good on Chromecast, though some of the media
| player design patterns don't quite translate to non-apple.
| dboreham wrote:
| I'm only aware it doesn't need an Apple device because spouse
| does have an iPhone and was able to set it up on our Roku
| that way. I still assume that someone in the household does
| need an iPhone in order to get a subscription, although now I
| think about it probably that's not true.
| dkjaudyeqooe wrote:
| > I think this being an Apple branded service is going to make
| this appear exclusionary and will mean some people won't
| participate even if they could.
|
| Don't you think that's kind of the point? Do you think having
| green and blue messaging bubbles was unintentional?
| karaterobot wrote:
| Yes it was intentional, but this is a different case. If a
| meaningful percentage of people don't think they can attend
| an event because they don't own an iPhone, that's a big
| problem for adoption of this product. Whether that will
| happen or not, I have no idea, but I think that's what the
| person you responded to was saying.
| EyMaddis wrote:
| As a non-exclusive, non-big tech and dead simple alternative,
| I've built Partey.io [1] myself.
|
| [1] https://partey.io
| nonchalantsui wrote:
| The Apple TV one is particularly bad due to them naming the
| service, the box, and the app the same thing. One of them has a
| + tacked on, who knows which.
|
| As long as they don't start naming other things Invite, they
| might avoid that issue. Although maybe they'll name their
| HomePod with a screen that and we're back to square one.
| aurareturn wrote:
| One of the rare marketing misses for Apple is naming the app,
| box, and service (with + added on) the same.
| PaulHoule wrote:
| I was shocked at how bad the onboarding experience for Mac
| is in 2025. I replaced a dying but well seasoned Alienware
| laptop with a M4 mini, my wife was furious about 'ads
| everywhere' I mean, Microsoft is notorious for the unwanted
| solicitations that come with Windows but the nagging pop-
| ups that are barely altered from 1984 modal dialogs [1],
| dock crammed with unwanted applications, terrible Safari
| experience without ad blocker, need Apple account to
| install ad blocker (at least you can log into Windows with
| a Microsoft account.) So far as I can tell I didn't even
| get the 3 months of Apple TV that comes with an iPad.
|
| [1] OG mac, not Orwell. At least Microsoft nags look like
| HTML.
| Melatonic wrote:
| Seriously - not sure what they were thinking - but this
| confuses the hell out of everyone (especially if they have
| the Apple TV+ app installed on their smart TV directly and an
| Apple TV physical box hooked to the same TV)
| echelon wrote:
| > there are a lot of people who just decide that shows like
| Foundation and subscriptions like MLS Season's Pass just aren't
| for them.
|
| This needs anti-trust breakup. Tech companies shouldn't be
| media giants. They're turning a once-healthy media industry
| into an attention economy platform play, giving it away below
| cost, and wringing a robust sector of the economy of its value.
|
| It's disgusting that Apple and Amazon are doing this. Amazon
| owns James Bond. And they're a grocery store and primary care
| doctor, for god's sake. That's not good.
|
| This is worse than Standard Oil and Ma Bell because they own
| our entire lives: eyeballs, financial transactions, business
| matters, commerce, and personal relationships.
| wrfrmers wrote:
| "Conglom-O: We Own You."
|
| ...Just to highlight the absurdity of the situation.
| Literally cartoonish corruption.
| makeitdouble wrote:
| It will feel that way at a distance because it basically is.
|
| To start, it's not a service but an app. Sure there is a web
| interface, but the focus on the app already sets the stage
| (which also puts macos only users in an interesting position).
|
| Then non-Apple users probably can only respond when the sales
| pitch is "to contribute to Shared Albums, and engage with Apple
| Music playlists"
|
| If I'm not an Apple user there will only be downsides to using
| this service compared to any other one.
| nicoburns wrote:
| I'm definitely in the market for something like to replace
| Facebook Events which was a fantastic piece of functionality that
| unfortunately isn't so useful now that so many people have left
| Facebook. But this kind of functionality is pretty useless if it
| doesn't have first-class support for users of non-apple devices.
| aurelia246 wrote:
| Breathtaking innovation
| noja wrote:
| This doesn't replace doodle's choose a date feature: Apple Events
| is only for when the event already has a fixed date and time.
| earlyriser wrote:
| Oh this is great.
|
| I made an app very similar to this (in spirit at least) some
| years ago and I still think we need more real social like this
| than social networks.
