It’s 2025 and Apple has decided that its next big innovation isn’t another gadget to strap to your face or wrist—the Cupertino giant wants to help you plan your next big party. Apple Invites is an app that works like a digital party planning buddy. It lets you create invitations, manage RSVPs, share photos, and even make collaborative playlists, so everyone gets a turn at playing DJ. If this sounds familiar, it’s because apps like Partiful have been around. Partiful, in fact, was a finalist in the Cultural Impact category in the 2024 App Store awards.
This isn’t the first time Apple has looked at a popular app category and thought, “We could do that.” People call it “getting Sherlocked”. Password apps got this treatment, as did call the recording app, the voice transcription and screen mirroring—it’s part of a long tradition of Apple joining existing markets and putting their own spin on things.
Of course, Apple’s versions most often bring something new to the table. With Apple Invites, it’s the seemless and deep integration with their other services that makes it interesting. Want to add the location. Pinned (on Maps). Share a photo album for the event? Done (on Albums). Need to create a collaborative playlist? Easy (on Apple Music). Want to check if it’s going to rain on your outdoor party? It’s right there (see Weather). It’s like they looked at party planning and thought, “You know what this needs? More ecosystem integration!” Instead, the real problem most of us have is lazy friends who get excited about making plans and then get lazy once it’s time to actually do anything. But there’s probably not an app for that.
Apple Invites also comes with some genuinely interesting features, including an AI-powered “Image Playground” that can generate custom images for your invites, so you can put your party people on the beach even if you don’t have a photo like that in your storage.
That’s not to say that there isn’t room for improvement. One Reddit user commented, “I wish they’d add a collaborative note section... I’m trying this out for my Super Bowl potluck, and wish people could add what they’re bringing themselves.”
Another common grouse is that you’ve got to subscribe: while anyone can RSVP to events (yes, even your Android-using friends), creating events requires an iCloud+ subscription. Starting at $0.99 a month, it’s not exactly breaking the bank, but it does mean this isn’t quite the free-for-all party planning tool some might have hoped for. “Really disappointing that this isn’t just available for anyone with an Apple product to host,” another comment noted, “If Apple wants proper market penetration then this needs to be as accessible as possible. Surely such a basic feature can be available for free? Isn’t buying an Apple product payment enough?”
So what’s next?
At this point, trying to predict Apple’s next move is like trying to guess what song will play next on shuffle—you might have some ideas, but you’ll probably be surprised anyway. For now, though, we have Apple Invites, launching with iOS 18, ready to help you plan everything from birthday parties to housewarmings and college reunions.
The real question is: will it change how we plan our get-togethers? That probably depends on how many of your friends are in the Apple ecosystem. But for now, you can blame Apple’s servers instead of your friends when nobody RSVPs to your party because they never stopped being lazy.
