How to Send Mass Text Individually in 2024

Have you ever been in a group text that you wanted out of?

You probably knew who the sender was but you may not have known most of the other recipients caught in the thread.

And in comes the onslaught of messages and pings and phone buzzes.

So you obviously don’t want to do this with your customers or prospects or employees.

Yet you want to send mass texts—because, after all, everyone sees their text messages.

So you need some way to send mass texts individually.

Here’s what you should know about how you can do that…

Ways to Send a Mass Text Individually

There’s only one primary way to send a mass text individually. But there are several other ways that you can kind of send mass texts individually.

First we’ll go over the best way to send mass texts individually: through an SMS service (whether that’s an SMS API or an SMS platform).

1. Send Mass Texts Individually via SMS Platform or API

SMS platforms/API services are the only way to send mass texts individually on any kind of practical level beyond just simple texting to a small group of people.

These services allow you to manage a database of SMS contacts and send messages on a mass basis to hundreds, thousands, or even hundreds of thousands (in some cases millions) of recipients—all delivered individually to each recipient’s personal phone.

All of this is managed via an online portal that requires no programming, or through an SMS API that you can program to function the way you want it to function.

Here’s a basic breakdown of how it works…

• Create an account with an SMS service such as Mobile Text Alerts.
• Get subscribers loaded into your database—you can either use an opt-in method (such as texting in to join) to get people to subscribe to your texts, or you can load in an existing list through a spreadsheet or integrations.
• Create automated campaigns within the platform or via the instructions in the API documentation—or submit one-off messages.
• Monitor responses and analytics, either within the online dashboard or via the API endpoints.

An SMS platform/API service is the only feasible option if you have any sort of audience beyond merely a handful.

If you have an audience of perhaps 30 or fewer, you could consider the other options below…

2. Send Mass Texts Individually via iPhone

By default, if you submit a message to more than one person via your iPhone, it will come through as a group message.

Which means, all the recipients will be able to see all the other recipients—and all the recipients will receive all the replies that are sent in response to the message.

However, if you’d like everyone to receive the messages individually, there is a workaround for this.

• Go into your iPhone’s Settings→Messages.

Now when you send a group message, it should be delivered to each recipient individually.

The major drawbacks of this include:

• With “MMS Messaging” toggled to “Off,” you are unable to receive pictures and other media files.
• You have a limit of 20 recipients.
• You have to manually input each individual recipient when you're designating whom you'd like to send your message to.

Sending mass texts through your iPhone is not the intention of the iPhone’s messaging function and therefore is not the ideal solution.

3. Send Mass Texts Individually via Android

As with iPhones, by default, if you submit a message to more than one person via your Android device, it typically will come through as a group message.

And as with the iPhone, there is a workaround to allow you to send your mass text individually.

• In Google Messages, go to Messages Settings.

• Select the “Mass Text” option.

The major drawbacks of this include:

• You have a limit on the number of people you can message at once.
• You have to manually input the recipients.

Google’s messaging apps are also not intended for mass texting and therefore have limitations. So using your Android phone to send out mass texts is not the ideal solution.

4. Send Mass Texts Individually via WhatsApp and Other Messaging Apps

Aside from the standard Apple and Android alternatives, you could also use other messaging apps such as WhatsApp to send mass texts individually.

For example, WhatsApp has a “Broadcast” feature. This function allows you to send a mass text to up to 256 people, with the message being delivered individually to each recipient.

The major drawbacks of this include:

• Your recipients need to be contacts on WhatsApp (or whatever other messaging app you’re using)
• There are still messaging limits
• You’re not actually using SMS but instead are using the internet to send your messages

Other messaging apps you may be able to use would include Messenger and GroupMe.

How Sending Mass Texts Individually Through an SMS Platform Works

Here’s a step-by-step guide on how you can send mass texts individually through an SMS platform, using Mobile Text Alerts as an example.

1. Once you create an account, you can log into the online dashboard.
2. From your dashboard you’re able to add new contacts into your subscriber database via a spreadsheet list.

How Sending Mass Texts Individually via SMS API Works

Instead of using an out-of-the-box platform to send your mass texts individually, you can use an SMS API.

An SMS API allows you to program your mass texting process according to whatever needs you have, so you can customize things as you see fit.

What this means is that you can send mass texts individually by implementing some lines of code—then your message can be blasted to hundreds or thousands of recipients but delivered individually to each of them.

In the case of Mobile Text Alerts, you’ll be assigned an API key that developers can plug into the GET requests detailed in the API documentation in order to manage the different aspects of your mass texting.

The Benefits of Sending a Mass Text Individually

While group texts have their place, businesses and organizations need solutions that allow them to send mass texts that are delivered individually to recipients’ phones.

Here’s how “individual mass texting” through SMS platforms and API services helps…

1. Scalability

Managing text messaging efforts on a mass scale obviously becomes impractical once you get more than a handful of recipients.

That’s why SMS platforms and APIs exist—to give you the capacity to handle large volumes of messages in an efficient manner that is actually feasible and scalable.

2. Privacy

Group texts reveal the phone numbers of all recipients—as well as the content of all replies that are sent in response.

For businesses and organizations, this is obviously an invasion of privacy.

Using an SMS service that allows you to send mass texts individually means that no one will see who else is receiving or replying to the messages.

And that anonymity means your recipients’ privacy is protected.

3. Better Experience

Everyone can attest that being a part of a group text can be quite obnoxious.

You get caught in a barrage of notifications and messages and eventually start to tune them out and ignore them.

Even in a smaller organization (such as a small church), it’s a much better experience for people all around to receive the group messages individually.

4. Personalization

Sending a mass text individually allows you to personalize the messages for each individual recipient.

You can include first names of each recipient, as well as any other data points you want to include.

