Hangvites, the same-day invite
What a Hangvite is, why it exists, how to send one from your iPhone, who gets it, and what "in or out" does.
Updated September 22, 2026
Planning ahead is what events are for. A Hangvite is for right now: pickleball in an hour, dinner out tonight, the game at your place. One activity, one place, one time, today, sent to the people who are actually around. They tap I'm in or Pass, and it ends itself.
Why it exists
A group text asks twenty people to negotiate. Someone proposes a time, three people counter, two go quiet, and the plan dies in the thread. A Hangvite removes the negotiation: you name the thing, Luau shows you who's free and nearby before you send, and everyone answers yes or no. No maybes.
Send one
- Open the Hangvites tab and tap Send a Hangvite.
- What are we doing? Type it or tap a suggestion (the chips change with the time of day: Breakfast, Coffee, Lunch, Pickleball, Dinner, the driving range…).
- Where? Search a place, Use my location, or drop a pin.
- When today? Pick In 30 min, In 1 hour, In 2 hours, or set a Start time. Turn on Set an end time if you want; otherwise it runs three hours.
- Guests can invite: No one, Shared mutuals (guests can pull in people you both know), or Anyone (guests get a personal link to share).
- Check the crew. Luau preselects people who are nearby with no clashing plans on Luau today (Preselected crew are nearby with no clashing plans on Luau. Tap to adjust who gets the ping.). Use the Crew menu to switch crews, Add someone else, or fold open Not around right now.
- Tap Send. You'll see Sent! Pinged N people. Accepts will roll in here.
Hangvites are sent from the Luau iPhone app. On the web you'll see one you've been invited to as an event page, where Going and Can't answer it (there's no Maybe). To send your own, get Luau for iPhone.
Crews
Your first crew is created for you as My Crew. Add people from your mutuals, make more crews (the Tuesday run group, the neighbors), and pick one when you send. Crew invite links don't expire, so a friend who isn't on Luau yet can join the crew when they sign up.
Who gets it and how
- Only people in the crew or among your mutuals who haven't already received five today.
- The ping is a push first; if there's enough runway before the end time it escalates to email and then a text so nobody misses a same-day plan. Every rung is clamped so nothing arrives after the hang is over.
- When the first person accepts you get [Name] is in! 🎉. Everyone's Live Activity on the lock screen updates with the running count.
Answering one
Tap I'm in or Pass on the card. You can change your mind (Switch to out, Actually, I'm in) until it ends. You'll see the count (4 in · of 9 invited) and, once the time passes, Nobody made it official if nobody came.
Open the link and tap Going or Can't on the event page.
Accepting a Hangvite counts as going to an event: it appears in your upcoming events, syncs to Google Calendar if you've connected it, makes you mutuals with the host if you weren't already, and strengthens that connection for future suggestions.
Ending it
A Hangvite is live from the moment you send it until its end time. From the card, hosts can Change End Time, End the hang (Responses and invites close the moment it ends), or Call it off (Everyone invited or in gets a heads-up right away).
Things to know
- No date picker: a Hangvite is always today.
- No plus-ones, no waitlist, no sharing beyond the invite modes above.
- Location is optional. If you share your location with Luau, "nearby" is judged in coarse buckets (roughly within 2 miles or within 10 miles); nobody sees your coordinates.
- Kai can send one for you from a connected assistant (Send a same-day "who's in?" Hangvite). See Train Kai.