Apple’s Invite app and its less welcome third-party porn apps

The week has been a mixed bag for Apple. First, it launched a new iPhone app for organizing events and being actually social; then, it had to contend with a third-party app store offering a porn app in the European Union. And there’s nothing like an Apple-pornography headline to draw the eye.

But first, Apple Invites, where you can host an unlimited number of events, each one limited to 100 participants. It’s also possible to invite non-iPhone users. What?!

You can use your own photos or backgrounds in the app as an image for the invite and even arrange a communal playlist through Apple Music.

Of course, there’s some Apple Intelligence shoehorned in. Image Playground is built into Invites to generate images for your events when there aren’t any appropriate photos.

What about the future for existing invite apps, like Evite, Partiful, Luma and the rest? Well, all isn’t lost: Only paid iCloud subscribers can create invites in the app — and prices start there at 99 cents a month, while rival apps offer free basic event invites. Also, the web experience for non-iPhone people is pretty clunky and painful. At least for now.

Meanwhile, a third-party app store called AltStore PAL announced a porn app called Hot Tub was now available to iOS users in the European Union. The marketplace described it as the “first Apple-approved porn app” — which probably isn’t entirely accurate.

It’s seemingly the first time a porn app has been available natively for the iPhone. Apple said it was “deeply concerned about the safety risks that hardcore porn apps of this type create for EU users, especially kids.”

And just to add further corporate spice: Longtime Apple App Store foe Epic gave the alternative app store a MegaGrant last year to help fund the “core technology fees” third-party app stores are required to pay Apple. Not that it’s directly affiliated with this adult entertainment portal. Epic CEO Tim Sweeney took to X to say, “the Epic Games Store doesn’t carry this app, doesn’t carry any porn apps, and has never carried porn apps.”

— Mat Smith

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