Hands-On Mac 168 transcript

Please be advised this transcript is AI-generated and may not be word for word. Time codes refer to the approximate times in the ad-supported version of the show

0:00:00 - Mikah Sargent
Coming up on Hands-On Mac. Let's take a look at Apple's just-released, just-announced new app, apple Invites. This is a first look.

0:00:12 - Leo Laporte
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0:00:32 - Mikah Sargent
Hello and welcome to Hands-On Mac. I am Micah Sargent and today we are taking a look at the new Apple Invites app, an iCloud Plus perk available for iCloud Plus subscribers to use and create invites and anyone else to be able to receive invites. So let's talk about what we're working with here. So here we are on iOS and this new app is essentially a way for you to create invites to events and manage people attending those events and manage a whole bunch of other features. So we're going to kind of go through them as we take a first look at this app. But when I first launched this app, this is what I presented with. Now, it's important to understand that in order to create invites, you need to have an iCloud Plus subscription. So creating and sending, I should say, invites is part of an iCloud Plus subscription. As Apple points out, subscriptions start at as low as 99 cents a month, but if you have an iCloud Plus subscription, you get to make them, you can send them to whomever, because this is not just an app but also a web app, essentially, and so if you are sending it to someone who doesn't have an iCloud account, doesn't have an iPhone, they are able to still access the invite, even in those cases, if you are sending it to an iPhone and the person downloads the Apple invites app. That's going to be kind of the best most you know, pure experience. But there are those other options available and in fact, nine to5Google has an article showing how Apple invites work on Android, which we'll include a link to in the show notes so you can kind of see what that's like.

But let's go about creating an event. So, first and foremost, we have the option to add a background, and when we create a background, we can choose a background that is presented to us. We can pull from our photos, we can take a photo with the camera or we can go into image playground. Image playground, of course, lets you use Apple's artificial intelligence it's AI or Apple intelligence tools to create a custom image. But in this case I'm just going to choose a basic. We'll go with a green color for the background. Now the event is going to be called friendly barbecue and we can change the typeface that's used here. We choose a date and time.

This is going to take place on Friday, february 21st, starting at 6pm, and we have the option to say this is an all day event or it has an end time, so we'll say it goes from 6 to 8 pm and then we can choose a location, which I'm going to switch away for just a moment to protect my specific location. We'll come back. So I'll tap on location and I can choose something nearby. I'm trying to think what's nearby? There's a place called Hopscotch in Portland and so we'll choose that. And so let me move back here.

So I've selected Hopscotch as the location and I can tap done and you can see that that now has been added to the event. It says that it's hosted by me. When I add a description, I can use Apple's writing tools to better create the description. Or I can just Join together for a delicious meal of BBQ and all the fixins and that's like that, and then, of course, hosted by me. So I'll tap done there In fact, I might actually change that to just be my first name and you can see that my image is included, what the weather is going to be like on that day.

It will tell you that and then the directions to the place, as well as the ability to create and I think this is what's so cool a shared album. So if I tap on create album, then I am given the ability to create an album that everybody who participates in this RSVP, this invite, is able to upload photos. Now, importantly, you do not need an iPhone, but you do need an iCloud account to view and upload photos. It doesn't count against your own iCloud storage or anything like that, it just gets uploaded, but you do need to have that iCloud account in order for that to work. So just bear in mind that that is the case when you are choosing to create an album. So, once I've created that, everybody who participates and I think this is what really sets it apart can create and rather can share photos to this album, and so you can say you know any photos that you take that day, go ahead and add those to the library. And then, last but not least, you can also create an Apple Music playlist, and, of course, in this case, people need to have an Apple Music account in order to create a playlist.

So I'm going to call it the Friendly Barbecue playlist. We'll tap done. Create a playlist, so I'm going to call it the friendly barbecue playlist. We'll tap done. And now there's a new Apple music playlist that people can add music to. Let's go a repeating pixel background and see what that does, because I kind of want it to be in the style of the emoji stuff, um, and it be in the style of the emoji stuff, and it whoops, I forgot to add it there. So we've got friendly barbecue as one of the the kind of cues and it doesn't seem to be creating that for me. So I'm just going to remove that and stick with the original image here of this odd meat, uh, as the image, and then I can choose preview.

