iOS Calendar App: How To Deal With Spam Invites

Many iOS device owners have received spam invites on their Calendar app over the past week. Upon declining, the invites become even more persistent.

Apple, which was initially silent, put out a statement on Twitter Thursday directed at iMore's Rene Ritchie, saying that the company is working on a fix.

Currently, spam filtering happens only at Apple's end due to its closed app ecosystem. But there are ways that users can avoid spam invites until an official fix arrives.

Here's what you can do:

• Don't decline an invite. Doing so will alert the spammer that the account is up and functioning, and could possibly encourage them to spam regularly.
• There is a workaround if you want to delete the invite without alerting the spammer, but it is only possible on the affected iOS device. First, create a temporary calendar and then change the invite's calendar to the temporary one. Once you have made the change for all your spam invites, delete the temporary calendar and get rid of the invites.
• Disable in-app notifications for invites. To do so, use the iCloud interface to send any invites to an email address. Navigate to the Settings tab on the bottom left of the Calendar window, click on the Advanced tab and divert invites to your email address. Once this is done, you will stop receiving invites on your iOS device.

Apple is expected to soon add an “Ignore” or “Mark as spam” button for unwanted invites, Slashgear reports.