Meet the people your friends know. Today in your orbit: up to 10 friends of friends near you each day, one at a time. Ask the friend you share to introduce you in one tap. Wish list: add the places you dream of going. When someone in your circles wants to go too, you both hear about it. Know someone before you land: post a trip and see who in your circles lives there or has been. Also new: approve introductions right from the Orbit tab, invite only plans, photos from plans for the people who were there, 15 colours for trips and plans, and invite links that connect friends to you automatically. Plus a simpler sign up and lots of fixes.

Orbit is better with your people in it, so this update is about getting them there. Find your people. Setup now ends by showing who you are already connected to, which of your contacts are on Orbit, and your invite link. Near You tells you what to do. If nobody is close by, you will see what is missing: a few more friends, your blurred location, or a first plan. One tap fixes each. You can also see how many people on Orbit are within 10 miles, and how many know someone you know. It shows numbers only. It never shows who. Friends can say "I'm in" without the app. Share a plan and anyone with the link can answer with their first name. You see who said yes and can invite them in one tap. Invite links connect right away. Anyone who opens your invite link becomes your friend at once. No requests to accept. Plans you send connect too. A plan sent in a message connects the person to you. A plan shared to a story does not, so you decide who ends up on your map. Wider plans. See plans from friends of friends of friends, with a switch to keep the feed to close friends only. Plus fixes and polish.

Your area reaches your friends more reliably. Orbit used to give up if a position took more than a few seconds to arrive and then sent nothing at all, so friends stopped seeing each other. It now waits longer, uses a recent position if your phone already has one, and falls back on the last one it knows. Near You now tells you when friends have not shared an area, which is usually why it looks empty rather than nobody being close. Joining from an invite is simpler. If you copied someone's link, the sign up screen says so, and pasting it connects you to them the moment your account is made, with nothing for them to accept. Deleting your account works again. It had been failing for everyone, and for anyone who had invited people it could not finish at all. Also: a handful of smaller fixes behind the scenes.

Ask to be introduced. Near You now shows friends and friends of friends within 10 miles. For someone you share a friend with, tap Ask to be introduced: every friend you have in common gets a note, and any one of them can approve it from their Notifications tab. Once they do, you are friends. Join from an invite and arrive connected. Tap Get Orbit on the invite page, then Paste when Orbit asks for your invite, and you are friends with whoever sent it. Messaging is now for friends. On anyone else's profile you will see Ask to be introduced instead of Send a message. Tap any photo or name to see that person's profile, wherever they appear. Contacts who are not on Orbit yet open their card from your phone. Your location stays current whenever you open Orbit, and friends on Near You show for up to a week with how long ago they were there. If you have not shared a location yet, Near You offers to do it in place. Fuller profiles: the friends you have in common, the plans someone is going to, and when they joined. On your own Profile, tap Friends, Photos or Events to open them. Pictures load reliably and much faster, and new photos are compressed before they upload. Notifications take you to the chat, person or plan they are about, and messages appear in the Notifications tab. Also: a cleaner Friends page, no tab bar across screens you open, buttons that were hard to read in dark mode, and a number of smaller fixes.

Notifications work now. Friend requests, RSVPs, invites being used and plans that move all reach your phone, and a new Notifications tab keeps them together even if you have notifications switched off. One invite link. Share yours and whoever opens it becomes your friend straight away, whether they are new to Orbit or already here. No codes, no limit, and you can reset your link whenever you like. Find your friends. Search by phone number or from your contacts, and add your own number so they can find you. Invite friends to a plan while you are creating it. They are told, and can say they are in. Past plans are kept. The feed shows what is still to come, and everything else moves to Past plans. Near You now shows your own friends who are close by, not only friends of friends, and keeps your shared area current while you use the app. The map centres on you and no longer shows positions more than a day old. Show your Instagram on your profile, and see mutual friends on everyone else's. Also: messages show when they are unread, photos upload far faster, long conversations open instantly, and a long list of smaller fixes.

Invite links now work properly. Tapping an invite opens Orbit straight to the invite when you already have the app, and takes you to the App Store when you do not. Redeeming an invite connects you to whoever sent it automatically.

Invites • An invite link now works for someone who doesn't have Orbit yet. Before, it only opened on a phone that already had the app — which the person you're inviting, by definition, doesn't. • Following an invite connects you to whoever sent it. No handle to type, no request to remember to send. Plans • Events can be edited. Fix a typo, move the time, change the venue — everyone going, every comment and every photo stays put. • Add a photo while you're creating an event, instead of posting first and going back in to add one. Photos • A new profile photo now appears straight away. It was always saving; the old one was being served from cache. • Photos of different shapes sit together properly, and you can tap one to open it full screen.