Apple launched a new app today, Apple Invites, for creating, sharing, and managing event invitations. With Apple Invites, the company hopes to bring a streamlined approach to sending invitations to events and parties that shouldn't be a hassle – at least for people deep in the Apple ecosystem.

While anyone can receive invitations whipped up in the Apple Invites app (including non-Apple users), only iCloud+ subscribers can send invitations. This is a huge roadblock to people adopting the app.

The app offers a clean interface. In fact, the interface shares similarities with VisionOS, further fueling rumors of a redesign in iOS 19 taking cues from VisionOS.

Tapping the 'Create Event' button brings up an event card where you can add a title, description, date, time, and location for the event.

You can also add backgrounds to the invites, choosing from pre-made templates from Apple or your own photos. If your phone supports Apple Intelligence, you can even create a background using the Image Playground app.

There's also an option to create a shared photo album and a shared playlist for the event to share with the participants. Participants will be able to view as well as add photos to the shared album. To create a shared playlist and to be able to listen to it, everyone involved would need an Apple Music subscription.

You can then share the invitation with guests by either using a public link or adding their contact/ email address/ phone number directly in the app.

iPhone users will be able to directly RSVP to the event if they are logged into iCloud. However, Android users need to jump through hoops. For starters, there's no app for the Play Store and Android users need to visit a web-based version of Apple Invites on icloud.com on their browser to view the invite.

Apart from the lack of an app, Android users need to enter their email addresses and a verification code to get in. To view the Shared Album or playlist, they further need to sign up for an Apple account. All in all, the experience is less than ideal.

Hosts can easily see all the RSVPs to the invite and manage their guest list with ease.

While Apple Invites is a good app, it's nothing new or phenomenal. Similar free apps already exist that don't paywall the functionality. One such app that has been popular in the past few years, even snagging the 'Best App of 2024' award from Google, is Partiful.

Partiful is platform agnostic, which means that both Apple and Android users get the same experience in their app. The app even shared a cryptic message on X (formerly, Twitter) that seems to be calling out Apple for being a copycat.