A Verasight survey of 1,000 US adults, fielded in March 2026, found that 21% had sent party invitations by text message or iMessage in the past year, compared with 7.5% who sent paper invitations by hand or mail. Event platforms such as Partiful, Paperless Post and Evite accounted for 3%.
The paper party invitation isn't gone, but it's no longer how most people get the word out. A new survey suggests the most common "envelope" for a party invitation is now the group text.
What's trending
Verasight surveyed 1,000 US adults in March 2026 about how they sent invitations for events they organized in the past year. The margin of error was plus or minus 3.5 points. The results:
- 21% sent invitations by text message or iMessage
- 7% used Facebook Messenger
- 6% used email
- 7.5% sent paper invitations by hand or by mail
- 3% used event platforms such as Partiful, Paperless Post or Evite
- 1% each used WhatsApp or other social media
More than half (54%) hadn't sent invitations for an event at all in the past 12 months. Among those who had, digital options, led by plain text messages, far outnumbered paper.
Why it's resonating
Invitations go where people already talk to each other. For most families, that's a group chat.
Dedicated party apps are growing too. CNBC reported in 2025 that Partiful, an invitation app popular with people in their 20s, averaged 500,000 monthly active users in the first quarter of 2025, up 400% from a year earlier according to Sensor Tower. About nine in 10 of its users are in the US. Evite reported more than 20 million monthly active users, and Apple launched its own Apple Invites app in February 2025.
Even so, the survey suggests most people skip the apps entirely. A single image dropped into a text thread is the simplest invitation there is.
What it means for birthday invitations
If the invitation will live in a group chat, it has to look good on a phone screen. Designs made only for 5x7 paper tend to look tiny when they're shared as images. Small text gets lost, and the edges get cropped.
The practical answer is to get both formats. A full-screen phone version for texting and social media, plus a printable 5x7 for grandparents and keepsakes. An editable beach birthday invitation for teen girls, for example, includes a 1080x1920 mobile version alongside the print size, so the same design works in the group chat and on the fridge.
The bottom line
Paper invitations still have their place, but the numbers show where invitations actually travel now. For your next party, design for the phone first and print second.