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Apple Invites

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Re: Apple Invites

#721

Post by onion2k »

adrr wrote: post #697
esolyt wrote: post #652

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is no indication they haven't read the article. This product, much like iMessage and others, provides an inferior experience to non-Apple users. It aims to make other devices and operating systems look less capable and cheap. iMessage also partially works with other phones. This doesn't change the fact that its intention is to create a lock-in effect, as evidenced by internal Apple emails.

How so? It just sends a link either in a message or email. Acceptance is done via a web page. How do online invitations ensure vendor lock in? What will prevent me from using another online invite system in the future? I’ve used a bunch in past like evite, paperless post and the cost to switch is nothing.

Two of the features of Invites are sharing photos and sharing music. These are both locked down to users of Apple services (Photos and Music). So you can invite anyone, but those people won't be able to fully participate in your event.

There's nothing really wrong with Invites if you're happy to only have photos from people with iPhones or to let the music be exclusively chosen by Apple users, but you can't pretend it's a fair and equal system.

Re: Apple Invites

#722

Post by sizzle »

lordofgibbons wrote: post #362

I really hope this fails. Apple will use it's dominant position to create lock in like how they did with iMessage instead of cooperating with other platforms on a common standard. Oder friends and family are surprised when they want to video call over Facetime and find it hard to believe other people's phones don't have Apple apps.

I hope it is a huge success. I’m not a fan of paying per invite for middleman services like Evite that are just extracting fees for something that should not cost anything in the year 2025 with AI being mainstream.

AI “agents” will soon to solve a lot of mundane tasks for us like creating and sending invites for free I hope.

Re: Apple Invites

#723

Post by mjamil »

ejoso wrote: post #714
adrr wrote: post #697

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How so? It just sends a link either in a message or email. Acceptance is done via a web page. How do online invitations ensure vendor lock in? What will prevent me from using another online invite system in the future? I’ve used a bunch in past like evite, paperless post and the cost to switch is nothing.

It is a degraded experience. Not as smooth as being on iOS. It’s a common playbook used by Apple (as well as MS and others) in an attempt to get and retain users.

Why would the stewards of a walled garden want other gardens (walled or otherwise) be as good as theirs? What moral or economic imperative exists for such a belief?

Why is that bad?

Re: Apple Invites

#724

Post by lloeki »

viraptor wrote: post #688
JohnBooty wrote: post #665

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In the future they can change the approach too and both remove and restrict features Unlike a lot of product categories... I don't really see a strong lock-in factor here? Example: If you are heavily invested in Apple Music or Spotify, there's a lot of momentum there to keep you from switching. All your stuff is there (songs, favorites, playlists) and it would take a lot of time to re-find it on the other service, if…

You can switch. But now you also need to convince a random person that they should switch, because you can't easily use what they're using. And you may be the only one out of 10 people in the group complaining about it. Instead of their technical problem, Apple can make it a "you" social problem.

Still valid for:

  s/Apple Invites/Meta Messenger groups/
  s/Apple Invites/Facebook events/
  s/Apple Invites/WhatsApp groups/
  s/Apple Invites/Telegram groups
  s/Apple Invites/doodle.com/
These are the things people use around here to organise events. Four of those require a persistent account and an app, three of those are Meta for which I'm the loner yelling that I won't touch them with a 10 yard pole and a hazmat suit.

What are you proposing instead? That these should all be decentralised/federated? SMS/RCS? Matrix? email? ICS?

Re: Apple Invites

#725

Post by treesknees »

onion2k wrote: post #721
adrr wrote: post #697

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How so? It just sends a link either in a message or email. Acceptance is done via a web page. How do online invitations ensure vendor lock in? What will prevent me from using another online invite system in the future? I’ve used a bunch in past like evite, paperless post and the cost to switch is nothing.

Two of the features of Invites are sharing photos and sharing music. These are both locked down to users of Apple services (Photos and Music). So you can invite anyone, but those people won't be able to fully participate in your event. There's nothing really wrong with Invites if you're happy to only have photos from people with iPhones or to let the music be exclusively chosen by Apple users, but you can't pretend i…

Depends on how you define locked down. Apple Music has been available on the Google Play store for years [1] and also supports listening in a web browser on any operating system [2]. I do agree Photos could use some cross-platform improvements.

