Top 3 Apps for Texting Groups

If you're interested in texting groups, you probably belong to 1 of 2 categories:

• You're either wanting to know the best way to send personal group texts to your friends, family, and co-workers...
• Or you're trying to figure out the best way to go about group texting for your business or some other organization you belong to.

Either way, you've come to the right place!

In this post, we'll go over some of the best consumer apps for texting groups, as well as some of the best group texting apps for businesses.

To make things easy for you, we've narrowed down the choices to 3.

(Because who wants to sort through a long list of 20 apps to choose from?)

And since group texting for businesses is more unfamiliar, we'll discuss in detail how that actually works. We also have a FAQ on group texting apps in general.

Feel free to use the content navigation to jump ahead to the section that pertains to you!

Top 3 Consumer Apps for Texting Groups

Whether you consciously realize it or not, you're already aware of the mainstream apps for texting groups such as...

• iMessage
  • the default messaging app on iPhones and other Apple products for texting among other Apple devices
• Google Messages
  • the default messaging app on many Android phones
• Messenger
  • Facebook's texting app

So we won't go over these totally mainstream apps that everyone is already familiar with.

But let's go over some other popular group texting apps people use for their personal texting needs.

1. WhatsApp

One of the top apps on the market for texting groups is WhatsApp.

Owned by Facebook, its usage has increased 40% internationally in the past few years.

Some WhatsApp features include:

• Location sharing
• Contact organization
• Voice messaging
• International messaging
• Delete sent messages

2.Google Hangouts

For Google users (which is... just about everybody), Google Hangouts is another option.

It allows group chatting for free, as well as video and voice chatting if you pay a subscription.

It can also sync with your other Google services.

The caveat? If you're a Gmail or Google Calendar user who happens to also use an iPhone, the app isn't available for iOS (although Google Chat is).

3.GroupMe

Lastly, GroupMe is an option for people who don't want to worry about recipients downloading an app, since people can still participate in the group conversations via SMS ("regular" texting).

For that reason alone, GroupMe may be preferred over some other group texting apps, although it does include some advertising. (They've gotta make money somehow, right?)

How Group Texting for Businesses Works

Group texting for businesses is a whole 'nother animal compared to the group texting you're used to.

Obviously, you don't want to send huge group texts to your customers or clients in which everyone can see all the other recipients' phone numbers. And in which everyone can see all the responses.

Can we say, "Invasion of privacy? Decimation of brand? Total devastation?"

In other words, an utter nightmare.

Even if you’ll just be texting groups internally within your company or team, a standard group texting option is not the way you want to go.

Would you want your phone blowing up every 20 minutes? Does everyone really need to see everyone else's replies?

No one likes mass CC emails and a mass group text is even worse.

Yet if you're part of a business, you want to take advantage of the insane open rates of text alerts, so that you can increase sales and productivity.

But how?

The answer: a group texting service intended for texting groups on a broader level.

There are a few essential steps to how a business platform for texting groups works.

Step 1: Select a platform

There are numerous business group texting services to choose from, and if we're honest, the differences with what features are offered between them are generally negligible.

But you'll want to select the service that's a good fit for your business and purposes.

(We've listed 3 for you to check out later on in this post.)

Step 2: Load in contacts

Business apps for texting groups will offer several ways to load in your contacts using an online dashboard or mobile app.

Some of those methods will include:

• Manually adding in contacts by dragging and dropping a spreadsheet list
• Manually adding in contacts individually
• Allowing contacts to add themselves automatically by texting in to your account's phone number
• Allowing contacts to add themselves automatically by scanning a QR code
• Allowing contacts to add themselves automatically by filling out an online form
• Pulling in contacts from other services through built-in integrations or integration sites like Zapier.com
• Pulling in contacts from from other services through custom integrations set up via API (web developers are needed for this method)

Using one (or a combination of several) of these options gives you flexibility to add contacts into your texting service in ways that work for your own business's situation.

Step 3: Create your message

The next step is simply to create and send your message.

Business apps for texting groups include some perks to help add productivity, professionalism, and effectiveness to your messaging efforts.

These include options such as:

• Scheduling your message for just the right date and time
• Sending your message to segmented groups within your contact list
• Saving your messages as templates to reuse at later times
• Tracking link clicks within your texts for better analytics
• Inserting your contacts' individual names into messages to give a personal touch
• Creating automated drip campaigns so recipients receive a series of messages over a period of time
• Attaching a contact card your recipients can save to their phones for easy reference

Or, you can simply select your recipients, type out your message on the platform or mobile app, and hit "send."

Your message will be sent to each of your recipients individually (not in a group thread), and if people reply, their responses will only go back to you and your texting service's two-way conversation inbox.

So, no need to worry about privacy issues or constant, irritating pings on people's phones.

What Else Do Business Group Texting Services Offer?

So what else makes group texting services different from personal apps for texting groups, like WhatsApp?

