DISCLAIMER: This is a sponsored post brought to you by GroupMe. I am the least tech savvy person ever but this thing has already saved me hours of valuable time. And that is priceless.
We are involved. Very very involved.
On a weekly basis we communicate with so many different groups…our house church group, my girls group, Will’s preschool group, Jeremy’s Crossfit group, our church leader group, Jeremy’s flag football group, our family, our Chattanooga friends…the list goes on and on. It seems like we are constantly sending out group texts…sending various photos to various people…and all trying to stay on the same page. And that is on top of our normal social media that we keep up with for the blog. Emails, Facebook, Instagram….it just seems to pile up and pile up.
So when GroupMe contacted us to do this post, we were thisclose to turning them down because who really needs another thing to keep up with right?! But that’s where I was wrong. This little app actually helps.
The way I explain it to people is that it’s kinda like group-texting on performance enhancing drugs. You download the free app and then start creating groups based on who is in your contacts. Then you can send out messages to each group…everyone sees what everyone says and shares. That helps me a ton because when I click my GroupMe icon, I can quickly select ‘girls group’ and share a photo or remind them all that next week is masquerade themed….and I don’t have to scroll through my contact list to find the right people…and I am not limited to sharing a picture of Weston with only six people at a time who I have to select from my contacts…and I don’t have to worry about whether the internet at large will see a nip slip or someone will be embarrassed by me tagging them in a photo from our last group meeting.
Or I might want to share a photo but not self-spam my Instagram account with eighteen photos of my kids…I just GroupMe directly to the people that don’t get sick of seeing them in slightly different poses…aka family. I can also share things with people I actually know in real life without feeling like I’m oversharing private things (naked babies! where Will peed! details of a friend’s pregnancy!). The benefits for me as a mom go on and on.
So here are things you should know…
- free!!!
- works with iPhone, Android & Windows Phone
- don’t have one of those? free group messages just over SMS (texting)
- you can share tons of photos with THE ENTIRE GROUP with four clicks…select group, select attach button, select photo, send (that would take me at least five minutes of scrolling and selecting…and multiple that by five for my girl’s group which has 30+ members
- works amazing for event planning…get an entire group involved and leave nobody in the dark…plus, you can all chip in for that birthday cake or boss’ Christmas gift using the app
- even if your contacts don’t have GroupMe, they get the message!
Are you sold yet? For more info, check out their site…and hope y’all save as much time as we have! Stay in touch…easier!
Thanks for sharing! My husband and I were just talking about needing something like this the other day. Talk about perfect timing!
I love your costumes! Ah the memories! About the “group me”: I don’t understand how this is different from setting up a group in your email account? Maybe it’s the same, but better somehow? I don’t get it!
Now this is a great idea! Just downloaded it. I love the idea of grouped text lists saved somewhere for the same reasons of sharing kid pics! YAY! Thanks for sharing
What a great idea. Downloading now.
Love this! This makes group texting much easier!
http://jax-and-jewels.blogspot.com
Funny how your battery was 1% in the first pic and 10% in the second. You weren’t kidding when you said your phone was always dead!
This post is just perfectly timed! For my girl’s night, and kid playdates, we’ve been using Facebook groups but when you’re out and maybe don’t have the best phone signal, it’s hard to stop and hope that your Facebook app will load. This seems way simpler!
I love that these screen shots totally confirm your statement of always running your phone battery in the red, which I think you mentioned in the Origami post :). #keepinitreal. Happy Halloween!
Love that your phone is at 1% and 10% in these screen grabs! Mine is always about to run out too!
We use group me for our church small group! It’s been a life saver. We originally started using it because a few of our members didn’t have the ability to group text (flip phone? who knows) but it’s become so much more useful than just that. I made all my family get the app specifically for kid pictures too!
You really are always on 2% battery!
Wow, that’s really neat! I’d bet that be an easy way to share the sex of your baby to all your friends and family really fast. 🙂
I’ve been using this app for a few months and it’s AMAZING. Iphones already have a group text feature, but for us Androids over here it’s such a time saver!
Smart app! I’m glad I’m not the only 1%-battery-left person out there. I’m always running to my charger saying “don’t die! don’t die! don’t die!”
Looks like a great app! Also, love that your battery level is always in the red when you do a screen shot, I’m with you on that one. 🙂
Speaking of friends’ pregnancies…. I feel like a friend dying to know more about yours! Any gender hints? 🙂
Very handy for young people with roommates! A few roommates have android, while most have iphones. It was very frustrating to get a imessage-message from the iphone users on an android because it would show up in a media message and sometimes wouldn’t download. Now we have a “house group”, we all get the messages, can send suggestions for dinner, art, etc. Very handy!
That’s no joke.
xo – kb
That’s true.
xo – kb
It’s very similar but this does have more options and is slightly faster (especially for those of us that get a gazillion spam emails everyday!)
xo – kb
I think she said in another post’s comments that she’s waiting to make sure all her friends and family know the baby’s sex first. With a lot of friends and family members, that could take a long time. If only there were a phone app that would allow one to make a group of all the friends and family so she could send just one text and everyone would get it. Oh, wait. . .
I’ve been using it for years. Much faster communication within multiple groups. My favorite part is that it’s strong enough to support large projects and extremely fun to customize. We all know I must have a Thundercats avatar!
My friends and I use group me, but I’ve never thought about using ti to keep in touch with family! That’s a great idea!
Have you tried Google Hangouts? Sounds very similar – and lots of folks already have gmail addresses or are members of google plus. My family has been doing a nonstop hangout since our daughter was born 5 months ago – great way to share pics and stay in touch – kind of like group texts or e-mails but better!
Just saw a children’s book at B&N today and thought of Mr. Weston.
Mustache Baby: http://www.amazon.com/Mustache-Baby-Bridget-Heos/dp/0547773579/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1383342174&sr=8-1&keywords=mustache+baby
I’ve seen that! It’s definitely on my wish list!
xo – kb
WHO CARES! Seriously, why do people care so much? It’s not your baby! It’s not even your friend’s baby. You will never meet it. It’s just one of a billion babies that hasn’t been born yet. Whyyyyyyyy do people care so much?! I will never ever understand this. Katie is clearly purposely not telling or talking about it for whatever reason although the “friends and family need to find out first” thing is getting a little old. It’s the third kid…this is seriously not vital or interesting information to anyone besides immediate family. So just say, “I don’t feel like telling so please don’t keep asking me.” Problem solved!
I was super beyond pumped to see this. I’m a teacher and this is THE perfect way to send texts to all of the teachers on my team without sending the iMessage/group message thing which some people hate. I’m glad you endorsed this and I HATE crowding my phone screen with apps, so I don’t say that lightly! 🙂 Thanks for always being honest with your endorsements and recommendations!
I have GroupMe and I’m addicted to it as well. I had a few friends say stuff like “but why can’t we just group text” when I told them to sign up but once they started using it the comments turned into, “oh yeah, this is WAY better!”
I know I probably sound like I work for GroupMe (promise I don’t), I just completely agree that it’s so useful and such a timesaver.
Sandra, I thought kind of the same thing when a friend first asked me to get GroupMe but I gave it a try and now I love it. It’s so much easier than group text and is awesome for friend groups like mine where some people are on iPhone and others on Android.
I got annoyed of having to scroll through my texts to find the group one but you don’t have to do that with GroupMe because all of the groups are labeled and super easy to find.