Apple Releases Invites, A Partiful Competitor

Apple wants to disrupt the industry of painstakingly constructing a chaotic Canva invite for your housewarming party and spamming your close friends’ stories with it. The tech company debuted a new app on Tuesday called Apple Invites, which allows Apple device owners to create custom events within the Apple ecosystem.

Apple Invites allows you to invite friends from your contacts list to an event, share a link, and even add a shared photo album or Apple Music playlist. The app also includes Weather and Maps widgets to help you plan your route and outfit.

You need an iCloud+ subscription to create invites, but anyone, even Android users, can RSVP and see important info. There are, however, a few added steps for Android users to access the invite.

Wow, that sounds really similar to…Partiful? Yeah, Partiful thinks so, too. The new offering does resemble its predecessor, which was Google Play’s Best App of 2024 and named a finalist in Apple’s own Cultural Impact awards. But Apple has such a long history of building its own Apple-ified version of successful third-party apps that there’s a name for it: Sherlocking.—MM