| paxys wrote:
| > iCloud+ subscribers can create invitations, and anyone can RSVP
|
| Pass
| andy_ppp wrote:
| This will be added to Instagram in about 3 seconds...
| rozap wrote:
| I don't own and probably never will own an apple product but I'm
| very glad to see this. Anything that weakens Facebook's
| stranglehold over society is a good thing.
| mongol wrote:
| Could it be a beachhead to a future social network?
| plufz wrote:
| Haha, I do own a lot of Apple devices, but that was my first
| reaction as well. The main selling point of the app is to hurt
| Meta.
| popasmurf wrote:
| Shameless plug: I did create a very basic web based invite app
| with the goal of being platform agnostic - I really think having
| a app like Invites or my https://rsvp.ngo/ fills the need of
| getting invites out across platforms.
| kubav027 wrote:
| I do not get it. Do you really need an app for that? Are your
| family and friends so disconnected? I would sent email and made a
| phone call to the rest not heaving email. But I am not from US so
| it might be the difference.
| websap wrote:
| Imagine your kid not getting invited to birthday parties because
| they or you don't use an iPhone. Apple knows what it's doing and
| shareholders are gonna love it!
| WXLCKNO wrote:
| Imagine not reading the article
| Alifatisk wrote:
| What a great idea, my friend was working on an almost identical
| idea but built using Flutter instead.
|
| A couple of downsides with this is:
|
| - Only for Apple users
|
| - Requires iCloud+
| Factor1177 wrote:
| It's not only Apple users, you can view and respond to an
| invite without an apple account or device but cant create an
| invite without an apple account.
|
| Really really dumb to have it require icloud+ however. Why??
| OsrsNeedsf2P wrote:
| Hey Siri, what's a tarpit idea?
| canucker2016 wrote:
| I think some demographic info can be useful in judging the
| potential uptake.
|
| Apple iPhone ownership amongst USA teens:
|
| 2024: 87%
|
| 2019: 83%
|
| 2014: 67%
|
| https://www.iclarified.com/95177/87-of-us-teens-own-iphones-...
|
| https://www.pipersandler.com/news/piper-jaffray-completes-se...
|
| https://www.pipersandler.com/news/different-new-cool-accordi...
|
| Smartphone marketshare for iPhone in various countries:
|
| 65%: Norway
|
| 59%: Sweden/Japan/Canada/USA
|
| 49%: UK
|
| 30-39%: Germany/Portugal/Italy
|
| other countries are lower from my random sampling of developed
| countries (South Korea is dominated by Samsung).
|
| Source: https://gs.statcounter.com/os-market-share/mobile/norway
|
| Change last part of url to get info for another country
| talldayo wrote:
| > Creation of invitations requires an iCloud+ subscription.
|
| I _really_ wonder what the uptake is on iCloud+ subscriptions.
| echoangle wrote:
| Don't you need to get iCloud+ if you want to have more than
| 5GB iCloud storage? I would guess it's probably more than 80%
| of users.
| jsight wrote:
| Yeah, and they'll likely make this Appley only to create social
| pressure for even more uptake.
|
| Yuck
| Salgat wrote:
| Unless you use their inferior web version that pressures you
| into also getting an iphone.
| lordofgibbons wrote:
| I really hope this fails.
|
| Apple will use it's dominant position to create lock in like how
| they did with iMessage instead of cooperating with other
| platforms on a common standard.
|
| Oder friends and family are surprised when they want to video
| call over Facetime and find it hard to believe other people's
| phones don't have Apple apps.
| briandear wrote:
| I hope it succeeds. I hate FB and other "you are the product"
| products. I don't care about "common standard" -- I care about
| the best UX.
| jonrcooper wrote:
| There are a ton of other options than FB at this point.
| Partiful is my personal favorite, and has way better features
| than Apple Invites has after testing.
| spankalee wrote:
| Partiful is great! A little funky around the edges, but I
| keep giving them feedback hoping to be able to rely on a
| non-shitty indie platform for invites.
| makeitdouble wrote:
| Be the product or the caged golden goose. We sure have a
| choice, but I personally don't see one that much better than
| the other.
|
| When Tim Cook testifies that Apple is entitled to all our
| digital transactions, I don't think they have a better moral
| stance.
| pbronez wrote:
| > Guests can view and respond to an invitation using the new
| iPhone app or on the web without needing an iCloud+
| subscription or an Apple Account.
| talldayo wrote:
| > Creation of invitations requires an iCloud+ subscription.
