Apple’s new app Invites copycat criticism

Macworld

Apple on Tuesday introduced a new app called Invites that lets users create custom invitations and share them with family and friends along with photo albums and playlists. But while the app might have been a surprise, it wasn’t a pleasant one for everyone.

Over on X, the makers of event app Partiful posted a screenshot of section 4.1(a) of the App Review Guidelines, which refers to Copycats. The section reads, “Come up with your own ideas. We know you have them, so make yours come to life. Don’t simply copy the latest popular app on the App Store, or make some minor changes to another app’s name or UI and pass it off as your own. In addition to risking an intellectual property infringement claim, it makes the App Store harder to navigate and just isn’t fair to your fellow developers.”

The screenshot is a thinly veiled shot at Apple Invites’ somewhat derivative concept and interface. Partiful was a 2024 finalist for Apple’s Cultural Impact award, so it was clearly on Cupertino’s radar. While there are differences, it’s hard not to see distinct similarities between the Apple Invites and Partiful interfaces.

Of course, Apple is no stranger to copycat cries. Over the years, the concept of “Sherlocking” has become something of an annual tradition, as Apple releases another app, service, or feature that makes some standalone apps irrelevant. The term gets its name from Apple’s Sherlock 3 app introduced with Mac OS X Jaguar, which all but made the popular Watson app irrelevant with a similar feature set.

In a reply to Partiful’s post, Sunshine app founder and former Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer chimed in with similar claims: “At @sunshine, we also took a look at these guidelines today. Gen AI invites and integrated photo sharing, hmm…”

These accusations are unlikely to matter as even Apple’s developer guidelines don’t explicitly ban copying and iPhone users will gravitate toward the app due to its integration with Photos and Apple Music. Apple Invites is a free app for the iPhone, but to unlock event creation you need to subscribe to iCloud+, which starts at $0.99 a month.