[1] https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.apple.andr...

[2] https://support.apple.com/guide/music-web/welcome/web

Re: Apple Invites

#726

Post by arvinsim »

leptons wrote: post #368
wenc wrote: post #186

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Platform fragmentation is a generational thing. I thought email was a common denominator but I learned most people don’t check email or check it rarely. So different from the days when everyone had email. I still use FB and so do many of my friends my age (mid to late 40s). But a bunch have also migrated to Instagram. Among the younger generation, you’re a millennial if you’re on instagram because they’ve moved to Ti…

My wife is late 40s and just deleted her facebook account, and she's the most FOMO person I know - and she did this because of zuck capitulating to trump. A lot of people have had it with companies supporting fascists.

So is she going to also do away with anything related to Elon, Tim and the like?

Re: Apple Invites

#727

Post by pbreit »

basisword wrote: post #546
lordofgibbons wrote: post #362

I really hope this fails. Apple will use it's dominant position to create lock in like how they did with iMessage instead of cooperating with other platforms on a common standard. Oder friends and family are surprised when they want to video call over Facetime and find it hard to believe other people's phones don't have Apple apps.

Just a tip but sometimes it’s good to read the article before commenting. The app allows iPhone users to create an event. Anybody on any device or browser can RSVP. The event can be shared as a link. Making an event invite app that only works for users on one platform would be pointless. Also - non-Apple users have been able to join FaceTime calls via. A link for several years.

Your "tips" don't really address the OP's post.

Re: Apple Invites

#728

Post by lloeki »

satvikpendem wrote: post #624
yapyap wrote: post #621

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Tbf imessage also allows people to message non iOS users but apparently the ‘color of the bubble’ has been a big thing in the U.S. among youth.

> but apparently the ‘color of the bubble’ has been a big thing in the U.S. among youth It's not the color itself that's the problem, it's that having one green user means the entire conversation falls back to SMS and thus photos, videos, etc are all degraded and you can't do more rich messaging things like reactions. This is changing with RCS but it is in Apple's interest to make it a social change rather than just…

> the entire conversation falls back to SMS

> it is in Apple's interest to make it a social change rather than just a technological limitation.

It is a technical requirement? How would non-iMessage users respond to the whole group including the ones on iMessage?

When you sit for 5min and think about the whole flow across a bunch of message exchanges every other way there's really no other technical solution than downgrading the whole conversation to SMS/RCS.

Re: Apple Invites

#729

Post by satvikpendem »

lloeki wrote: post #728
satvikpendem wrote: post #624

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> but apparently the ‘color of the bubble’ has been a big thing in the U.S. among youth It's not the color itself that's the problem, it's that having one green user means the entire conversation falls back to SMS and thus photos, videos, etc are all degraded and you can't do more rich messaging things like reactions. This is changing with RCS but it is in Apple's interest to make it a social change rather than just…

> the entire conversation falls back to SMS > it is in Apple's interest to make it a social change rather than just a technological limitation. It is a technical requirement? How would non-iMessage users respond to the whole group including the ones on iMessage ? When you sit for 5min and think about the whole flow across a bunch of message exchanges every other way there's really no other technical solution than dow…

RCS is not a downgrade, it can also be E2E encrypted but Apple's implementation doesn't use it. It is entirely a business decision to not support the full capabilities of RCS as the iMessage sender system.

Re: Apple Invites

#730

Post by arvinsim »

WorldMaker wrote: post #199
frereubu wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But no-one without an Apple Account can create them - you can only respond to Apple-having friends. There is social pressure in that too.

You need a Google Account to use Google Calendar. Anyone can have an Apple Account whether or not they own an Apple Device. In this case, too, you can create Invites on icloud.com on non-Apple devices. Including the webpage seems nicely responsive and can probably make them in an Android Chrome tab if you wanted. The only remaining obstacle is that it isn't a free feature of an Apple Account, but requires an iCloud+…

Google account is still free while iCloud+ subscription is not.

That's a big difference.

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