[roddylindsay]

Brilliant move.

The transition of the major social networks over the last 10-15 years -- from being a space for friends to interact to being a space to consume content produced by "unconnected" entities like influencers -- has created a huge opening for someone to claim the friends and family network. There is no one better positioned (at least in the U.S. where iPhones are the majority handset) than Apple.

[pkamb]

I think Apple already has claimed the "friends and family network" via iMessage. Did Facebook go to a groups/influencer algorithm by choice or is it the result of IRL friend posters all moving to private chats once everyone got iPhones?

[eknkc]

Everytime iMessage is mentioned, I do a double take because it is almost non existent here in Turkey. And from what I hear, seems like most Europeans do not use it too.

WhatsApp has like 99.9% market share here and I assume it is a lot bigger than anything else in the EU too.

I wonder why is that though. Everyone around me has an iPhone basically and I haven’t received a blue bubble in years. The messages app is not even on my home screen.

[Zak]

That's only true if everyone in the group has an Apple phone, which has decreasing probability with every additional member. Excluding people from a conversation because they don't have the right brand of phone would be pretty antisocial.

[john2x]

I'm still waiting for iMessage to work with Android phones.

[skissane]

> I think Apple already has claimed the "friends and family network" via iMessage.

All the family/friends group chats I am in are WhatsApp.

I use iMessage every day for 1-to-1 messaging but I don’t really view it as distinct from SMS.

For international communication, even 1-on-1 tends to be WhatsApp.

[stevage]

Nobody I know uses iMessage.

[create-username]

Nobody uses iMessage in Spain. People swear by Zuck's spyware

[addicted]

iMessage is dead/dying. WhatsApp is killing it.

At this point even my American groups have become largely WhatsApp because Android exists.

[distantsounds]

Brilliant? Launching an app for creating events that requires you to 1) own an iDevice and 2) pay into, just to create events?

I'll send an email for free, thankyouverymuch.

[stronglikedan]

This obviously offers more than just sending an email. And since the majority of Apple users aren't very tech savvy, I can see this catching on quickly.

[blueelephanttea]

> 1) own an iDevice

You do not need to own an Apple device to either create events or join events.

> I'll send an email for free, thankyouverymuch.

This seems fine! There are open protocols (email, ics) if they work for you, but Apple specifically developed this in a way to neither require an Apple device or Apple Account to interact. Which is better than some of the competitors! (Facebook and Google tend to create social tools which explicitly require everyone to have accounts.)

[tail_exchange]

Likely doesn't need to be said, but if you are organizing parties with emails, you're probably not the target user base of this feature.

For the younger folks who organize their parties by texting (iMessages, Whatsapp, Telefram, etc), this can be enticing.

[sylens]

While I agree with your points in principle, the paywall may act as a way for them to handle spam/misuse more effectively

[RIMR]

The problem is that by vendor-locking these services to Apple users, they create an environment that alienates non-Apple users. If they want to truly claim the friends & family network, they need to remember that everyone has friends & family that aren't in the Apple ecosystem.

So long as Facebook remains available to everyone, even if the content feed is a mess, the event planning space is going to be more accessible to everyone and will end up being the defacto friends & family ecosystem.

I'm not an iCloud+ member, so I can't go in an look for myself, but ideally this would be just a fancy way of extending your iCloud Calendar invites where Gmail, Outlook, etc. users can still create events and invite people in roughly the same way. If as a Linux & Android user I am only able to RSVP to Apple users' invites, but I am never able to invite them to anything myself, then I literally cannot embrace this product without investing considerable money into their hardware, which I am not going to do.

Hell, if they featureset was compelling enough, and they had an iCloud app for non-Apple hardware platforms, I might actually consider being an iCloud+ member, but I guess it's not worth it to Apple to collect a monthly payment from me if I won't make the downpayment on an iPhone and a Macbook...

[mewse-hn]

> So long as Facebook remains available to everyone, even if the content feed is a mess, the event planning space is going to be more accessible to everyone and will end up being the defacto friends & family ecosystem.

For now. We're in the process of seeing Twitter die like every other social network has died before it, Facebook will have it's time as well.

[ninkendo]

> So long as Facebook remains available to everyone

This is not a given even today. Creating a new Facebook account involves a ton of scrutiny, you need to upload an ID, and until your account is older and established it’s likely that anything you do can get auto-scanned by some spam bot and get you banned for using some keyword, even in private chats.

I don’t have a Facebook account but I needed to create one a few years back to use my oculus quest (this is before they finally came to their senses and separated the accounts) and I had a lot of trouble convincing FB that I was a real human.

[blueelephanttea]

> Hell, if they featureset was compelling enough, and they had an iCloud app for non-Apple hardware platforms, I might actually consider being an iCloud+ member, but I guess it's not worth it to Apple to collect a monthly payment from me if I won't make the downpayment on an iPhone and a Macbook...

You can create events from the web iCloud interface without an Apple device.

[Workaccount2]

>If they want to truly claim the friends & family network, they need to remember that everyone has friends & family that aren't in the Apple ecosystem.

They are completely aware of it an actively leverage it to use your friends and family against you to force you into Apple's ecosystem. It's the main reason why Android will have to get pretty bad before I bend to such incredibly dirty tactics.

[dialup_sounds]

I'm not convinced they're leaving a lot of money on the table by pitching a free app at a billion iPhone users vs. the famously lucrative Linux desktop market.

[aaronblohowiak]

Group texts and shared albums (iPhoto or Google photo if you have androids in the mix) are most of my social interaction already..

[mikepurvis]

This is what it's been for me as well, for several years— all meaningful friend-group interactions are now taking place in group chats, sadly this is entirely in Whatsapp and FB Messenger for me; would love if there was a reasonable migration path to getting these interactions entirely off of Meta properties.

[nathancahill]

I'd argue WhatsApp is better positioned (globally).

[0x6c6f6c]

WhatsApp being owned by Meta likely detracts from this though.

[cma]

Apple and Meta's wet dream is exclusionary friends and family networks tied to their future AR hardware. Half the people at the Christmas party pointing and zooming around an AR globe to talk about their travels and the other half with the wrong brand not able to see anything. Maybe they just place the virtual globe on top of one of them and completely block them out to get more space since they aren't seeming relevant.

[squigz]

What happens in 10-15 years more, I wonder? Will Apple stay the respectable, trustworthy company they are today?