Apple’s Services is an increasingly important segment for the company, bringing in more and more revenue each year. It’s a great alternative for growth for Apple that might help compensate for iPhone sale fluctuations, especially in certain markets.
Improving Services should also be a key priority for Apple, as that’s one way to keep iPhone buyers loyal to the company. I say that as a longtime iPhone user who keeps using Apple products for the various software products that come preloaded, and Services is a part of that.
Apple is reportedly about to release a new iCloud product this week, which is an important product of Services itself. Called Confetti unofficially, the new iCloud feature should be available in iOS 18.3 or later. Conetti will let you manage events and meetings in a hopefully way than what Calendar already offers in iCloud.
Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman mentioned Confetti in his Power On newsletter on Sunday.
As the festive code name implies, the service offers a new way to invite people to parties, functions, and meetings. For years, Apple has been seeking to revamp its calendar app — and this new initiative could be the beginning of a broader effort.
The Confetti release is tied to iOS 18.3, which started rolling out just last week. According to Gurman, Apple could release Confetti as soon as this week.
It’s unclear whether Conetti will come as a standalone app, but since Gurman says it’ll be a new iCloud-based service, I’d expect it to have its own iPhone app and Calendar integration. Also, let’s not forget that Gurman isn’t the only source indicating a Confetti iCloud feature is coming soon.
According to a 9to5Mac report last month, Confetti is a new functionality the blog discovered in the code of iOS 18.3 beta releases. At the time, the unreleased app was called “Apple Invites.”
Confetti would integrate with iCloud and feature a web version on iCloud.com. But 9to5Mac also noted that it wasn’t clear whether the feature would get a standalone app or be included in other services.
Essentially, the app will show you a list of the people invited to that event and who has already confirmed their attendance. It’s unclear whether Invites will actually be a standalone app or whether Apple has plans to integrate it with other parts of the system (such as a mini iMessage app). Presumably, the app will have a more fun interface than what the Calendar app currently provides for inviting someone to an event.
I’d expect the app to be deeply integrated with other Apple services to make managing invites to events much easier than what Calendar offers. We’ll have to wait for Apple to explain how everything works.
Once the app is released, we might have to update our iPhones to an iOS 18.3.1 release that brings over the new app or download the Confetti app from the App Store. If Confetti will be integrated into Calendar, an iOS 18 update should enable the functionality.
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