The Best Group Text Messaging Tools

For Android and Apple and Desktop

Six hands holding mobile phones in a circle

   DisobeyArt / Getty Images

by Paul Gil
A certified computer instructor with project management experience in web development.
Updated May 19, 2019

There are dozens of tools you could use to send one-to-many text messages. These next 4 apps stand out because they offer the most features for a freemium price.

If you are a fraternity executive, a sports team organizer, a leader of a small project working group, or the organizer of a ski trip, then definitely consider these next 4 apps for connecting your people with their smartphones, tablets, and desktops!

Why Group Messaging?

Much more so than email, text message and mobile devices follow people everywhere. 'Bite-sized' communications follow people into classrooms, meetings, on cycling and running trips, and even into the bathroom. If you want your group of volunteers or athletes or club members to stay in touch, group text messaging will reach them before email will.

01
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GroupMe

GroupMe web site

What We Like

  • The price is perfect

  • Clean interface

  • Very helpful calendar tool with reminders and attendance (great for scheduling sports games and special events)

  • Easily handles groups of 2-75 members before tracking membership becomes cumbersome

  • Supports the circulation of photos

What We Don't Like

  • The left navigation bar can feel cluttered when you start having multiple one-on-one conversations

  • The buzzing smartphone notifications will become irritating if you don't learn to mute your busy groups

  • No shared document authoring ability like Slack

Free, some advertising

Ideal for: families; clubs, fraternities; sports teams; a group of travelers; dinner groups; social fun 

Platform:  smartphone/tablet app and web-based interface are both available

GroupMe is an excellent tool because it is so easy to get started. If your group is not used to group text messaging, and you need to culturally convince them to use it, then GroupMe is the easiest way to get them messaging each other.

The calendaring, desktop interface and photo-sharing are all very helpful in GroupMe. If you don't know how you'll use group text messaging, then start with GroupMe as your first experiment.

02
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WhatsApp

WhatsApp web site

What We Like

  • Backed by its very wealthy Facebook ownership

  • Very popular

  • Supports photos and videos

What We Don't Like

  • Only works on smartphones (no desktop interface)

  • While the first year is free, there is a 1 dollar/year fee after that

  • It is cumbersome to create new text message groups

Free for one year, then a dollar per year after that.

Ideal for: groups of personal friends; project groups of users who are very tech-savvy; people who don't mind keeping their messages confined to smartphones (i.e. no desktop messaging)

Platform: Android and Apple smartphone app, NO desktop

WhatsApp is extremely popular across the world, so it can be easier to sell this tool to your group of users. It is the one app on this list, however, that has no desktop interface, so you're confined to typing on your smartphone and tablet. It is also a tool that does charge a small fee for yearly subscription use.

If you're uncertain what tool to try for group text messaging, give GroupMe a test drive, and then try WhatsApp next.

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Slack

Slack web site

What We Like

  • Very clean and sophisticated interface

  • All content is searchable

  • Direct one-on-one messaging is cleanly managed in the left navigation bar 

  • Has file uploading/sharing features so you can circulate documents

  • You can do shared authoring, like drafting your association's constitution, using the 'Posts' feature

What We Don't Like

  • No native calendar for scheduling events (you need to add Google Calendar manually, and manage its contents externally)

  • You need to pay a subscription if you want to access the high-end Slack features

Free for basic features, $7/month if you want advanced features.

Ideal for: volunteers; smaller project working groups who have an attentive administrator to steward the Google Calendar; groups who need to co-author documents together

Platform: smartphone/tablet app and web-based interface are both available

Slack is a nice-looking group messaging tool that fits somewhere between 'casual group' and 'serious project team'.

If you don't need to manage critical deadlines and group workflows like tasks/updates/reminders/dates, then Slack is really a good option for its group and one-on-one conversation features. The shared documenting is definitely helpful for some groups.

04
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Google Hangouts

Google Hangouts web site

What We Like

  • Has many features

  • Supports photos

  • Free long distance phone calling between users

  • Free video conferences up to 10 people

What We Don't Like

  • If you want to use the calling/video conferencing features, you're confined to Hangouts users (no Skype or Apple Facetime

Free

Ideal for: families/social/clubs/fraternities who want to do both group text messaging and video calling; can be a useful tool for work teams spread across different cities; sophisticated users who are comfortable switching between Google tools like calendaring and Google Drive.

Platform: smartphone/tablet app and web-based interface are both available

Google Hangouts is very powerful and offers both group text messaging and video/phone conferencing in one place. Subjectively, it doesn't quite have the intimate and warm 'feel' of GroupMe and Slack. It also requires enough computer-savvy to navigate between Google Hangouts, Google Drive, and Google Calendaring.

Google Hangouts is a powerful tool for a group of users who are more serious about their messaging and using multiple tools.