GroupMe – The Ultimate Group Messaging & Conferencing Service!
by Jonathan Lonczak
Sep 26, 2011 2:33 PM –
Install
GroupMe. Start a group, add your friends, and we’ll give you a free phone number for it. GroupMe is the easiest way to start conversations and keep in touch with your real life network. It’s totally free, and it works on every phone. With apps for Android, iPhone, BlackBerry, and Windows Phone 7, as well as full support via SMS*, you can connect with anyone you know at any time.
Price: Free
Tested on: HTC Droid Incredible 2
Content Rating: Medium Maturity
Pros & Cons:
Pros
- Allows you to create group chat rooms for all of your friends!
- Invite friends on all platforms or even those without a smartphone!
- Conference call everyone in the group within the application!
- Customize your user account with custom names and avatars!
- See the location of other members in the group!
- Share pictures to other group members!
- Allows you to use emoticons!
Cons
- No customization of application wallpaper or application theming.
Features:
GroupMe is an excellent application available for a variety of platforms including Android, iOS, Blackberry, and Windows Phone 7 that allows you to form group chat rooms from your phone’s contact list. It allows you to create multiple group chat rooms on your device, see the location of the other members of the group through the map, conference call the entire group, and even send text messages to group members without a smart phone!
GroupMe is my personal favorite application for planning events with a large group of people. In order to get started the person leading the group will need to download the application on to their smartphone. From there they will be able to create a group from their own contact list. You decide on a name for the group and add all the people that you want in the group within the application. GroupMe then sends out text messages to all of the people on your group list. The texts inform the invitee that they are invited into your group and that if they wish to join the group they must reply with a “1″ to the message. From there the person is able to view group messages through their phone’s texts or download the GroupMe application for added functionality.
Downloading the application is where this concept really shines. With text messages you are unable to see a perfect conversation between all the members in the group. With the GroupMe application you are able to see the entire conversation like an Internet chat room. What ever member of the group says as a conversation with time stamps, avatars, picture sharing, location sharing and more.
The application verifies your phone in the same way that it’s competitor WhatsApp does, by verifying your phone’s telephone number. Once you have downloaded the application to your phone and verified the number all of your GroupMe messages will be sent through the app instead of cluttering up your text inbox. In the settings area of the application you are able to customize your avatar and change your name for the chat room.
GroupMe also allows you to view the location of other group members on a map. This is extremely useful for event planning. Like another competitor app, Syncuz, Groupme allows you to track the location of any member of the group if they have their phone’s standalone GPS turned on. So if you are planning a surprise party and wondering where the other guests are you can just look at the map to see their location. GroupMe also gives you the option to add your location in with your chat messages if your standalone GPS is turned off.
Once a group is created you can also edit the members of the group from within the application. So if you wish to add additional members you can just click on the members tab and hit “add member.” If you wish to remove someone from the group just hold your finger down on their name in the application and select “kick user.” 
Finally, GroupMe allows you to conference call all of your group members from within the application. It generates a group conference number that can be called by anyone in the group. From there the members of the group are all called by the GroupMe conference call system and able to participate in a group call. This is an excellent way to maintain contact with all the members of the group and would be extremely useful for businesses who need to maintain a conference call system and maintain constant contact with a sales or management team.
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GroupMe Main Screen
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GroupMe Chat
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GroupMe Members
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GroupMe Group Call
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GroupMe Map
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GroupMe Preferences 1
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GroupMe Preferences 2
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GroupMe Preferences 3
Usefulness:
GroupMe is extremely useful to keep a group of people in constant contact with each other. I use this application daily to keep in touch with a group of close friends and to be able to plan group events together. Even though chat rooms aren’t as widely popular as they have been in the past; GroupMe gives chat rooms an excellent use on your mobile device.
It also gives you a way to communicate via written messages without using your data and is supported on all the major smartphone platforms. That means that you could even use GroupMe to replace text messaging on your device if you really wished to. Although I would not personally pursue this use of the application it is a viable option for many users.
Finally, GroupMe has many excellent additional features like location sharing and conference calling which make this application ideal for event planning and team conference calls.
Ease of Use:
GroupMe is incredibly easy to use. The application is self-explanatory and allows any user to be able to pick up the application, form a group, and to begin using all of the many features. The app even allows users to participate through text messaging; which allows users to participate without a smartphone thus it is a feature I have not seen present in any of the other competing applications.
Frequently Used:
I use GroupMe daily to keep in touch with friends, plan weekend events, and to keep in touch with coworkers. This app offers a convenient way to keep in touch with all of the people you need to in one convenient location. It is also cross platform which prevents you from having to exclude friends from being part of the group due to their OS.
Interface:
The interface for GroupMe is well designed and easy to use. It allows you easy access to all the features of the application without having to search through the interface in order to find the setting you need. One feature that would be nice to see added is user defined wallpapers and themes for the application or for individual groups.
Tags:
Android App,
Android Apps,
AndroidTapp.com App Review,
Business,
chat,
Conference Call,
Group,
Group Chat,
Group Messaging,
GroupMe,
Hangout,
Party Planning,
Social
Categorised in: Communication, Social
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