Partiful | Free
- The obvious inspiration for Apple Invites
- Trashier looking but way more feature-packed
- Customise RSVPs, add questionnaires and more
Apple recently launched a new app called Invites that lets you send out custom invitations to gather friends and family together for events. Despite its usefulness, there’s a slight backlash due to its supposed similarity to a pre-existing app called Partiful.
So what’s the deal here? Does Partiful have anything to offer that Apple’s Invites hasn’t now covered off?
Create bespoke event invites
Plenty, as it turns out. Let’s get the criticism out of the way. Partiful has a certain look and vibe to it that is, how to put this delicately, a little more ‘TikTok generation’ than Apple’s Invites. It goes heavy with a more youthful vernacular, including the liberal use of emoji and trashy special effects-a-plenty. Classy it ain’t, but that’s likely a deliberate aesthetic choice.
Beyond the Gen Z-ish presentation, however, Partiful is a clever app and a much more fully featured event invite app than Apple’s solution. You can assign specific event types, and employ a greater variety of images and even GIFs as the background to your invite.
Attach questionnaires to invites
We appreciated the little extra things that can be added to your event invite, such as a poll to establish the most suitable date. It’s also possible to establish limited numbers and waitlists, add +1 options, and send out questionnaires to establish dietary restrictions and the like.
You can even empower your guests to invite mutual acquaintances. It’s both way more social and considerably more granular than Apple’s Invites app, which feels quite spartan in comparison.
Ask guests to chip in on costs
It’s also possible to add a fee to your invites, whether that be a loose ‘pay what you want’ affair or a set charge, and you can even add your PayPal or GoFundMe account name for easy payments.
Approaching the app from the opposite end of the host-guest relationship, we liked how Partiful didn’t seem too bothered about signing guests up to the app. Once an invite link is shared, they can interact with the event through a simple web-based UI.
Guests don’t need the app to RSVP
Where Apple wins some points back is in its iCloud+ integration. If your guests are all heavy Apple users, then the ability to contribute to a common shared album through Photos and a shared playlist through Apple Music gives it an edge over Partiful. But then, how many social groups these days are exclusively iOS users? Android exists, and it seems silly to pretend that cross-platform viability isn’t a major factor for many people.
Has Apple copied Partiful with its Invites app? Our legal team would insist that we say no, but there’s clearly been a fair amount of ‘inspiration’ taken from it and similar apps. Beyond an extra lick of paint and some Apple-specific bonuses, however, the third party original still has the overall advantage. If you want to go the extra mile in arranging a big party or social event, it’s comfortably the better choice right now.