KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 6 — “Oh, another app. Not a product.”
It’s amazing how disdain can transmit over chat but that was a colleague’s reaction to Apple’s new Invites app.
Which left me with the task of actually trying the app because, as Malaysians say, bagi chance-lah (give it a chance).
The thing about Apple is that it makes some pretty good, free, useful apps such as Clips (for simple social media videos), Freeform (an easy to use digital whiteboard), Journal (a digital journal) but like Apple TV+ you just don’t hear about how good they are because people are more excited about products.
Now everyone can RSVP
First thing first: why do we need an Invites app?
Meta’s Facebook has Events and auto-RSVP requests.
There’s also Google Forms and just sending people a WhatsApp.
To see what Invites had to bring to the table, I decided to create an invite to an event I hope happens at the end of my nearly two-year cancer treatment plan.
I hope to have my oncologist be able to tell me that I have achieved NED — No Evidence of Disease and that would definitely be a great excuse for a party.
With Invites, it’s a fairly simple process.
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You download the app and click a button to create an Event.
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Select a Background from either a template or your own Camera or Photos.
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Fill in salient details such as date, time, location and description.
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Optionally you can create a photo album and Apple Music playlist you can share with guests.
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To RSVP, guests may do it from the app or from the Web if on Android.
It’s slightly more fiddly on the Web as apparently Android users will need a free iCloud.com account to view photos for instance.
Note: The Invites app on iOS is only available to users with a paid iCloud.com plan and there is no Android version, though Android users will still be able to RSVP to Invites invitations.
If for any reason you would rather not invite people via Facebook, Google or WhatsApp and have an iPhone, Invites is convenient and simple to use and best of all, no one gets left off the guestlist whatever phone they use.
Now there’s no excuse to bo jio (not invite) your friends when you’re having an impromptu gathering at the mamak for supper — use Invites to send out a quick request to meet up at your favourite Indomie place and you’re gold.
Invites is already available for download for phones running iOS 18 or later.
