ics calendar invites received on iPhone mail app don't get added to calendar automatically

On other email / calendar apps that run on iOS, such as Outlook or Google (both web and apps), when an email that contains an ics calendar invite is received, the event is automatically and quickly added to the calendar app. It is added as a 'tentative' event until the user either confirms, rejects, or responds "maybe". This is great, because the user can see all upcoming events and plan accordingly.

However the built in mail and calendar apps on the iPhone do not work like this - the calendar event is not added to the calendar app until the user opens the email that contains the invite. This behaviour is true regardless of whether the user is using a .icloud domain for their email address, or another domain, such as gmail.com.

Is there any way to configure iOS to allow the native mail app to parse incoming messages and add events to the user's calendar similar to how the other apps work on iOS?

I know that there is the EventKit SDK that can be used but I really want the built in apps to work like the other 3rd party mail / calendar apps.

iPhone 13 Pro

Posted on Nov 6, 2022 7:27 AM

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3 replies

Nov 6, 2022 7:50 AM in response to caryfromtoronto

Both Outlook and Google “look” at your email on the server, before you ever see it, and add the event to the Outlook or Google calendar respectively. Apple (and iCloud) don’t look at the contents of your email, so they don’t see the ics file until you open the email.

Nov 7, 2022 6:18 AM in response to caryfromtoronto

That’s actually 2 questions. Apple doesn’t look into your mail the way Google and Microsoft do. It’s a difference in how the companies view privacy.

Apple's built-in apps are usually and intentionally really basic, because they don’t want 3rd party developers to feel Apple is competing with them. For every Apple app there are apps with more features in the app store. That’s one reason there are 2 million 3rd party apps available.

Nov 7, 2022 5:41 AM in response to Lawrence Finch

That makes sense, but begs the question, why doesn't Apple update their apps to make them more useful?

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ics calendar invites received on iPhone mail app don't get added to calendar automatically