The event planning community was thrown into an uproar recently by the news that the first big name in tech has thrown it’s hat into the event software ring. Apple Invites, a new casual event planning app designed for small B2C events and casual gatherings, was announced by the company on February 4th (after a few months of whispers and speculations among the event prof community).
As the first events-related product from a Big 4 tech company since the heyday of Facebook Events (remember those?), the takes came quickly among event industry leaders:
Some thoughts on Invites––Apple's new events app:
— Andrew Yeung (@andruyeung) February 5, 2025
– At first glance, the UX is great—smooth animations, nice icons, easy event creation—but nothing particularly special. But while it's delightful to use, it certainly doesn't rival peers like @partiful from a product perspective.…
While the speculation and predictions roll out in waves, here’s what you need to know about Apple’s foray into event planning.
Here are some of the primary features announced by Apple during their initial rollout of the app:
Based on the initial rollout of features, it seems like Apple has set sights primarily on casual or smaller events (like birthday parties, work meetups, friend gatherings, and more). The lack of advanced event management features (such as detailed event registration tools, event check-in, advanced event ticketing etc.) seems to make it clear that the focus here was much more on form and simplistic use cases, over chasing the large-scale events that are often the domain of specialized event software platforms.
With the news only days old, speculation will continue to grow around the impact of Apple Invites on the larger event software industry. A few open questions to consider:
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