Best way to manage text group
August 23, 2022 8:12 PM Subscribe
We are setting up a group text for people interested in getting or sending occasional alerts on a specific subject. Several members of the group are SMS capable but not interested in other software options like What's App, etc. What's the best way to do this?
Just having a group text is hard because members will come and go - in Android that requires a new group to form and breaks the chain of messages for the remaining members (unless there's a way around this? And I assume some of these folks are Iphone users so I'm not sure how that works at all!)
I think what we need is:
1) a single number that people would text / receive texts from
2) the ability to add or remove members
Ideally, there would also be some way to ID who sent a message. Ideally this would also be free but a small fee would be manageable.
This must be possible, right? Googling is getting me a lot of business style ad websites that seemed more spammy than real.
Also open to other solutions if I'm missing something obvious!
Just having a group text is hard because members will come and go - in Android that requires a new group to form and breaks the chain of messages for the remaining members (unless there's a way around this? And I assume some of these folks are Iphone users so I'm not sure how that works at all!)
I think what we need is:
1) a single number that people would text / receive texts from
2) the ability to add or remove members
Ideally, there would also be some way to ID who sent a message. Ideally this would also be free but a small fee would be manageable.
This must be possible, right? Googling is getting me a lot of business style ad websites that seemed more spammy than real.
Also open to other solutions if I'm missing something obvious!
Facebook Messenger can do this, but may not be available to all of your group.
posted by dg at 9:30 PM on August 23, 2022
posted by dg at 9:30 PM on August 23, 2022
Best answer: I used GroupMe for a similar situation and it seemed to work all right.
posted by Medieval Maven at 5:34 AM on August 24, 2022
posted by Medieval Maven at 5:34 AM on August 24, 2022
If you're only using Android, look into the RCS options on Messages. It should be able to do group chats.
posted by kdar at 7:27 PM on August 24, 2022
posted by kdar at 7:27 PM on August 24, 2022
The problem is that that you have no authority over the people. They're interested in getting or sending occasional alerts on the specific subject, yet they're not interested in software options like WhatsApp. Presumably they would equally resist GroupMe, FB Messenger, and other apps they don't already have. So there's no automatic solution.
The lowest common denominator appears to be SMS, which worked fine for my family group. Text groups are easy to set up. If the people are not even willing to text, which is available on all cell phones, then they won't be able to join your group and get their alerts.
Some messages may show up as phone numbers on a given phone; that's because the phone number is not a known contact on that phone. Each user will have to enter a new contact including the name that corresponds to such a phone number, on their individual phone.
posted by JimN2TAW at 5:03 AM on August 25, 2022
The lowest common denominator appears to be SMS, which worked fine for my family group. Text groups are easy to set up. If the people are not even willing to text, which is available on all cell phones, then they won't be able to join your group and get their alerts.
Some messages may show up as phone numbers on a given phone; that's because the phone number is not a known contact on that phone. Each user will have to enter a new contact including the name that corresponds to such a phone number, on their individual phone.
posted by JimN2TAW at 5:03 AM on August 25, 2022
Best answer: Presumably they would equally resist GroupMe
GroupMe lets you add people to a group without their approval and they will just start getting messages without having to do anything. This is problematic when someone keeps adding your number to things you don't care about. So, you can go that route, but get people's okay before adding them and double check that you have the right phone number. As one of the first messages, tell people that they can unsubscribe by replying #stop. That info is not easy to find on their website.
posted by soelo at 11:13 AM on August 25, 2022
GroupMe lets you add people to a group without their approval and they will just start getting messages without having to do anything. This is problematic when someone keeps adding your number to things you don't care about. So, you can go that route, but get people's okay before adding them and double check that you have the right phone number. As one of the first messages, tell people that they can unsubscribe by replying #stop. That info is not easy to find on their website.
posted by soelo at 11:13 AM on August 25, 2022
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posted by Jade Horning at 8:29 PM on August 23, 2022 [1 favorite]