[lxgr]

A (for most of the world, in any case) possibly surprising fact about the US is that WhatsApp is not very popular there.

This indeed causes problems when wanting to create a quick ad-hoc group for a party invitation etc., if at least one of the invitees is not an iPhone user.

[ghaff]

The only reason I have WhatsApp is that a couple non-US friends use it from time to time. No one I know in the US does anything other than standard text messaging whether or not it ends up being iMessage.

[cozzyd]

The parent's chat group for my toddler's school is WhatsApp. There was nobody who didn't have it installed (and it's about 50/50 android/iPhone).

[talldayo]

It causes problems if one of the iPhone owners isn't an active iCloud+ subscriber:

> Creation of invitations requires an iCloud+ subscription.

This isn't about making life easier on people, this is about getting you to subscribe to Apple's services for access to a REST API. Apple gets some benefit of the doubt, but this is literally Slop-as-a-Service.

[nozzlegear]

I can't tell what you're arguing here – are you misunderstanding what you quoted from the FAQ? Only the person who creates the event needs to have an iCloud+ subscription. Everyone else can RSVP to it regardless of whether they have an iCloud+ subscription or even an Apple device at all.

> Do invitees need to have an Apple device with the app to attend an event?

> Apple Invites is for everyone. Guests don’t need the app, an Apple device, or an account to RSVP to an event.

Source: www.icloud.com/invites

[alt227]

> Apple Invites is for everyone. Guests don’t need the app, an Apple device, or an account to RSVP to an event.

Right, so how do they get and respond to the invite? I'm guessing SMS or email, making the whole thing pointless.

[nozzlegear]

Why is that pointless?