Apple Has a New App and People Care (For a Change)
This is a single insight from This Week in Apps - Apple's Latest Sherlock. Check out the full article for more insights.
A few days ago, Apple shipped a brand new app to the App Store called Apple Invites. This app comes almost a year after Apple released Apple Sports, another Apple app that doesn't come built into the iPhone and is available for download just like every other app.
Unlike Apple Sports, which had a lackluster release and very few downloads now, users do seem to care about Apple Invites.
Our App Intelligence show that in its first five days in the App Store, Apple Invites was downloaded 1.3M times, and for a few hours, even become the #1 app in the US (where it's now #8).
Like its name, Apple Invites lets users create invitations to events and collect RSVPs. Services like Eventbrite already do that, but those tend to feel a bit less hip and a bit more business.
I thought Apple Invites was a novel idea, but folks on ๐ were quick to say it isn't. Partiful does (and looks) pretty much the same.
Both Apple Invites and Partiful offer a way to create events with background and colors and music, send invites, and collect RSVPs.
Partiful launched in the summer of 2023 on the App Store and then in mid 2024 on Android. Since its release, our App Intelligence shows Partiful was downloaded by 1.5M people worldwide. Apple Invites will likely surpass that in a few days - but there's good news there which I'll get to in a moment.
It pains me to see apps that need the social graph starting on a single platform because it could seriously stunt growth, and that may have been the case here. Partiful's Android version launched almost a year after its iOS app and while it managed to get some traction, it's barely getting downloads.
According to our estimates, the majority of downloads are coming from the App Store. And by majority I mean 92%. Only 8% are coming from Google Play, and the trend isn't all that wonderful.
If you're developing an app that relies on user-sharing, make sure you consider people have friends on other platforms.
Partiful's downloads peaked in November, the first (and only) month with more than 200K downloads, but has subsided a bit after.
It can still win. Being sherlocked by Apple might seem like its the end for Partiful, but it really doesn't have to be. In fact, Apple Invites can be the catalyst Partiful needed. Looking at the downloads, most people didn't know Partiful even existed. Be it lack of promotion, bad timing, or that people didn't see the immediate need, Apple Invites will, in a way, force people to know of the existence of this category of apps.
Aaaaand, when you compare the experience, Apple Invites feels very plain while Partiful feels more comprehensive and easier to use. For example, Partiful makes it very easy to not just create an event but to spice it up with graphics and music suggestions, and even an AI assistant to put things together for you. Apple Invites doesn't. You get a form and it's up to you to use it.
To win, Partiful needs to focus on promoting the app as the "better" alternative to Apple Invites that's also cross-platform.
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All figures included in this report are estimated. Unless specified otherwise, estimated revenue is always net, meaning it's the amount the developer earned after Apple and Google took their fee.