Here are some features to look out for:

• Options to send automated replies to your recipients, freeing up time and hassle - including the ability to set up automated replies triggered by specific words your recipients text in
• The ability to collect and tally your recipients' opinions so you can make more informed decisions through mobile survey questions
• The capacity to add different administrator accounts, allowing multiple people to manage your text alerts
• Recurring message capabilities
  • that way, if you have the same message that needs to go out regularly, you can set it to go out automatically and forget it
• Reporting, including information on messages you've sent, contacts added to your text list, and people who have unsubscribed from your texts, so that you can analyze and better evaluate your texting efforts

In general, texting services will overall include most if not all of these options to help you with your group texting.

Top 3 Business Apps for Texting Groups

Now that you have an idea of how group texting for businesses actually works, let's get into some services that offer all of this.

1. ​​​​​​​Mobile Text Alerts

Our service Mobile Text Alerts has a simple name for a simple premise. Check out some of the deets.

Take a look inside:

Online platform

Mobile app

History:

Mobile Text Alerts began in 2011 as a side business for James Pelton, web developer and entrepreneur of Lincoln, Nebraska. In particular, he saw a need within his church's college group for better communication - a need that extends across all industries.

Since then, the business has grown, changed leadership, and serves as a world-class tool for businesses.

Starting price:

• $19/month for annual
• $25/month for month-to-month

The pros:

• Easy to get going
• Easy to use
• Easy to contact support

The cons:

• Not a lot of native integration options (but thousands of integrations can be set up via Zapier.com)

2. Textedly

Textedly is a prominent name in the mass texting sphere. How does it compare?

Take a look inside:

Online platform

Mobile app

History:

According to SoftwarePundit, Textedly was founded in 2015 by Alessia Jordan. Its offices are located in both Nashville and Los Angeles.

Starting price:

• $24/month (for both annual or month-to-month)
• Paying annually gives the user more messaging credits to send

The pros:

• Affordable
• Robust

The cons:

• Additional cost for extra features

3. SimpleTexting

One mass texting brand name that comes up regularly is SimpleTexting. Here's the lowdown.

Take a look inside:

Online platform

Mobile app

History:

SimpleTexting began in 2010 in a 3-person office in Brooklyn, New York, originally as a general marketing agency. In 2011 they shifted gears to focus on SMS marketing.

The company grew and expanded over time and was acquired by Sinch in 2021.

Starting price:

• $23.20/month for annual
• $29/month for month-to-month

The pros:

• No limits on keywords (according to Business News Daily)
• Dedicated success manager and custom integration on higher plans
• Robust customer service hours

The cons:

• No QR code functionality
• No email support available

Check out these services and others like them to determine which platform would be a good fit for your business.

Try a free test account with Mobile Text Alerts today to get a feel for how it works!

Apps for Texting Groups FAQ

Check out more answers to your "group texting" questions below.

Why should I use apps for texting groups?

If you're just looking to send group texts to friends and family, you may not need a group texting app, although they can be useful if you want to keep things better organized.

But if you're looking to send out group texts for your business (and you should be doing this!), a group texting service is essential.

The open rate for texts is as high as 98%, while response rate is as high as 45%. (Email's open rates are only 20%, with response rate at 6%.)

That alone is reason enough for businesses to consider adding group texting as a tool in their communication arsenal.

Imagine how many more sales you can make with such a powerful marketing channel, with your messages being seen by so many people!

Are apps for texting groups free?

For personal texting, group texting apps such as GroupMe are often free, although they may have paid options.

Group texting apps for businesses will be priced based on how many text messages you'd like to send for your business.

You can see pricing for Mobile Text Alerts as an example.

Are there group texting limits on these apps?

Personal group texting apps like WhatsApp and GroupMe may have their own limits for how many people can be in a group. But if you're just using them for personal purposes you will likely never hit those limits.

(For example, the group limit for WhatsApp is 256.)

Business group texting apps typically won't have a limit on how many people can be in a group text. However, there will usually be limits on how many messages you can send on a monthly basis.

Is group business texting legal?

You betcha!

Group texting for your business is perfectly legal.

There's a caveat though - You have to make sure you're getting permission from your subscribers to send them messages.

In other words, no spam allowed.

Can people leave groups in group texting apps?

Yes!

In personal group texting apps like WhatsApp, members of a group can choose to leave that group so that they no longer receive messages sent to that group.

With business group texting apps, your recipients can unsubscribe from your messages automatically by replying with the word "STOP" to any of your texts.

Which Group Texting App Is Right for You?

If you've made it this far, that means you must really be interested in a group texting app.

Here are the ones we listed again for easy reference.

For consumers:

1. WhatsApp
2. Google Hangouts
3. GroupMe

For businesses:

1. Mobile Text Alerts
2. Textedly
3. SimpleTexting

Which one is right for you?

Get a free trial today with our service Mobile Text Alerts and see how it can help increase your business's sales and productivity.