That level of personalization on top of the fact that everyone is personally receiving the message individually means that your recipients have a lot more personable of an experience.

5. Business Features

The ability to send a mass text individually is only one of the many features available with an SMS service.

You also get access to all kinds of beneficial features such as:

• Automated campaign capabilities
• Message scheduling capabilities
• Reporting
• Integration options
• Contact segmentation

That’s just a sampling of all the things you can do with an SMS platform or API service.

Common Pitfalls and How to Avoid Them

Mass texting (delivered to people individually) is an effective way to really reach people.

But many businesses have concerns about implementing it.

And there are some cautions that you’ll want to take heed of.

Here are a couple of those…

“I don’t want to be annoying…”

Some people are concerned about implementing SMS for their business because they’re worried that their audience will be annoyed about getting text messages.

It’s good to be concerned about how your audience will respond—but there are a few simple ways to minimize this concern:

• Make sure people are opting in – if people are legitimately opting in to your messages, they shouldn’t be annoyed when you send the messages they agreed to receive.
• Make sure your messages are valuable – if you’re providing content that people actually care about, people shouldn’t be annoyed to receive messages that provide them with something of value.
• Make sure you don’t over-send – if you’re sending a reasonable amount of messages (we would recommend 1–2 per month), people shouldn’t be annoyed at the frequency.
• Make sure that opt-out instructions are clear – if you’re making it clear on how to opt out, and if your instructions are easy (i.e., “Reply STOP to opt out”), people shouldn’t be annoyed because they can simply opt out if they change their mind about receiving your messages.

“I’m not sure how to handle responses if they come in…”

Even if you’re mass texting people individually, it can be difficult to figure out how to monitor and handle responses that come in.

There are a couple of sides to this coin.

On the one hand, you can expect the text messages you send to yield a better response rate than, say, your emails.

On the other hand, you probably won’t get as many responses as you’re concerned about. So you may not need as much manpower and organization in place to monitor responses as you think.

(Note that your audience’s responses are viewable from an online Inbox that functions similarly to an email inbox. Plus, you can set up notifications that are sent to your email or phone whenever new replies come in.)

With all of that in mind, there are a few options open to you…

“No Reply” Option

One option is to make SMS a “no reply” channel for sending your mass texts.

This is not recommended, particularly if some of what you’re trying to accomplish by sending mass texts individually is to make your audience’s experience more personal.

But even though we wouldn’t recommend this, it is an option.

You can simply set up an auto-response message within your SMS dashboard that’s triggered automatically when people reply to you. The message could say something like, “Replies are not monitored. Please contact us at [phone number] or [email address].”

As mentioned, this “no reply” option isn’t ideal, but it does alleviate any concerns about not being able to handle incoming replies.

Frequency Monitoring

Another option is to monitor your incoming replies but only on a limited regular basis—such as once per week or once per day.

Taking a “frequency monitoring” approach means you’re not taking up all of your time monitoring replies, but devote a set number of minutes or hours monitoring and responding to messages on a regular basis.

You can even set up an auto-response message letting people know automatically when they can expect a response from you, so that you can set realistic expectations.

“Ticket-Like” Monitoring

Yet another option is to have systems in place to regularly monitor responses in a “ticket-like” fashion—similarly to how support ticketing systems work.

With this approach, you can have different staff members who are in charge of regularly monitoring the replies, and the “reply tickets” can be assigned to appropriate administrators from within your online Inbox.

This approach is the best as far as your audience’s experience, but in some cases it may not be feasible, or it may be overkill.

We would recommend the “ticket” approach when possible and appropriate, but the other approaches are viable options as well—it’s better to implement SMS without monitoring replies than to not implement it at all for fear of having to monitor replies.

“I think it might be too expensive…”

As with anything else in life, cost is always a factor.

You may have researched pricing for SMS before and were surprised to find what it costs per message when comparing to email as a point of reference.

If you’re a smaller business, you may have even thought, “We might be better off just using our personal phones”—even though it’s inconvenient.

But the thing to remember is that SMS is not the same as email.

With SMS, people in your audience are much more likely to actually see your message and engage with you.

Plus, your SMS list will likely be substantially smaller than your email list.

So even though it may appear to be more expensive than email, it can still be a good channel on an ROI basis.

Individual Mass Texting FAQ

Here are some FAQs about sending mass texts individually.

Is there a way to send a mass text individually?

Yes, there is a way to send mass texts individually.

The primary way to do this is through an SMS platform or API service such as Mobile Text Alerts.

There are workarounds you can implement to engage in mass texting on personal phones but you’ll run into limitations, so an SMS platform/API is your best option.

Using an SMS service will allow you to send mass texts on a scalable basis, to as many people as you need—and the messages are delivered individually.

Plus you get the added benefits of all the business texting features that come along with it, so that you can have all the tools you need to really reach people via texting.

Pros of an SMS Platform/API:

• Can handle thousands of recipients
• Offers automation, personalization, and contact management features
• Provides analytics

Cons of an SMS Platform/API:

• Usually requires a paid subscription
• May have a learning curve

Can I send a mass text on iPhone individually?

Yes, there is a way to send mass texts individually via your iPhone.

However, you are limited to 20 recipients for your messages at a time.

To enable this, you just need to go into your Settings, and then select “Messages.” From there, you’ll need to toggle off both the “iMessage” and the “MMS” option.

Doing this will cause your mass texts to be sent individually to each recipient. Note that you will need to re-enable iMessage and MMS (media text messages) if you would like to continue to use those features on your phone.

How to Take the First Steps Toward Sending Mass Texts Individually

You can take the first steps toward sending mass texts individually with no commitment and no stress.

You can start a free trial on the SMS platform of your choice to get a feel for how it works—and then you’ll be on your way toward sending texts to as many people as you need.