How to Respond to Calendar Invitations on iPhone

In TapCal, open the Calendar Sets menu and choose Invitations to find pending invites. Open one to review the event and use the response options shown to accept, tentatively accept or decline. To check the guest list, open the event and look in its Edit Event details for the read-only attendee view. Whether an invitation and its response controls appear can depend on the calendar account and how the invite was sent.

That gives you a quick way to deal with the invitation itself. Before you accept, you can also check the rest of your schedule in TapCal, which reads calendar accounts connected to iOS. It does not mean every calendar provider or every kind of event supports the same invitation features.

Find a pending invitation in TapCal

Open TapCal and find the Calendar Sets control on the main toolbar. Tap it, then choose Invitations. TapCal’s current release notes say that pending invitations are marked with striped styling and that the Invitations option appears in the Calendar Sets menu when a response is needed. Those cues help separate an invite awaiting your decision from an event that is already part of the schedule. TapCal 1.7 release notes.

If you use calendar sets to separate, say, Work from Personal, switch to a set that includes the account the invitation was sent to. A set controls which calendars appear in TapCal; if the relevant calendar is hidden from the selected set, the schedule can look incomplete. You can check the visible calendars under Settings > Calendars & Lists. TapCal’s help guide lists the calendar accounts it reads through iOS, including iCloud, Google, Outlook/Exchange, Yahoo and CalDAV.

Review the event, then reply

Open the pending invitation and check the details before choosing a response. Confirm the date, start time, time zone and location, especially if it is a work meeting or an appointment arranged across cities. Check for overlapping events too. If the event conflicts with something you have already committed to, it is better to spot that before replying than to discover it later in the week.

Choose the response that matches your decision: Accept if you plan to attend, Maybe if you are not sure yet, or Decline if you cannot make it. TapCal’s release notes confirm that you can respond to calendar invitations in the app. The exact controls and what happens after you tap them can depend on the invitation and calendar server. Apple describes the same three response choices in its iPhone Calendar guide, and notes that some invitation features depend on the calendar involved. Apple’s guide to replying to invitations.

If you cannot find an invitation in TapCal, or its response options are missing, try the iPhone Calendar app as a fallback. Apple’s instructions are to tap the Calendar notification or open Calendar’s Inbox and select the invitation, then choose a response. For an invitation received by email, Apple says to tap the underlined invitation text and choose Show in Calendar. The available route can vary, so follow the options that appear for your account.

See who else is attending

To review the guest list in TapCal, open the event and go into its Edit Event details. TapCal’s version 1.5 release notes describe read-only attendees there, with a detailed attendance view. In practice, look for the attendee section in the event details; it is for reviewing guest information, not editing other people’s attendance or sending them invitations.

“Read-only” matters here. You can check who is listed and, where attendance information is available, see their status. You cannot change another guest’s response from that view. What information is shown depends on what the calendar service makes available for that event, so do not assume every invite will display a complete guest list.

If the invitation or response controls are missing

First, check that the right calendar account is enabled in iOS and that the calendar is visible in TapCal. TapCal uses calendars connected to iOS rather than a separate TapCal account, so the account’s setup and server capabilities matter. If you received an email invitation, use Show in Calendar where available; if you received a Calendar notification, open it directly or check Calendar’s Inbox.

A subscribed ICS feed is a different case: TapCal describes subscription calendars as read-only, so do not expect to RSVP to an event through the feed. Likewise, a shared calendar being visible in TapCal does not mean TapCal created the share or sent the invitation. Its help page says shared calendars can appear when they are already available in Apple Calendar, and that TapCal cannot create sharing or send invitations. If the organiser’s event is not actionable in either app, check the provider’s calendar or invitation email for its supported reply method.

Make the rest of your schedule easier to judge

Once you have handled the invite, TapCal can help you see how it fits alongside work, personal plans and reminders. Use a calendar set to focus on the calendars you need, then switch to a broader view before accepting a commitment that might collide with something elsewhere. Month, week, agenda and list views give you different ways to scan what is already booked without relying on a single day at a time.

If your invitation is missing, start by checking the account and visible calendars in TapCal, then look in the iPhone Calendar app or the original invitation email. If you are choosing whether to attend, check the event details and your wider schedule before replying. Download TapCal from the App Store if you want to manage connected calendars and review your schedule in one place.