Calendar invitations

When a message carries a meeting invitation, Loupe shows it as a card above the message: what, when, where, who, and buttons to answer. It reads invitations from Outlook, Google Calendar, Thunderbird and any other app that sends standard calendar invitations (iCalendar).

The invitation card

The card shows:

The title, and your answer once you gave one: Accepted, Maybe or Declined.
When, in your time zone. If the event was planned in another time zone, the card shows both, for example “09:00–10:00 London · 17:00–18:00 your time”. All-day events say “All day”.
Repeats, in words (for example, every week on Monday), with the next occurrence.
Where, with a Map button that opens the place in your maps app.
The online meeting (Teams, Zoom, Google Meet, Webex, Jitsi, GoTo Meeting or another), with a Join button. Loupe shows the meeting’s web address before it opens it.
The organizer, and the guests with their answers so far (“4 guests · 2 accepted, 1 maybe, 1 declined”). Tap the guests to see the list.

If a calendar file holds more than one event, the card says how many more there are.

Note: Loupe never loads anything an invitation links to by itself. Map and Join open only when you tap them. If Loupe’s phishing check finds the message suspicious, the buttons are turned off.

Answer an invitation

Tap Accept, Maybe or Decline.
Optionally, tap Add a Comment first and write a note for the organizer.

Loupe sends your answer to the organizer as a standard reply that their calendar understands, from the address the invitation was sent to. The card says where it goes (“Your reply goes to … from …”).

The reply goes through the Outbox like any message, so your Undo Send delay applies: a bar says “Accepted · sending reply to …” with Undo. Undo takes the reply back, and the card returns to your earlier answer.

Loupe only answers when you tap a button, never on its own. It answers invitations that come from the organizer; a calendar file someone else attached can only be added to your calendar.

Add to your calendar

Tap Add to Calendar. Your phone’s calendar app opens a new event filled in with the details, including how it repeats. Nothing is saved until you save it there.

Loupe doesn’t sync calendars itself: answering an invitation tells the organizer, and adding it to your calendar is a separate step.

Updates and cancellations

Loupe remembers the invitations you have seen, so later messages about the same event make sense:

Updated: the card lists what changed, such as “Time changed from … to …”, a new location, a new title, or a change to how it repeats. The earlier invitation is then marked Out of date: “This invitation was updated later; the newer one counts.”
Updated invitation: an update to an event whose first invitation you never opened in Loupe.
Cancelled: the title is struck through and the card says the organizer cancelled the event.
Answers to your own invitations: when someone replies to an event you organised, the card says so, for example “Wren declined:” with their comment. Proposals for a new time say so too.

If you answered an earlier version of an event, the card reminds you: “You accepted an earlier version.”

Time zones

Loupe understands the time zone names used by calendar apps, including Outlook’s Windows names. If an invitation uses a time zone Loupe doesn’t know, the card shows the times as written and says that the time zone is unknown.