|
| It's service slop after all.
| sithadmin wrote:
| If it's anything like the web version of Facetime, it's not
| gonna be a great experience for non-iOS users.
| AyyEye wrote:
| ...there's a web facetime??
| koolba wrote:
| Apparently there is!
|
| https://support.apple.com/en-us/109364
| ben_w wrote:
| > Oder friends and family are surprised when they want to video
| call over Facetime and find it hard to believe other people's
| phones don't have Apple apps.
|
| *Memories of my sister not believing me when I said she
| wouldn't be able to install her Windows copy of Doom on my
| Performa 5200 back in the 90s*
| canucker2016 wrote:
| Blame the telcos for the relative poor quality of text message
| multimedia (via MMS).
|
| The telcos specify the size limits of MMS messages. iMessage
| has much higher limits in most cases, so iPhone has to use
| reduce the quality of the pics/videos to reach the lower size
| limits for sending to non-iMessage recipients.
|
| For the telcos, why would they upgrade their size limits for
| MMS - it's just a cost centre for them. They probably make more
| by selling more iPhones as well.
| dark__paladin wrote:
| How is this different than any calendar app?
| thedougd wrote:
| Interesting that Apple is finally releasing new app functionality
| outside of OS updates. Is it a new trend?
|
| Google made this shift a while ago, but mostly out of necessity
| to mitigate the impacts of manufacturers failing to release
| regular OS updates.
| sss111 wrote:
| Too bad you need to know real people to use this, apple's out
| here assuming we have social lives
| ryanmcbride wrote:
| I don't use facebook so I currently invite my friends to various
| events and parties by texting the same image with the info to a
| bunch of groupchats and a few individuals, if this makes that
| cleaner I'd be pretty happy.
| 6thbit wrote:
| How come through this people with any device can add photos to a
| shared album, but not through regular shared albums?
|
| On that note: how to get cross platform shared photo album
| without pain or google?
| afavour wrote:
| How deathly boring this all is.
|
| On one hand it's a good thing: so many invite services are coated
| in ads they deserve to fail. On the other, yet another service
| getting sucked up into the tech giant blob.
|
| If open formats prevailed we would have expanded calendar invites
| so they just appear in your inbox like any other email for free.
| But alas, everyone has given up on that.
| echoangle wrote:
| My first though was ,,oddly specific" but most people here seem
| to think this makes sense.
|
| Is my social life dead or what are you guys inviting so many
| people to?
|
| If I want to organize an event, I just write a message in the
| relevant group chat and get responses about who's going to come.
| kccqzy wrote:
| That's exactly my thought. I don't even need a group chat and
| instead copy-paste a message to several individual chats,
| customizing the invitation message along the way.
|
| This is definitely not for me.
| n0rdy wrote:
| I have 2 conflicting feelings about this:
|
| - I'm glad to see this, as it might be an easily accessible
| alternative to Facebook events, which I tend to miss as I'm
| checking my FB only once in a while
|
| - on the other hand, each new Apple release adds apps that might
| kill some small start-ups that are offering similar services for
| the small fee. Having a free alternative on your phone out of the
| box with most of your contacts using will lead to a decent number
| of subscriptions' cancellations. A good lesson to build smth that
| is harder to reproduce, though...
| gamedever wrote:
| What does Apple do to be "privacy first" with this product.
|
| I'm happy when friends invite me to an event. I'll less happy
| they type my email address or phone number into some 3rd party
| site so be tracked. That includes Apple.
| fiberhood wrote:
| As an Apple developer for 42 years I tried all permutations I
| could think of and found there is no way around the walled
| garden:
|
| Apple Invites requires a mandatory iCloud+ account (minimal 0.99
| euro/dollar per month) and a non-anonymous Apple ID requirement
| with credit card or bank account. It probably has a perpetual
| lock-in of your invite groups and tracking of all participants as
| well but I couldn't test this properly without paying 12 Euros.
| anal_reactor wrote:
| It's incredible to think that for many people this is a real
| problem that needs a real solution, because personally, I
| struggle to maintain social life. A few months ago I organized a
| party for the first time in my life, and probably it'll happen
| twice a year at most in the very optimistic scenario. This means
| that whatever new trendy way of inviting people is hip, it's not
| worth the effort to learn it, and it's just way more effective to
| use the methods I do know and I'm used to (physical conversations
| and texting).
| RamiAwar wrote:
| CIA's top project thus far
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