This shows me what the invite will look like for people uh, friendly barbecue, friday, february 21st, 6 to 8 PM at hopscotch in Portland. The weather, the directions, um, adding photos, and then, of course, uh, the playlist as well, and you can choose I'm going, I'm not going, or maybe I'll tap next, and now it's creating that invitation, and now I have the ability to share a link to this invite, copy the link to the invite, mail out the link to the invite, send a message to the link with the invite, and when you do this, you have the option to approve guests or just have them automatically approved whenever they are added. So if you're creating a more public invite or you're worried that maybe your friend of a friend of a friend might send it to their friend of a friend. This is a great way to make sure that guests are approved. You can choose to invite individuals. This is a one time link, so it's specific to them, as opposed to creating that more public link that is shared across multiple people and then you have in the actually let me go ahead and turn on approve guests and so that way, if someone were to get an invite, then they need to be approved, and I'm going to send one to myself, but I'm going to move away from the camera for a second, just in case it tries to show people's phoneitt, which, of course, is the work account that I have, and I will share that so I can show you what this looks like now. I can share that via messages directly to Micah Twitt, and now Micah Twitt will have that, and I can turn on, of course, notifications for this If you are on a device that does not have.

If you're on a device that does not have, the app, notifications will be sent to you via email. Um, the app notifications will be sent to you via email, so you will still. You will still receive updates to the invite even if you are not a um, a user of the actual app. Um, I'm looking to see if I got the invite. Aha, that just came through. So now I'm going to tap on that invite. Um, so now I'm going to tap on that invite and it pulls up on iCloudcom for me and, of course, prompts me to get the Apple invites app and I am going to try and approve this so that we can tap those three dots next to the person who hasn't responded. I can view their information, I can decide whether they are allowed to invite others that's, if you don't use that public link and then, of course, remove from the event. So if you decide no, I actually don't want this person to be part of the event then you can take them and remove them While that continues to load for the Micah Twit phone.

I want to show you one more thing, which is in the top right corner. We have some different settings, so here we can choose if people can bring plus ones, so you can say it's you plus one guest, you plus two guests, all the way up to five, whether again, whether again you are choosing to approve guests or not, so they can't join the event unless they've been approved, whether the background preview is shown without their being approved. So, basically, the invitation will not have any photo or anything like that until they are actually confirmed that they are who you think they are. And then the ability to add an image description to the background image is also here. You can duplicate the event, you can cancel the event, you can pause replies, which means that for a period of time people aren't able to respond to it, and then you can also delete the event. So, of course, canceling the event means that it still sticks around the event itself, but you are not making use of that event anymore, versus deleting it where it goes away entirely.

So I'm going to open on my device the event invite and I'm going to choose going and in it I'm able to select what all gets shared. So do I have my full name? Do I include my profile picture or just initials? And then, last but not least, my contact information is only able to be viewed by the host. So I will tap done on that and you can add a message to it I'm looking forward to it and send the reply and then we should see in a moment. Yes, that has now changed to going down here at the bottom of the screen and I can choose view information and I see their contact information and their invitation link that they specifically got and that they are indeed going to the event. Now I am able to look at this and invite more guests if I want to. I can send a note to people that says hey, I just heard that it's going to be raining on that day, so we're going to move it inside. I can also add it to my calendar very easily so that you don't forget it, and I'm going to cancel out of that because we won't actually be doing this event.

But last but not least, I just want to join the shared album and upload a couple of photos and then we will see what that looks like on the other end. So I've added three photos to the shared album. You can add a comment if you'd like, but when you post it, then it will pop up, uh, in the shared album section as soon as it uploads. Um, I can see the playlist and my Apple music library and I can, of course, uh add songs to the friendly barbecue playlist if I if I'd like, and be able to add it to my playlist as well. So let me just add a song and we'll see here what we've got. Uh, so then we go back and now you'll see, boom, those photos popped up there and I'm able to, uh, view those photos right here. I can add new photos, I can manage it in the photos library, but in any case they're all there and I can even like them. Uh.

So one last thing here I want to remind everyone um, you are able to create and send out invites if you have an iCloud Plus subscription. Regardless of whether you have an iCloud Plus subscription, you are able to receive these RSVPs and interact with them. If you want to upload and interact with photos, you do need an iCloud account. If you want to interact with Apple Music playlists, you need an Apple Music account. So those are the limitations on what is able to be used, but I love that Apple has made this possible to be used on all sorts of devices. This is not exclusive to just iPhones, so your Android friends can have just as much fun with these event invites as you can on your iPhone. Folks, thank you for tuning in to this week's episode of Hands on Mac. You know that's going through the tour of the brand new Apple Invites app and, of course, I'll be back next week, hopefully feeling better, sounding better, uh, with another episode of hands on mac. Thanks and uh, catch you next time.

0:15:49 - Leo Laporte
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