GroupMe Blog

We have a really great story to share today from Jake Brady, a student at business- and entrepreneurship-focused Babson College. He and a lot of his friends have been telling us about how they’ve used GroupMe in all sorts of contexts on campus, and today Jake took the time to send us this note. 

My favorite thing to use GroupMe for is organizing my groups.  I go to a business school and consequently do a lot of academic and club work in groups. I’m the kind of guy who hates scheduling 30 minute meetings via email and then showing up to find no one there (although, I think in college everyone is “that kind of guy”). Email is also a hassle.  I have an iPhone but when I’m trying to have a conversation via email the experience just isn’t good enough. GroupMe makes this process much easier.

I’ll give you an example. I had a group project two weeks ago with six people. Now, finding a time to meet and divide up the work was hard enough with our 6 different schedules. On top of that, email never works because people either don’t check it or ignore it.  Ever heard of the email monster? Neither have I, but apparently plenty of intelligent students and adults believe that he exists. How many times have you heard “I’m sorry I didn’t get your email.”? I’ve heard it about a million times and it’s very obvious the other person simply chose to ignore the message. However, we all act as though there’s some monster on the internet that is stealing emails.

I got my group members on GroupMe and the rest is history.  We did all planning and updates via the service and the organization was a breeze. We never had to meet in person, and knowing what everyone was doing wasn’t a chore.  All my updates were in a short format (people don’t want to text long messages unlike email), and no one missed an update.  We all agreed after we got a great grade that our workload was made much more efficient via this service, and on top of that we had a lot of fun bantering over it.

So while there are many advantages to GroupMe, my favorite is that it has taken away one of my top ten pains at schools; trying to get groups to organize.  It has created a lasting and immediate conversation in most of my groups that’s fun and better yet dead simple. And here’s the bonus round: my life has gotten a lot more spontaneous since using GroupMe because all it takes to start a party is one text and the next thing you know you’ve got 20 people in a room having a blast. 

Thanks!

Jake

You can learn more about Babson College on their website.

Periodically, we share stories from users about how they use GroupMe in their everyday lives. If you’ve got something to say, email us at stories@groupme.com. We’re really nice. 

Photo via cseeman on Flickr.

This coming Sunday, tens of thousands of people will run their way through all five boroughs of our own New York City as part of the 41^st annual New York City Marathon, and we’ll be there to help cheer on those amazing runners!

If you or someone you know is running, why not set up a GroupMe to keep track of your team of supporters? Just create one now and add everyone who’s going to be following your runner on race day.

Imagine how much easier it will be to coordinate meeting up after the finish line in crowded Midtown if everyone’s on an instant conference call. Or how nice it would be to tell everyone the latest split times with just one message, instead of dozens. It doesn’t matter what phone you have, either—anyone who can text can participate in GroupMe.

So what are you waiting for? If you’re in New York, get out and cheer on some runners. If you’re not, you can watch it online. No matter who you are, it’s the perfect opportunity to try out GroupMe.

When it’s over, let us know how you used GroupMe during your marathon weekend — we’d love to hear from you.

Photo via martineric on Flickr

You asked for it, and we made it. Today, we’re thrilled to announce the release of GroupMe for Android, available now on the Android Market.

While Android owners have been flocking to GroupMe in droves, managing their groups on the web or via text message, we think the new app will make it easier than ever to manage and create groups on an Android device.

When you first launch the app, it quickly confirms your number and loads your pre-existing groups.  You’ll only have to do that once.

From then on, you’ll have easy access to your groups, just like on our website. You can view each one, see all its members at a glance, edit or remove members, and text or call them all from within the app.

Creating a group is simple, too! Just hit the + button, and you’re able to create a new group instantly, seamlessly searching through your contacts to find the people you want. Tap “save” and we set it up instantly, complete with a brand-new phone number.

What are you waiting for? We think you’re really going to love it. Find it today by searching for “GroupMe” in the Android Market, or scan this QR code with your Android device:

As by now you must be aware, tomorrow is Election Day in the United States. No matter what your politics, we here at GroupMe believe the most important thing is to go out and vote tomorrow.

Here’s a few ways you can use GroupMe to help get out the vote tomorrow:

• Voters – Text your groups tomorrow to remind everyone to go to the polls! You can find your polling station here or, if you’re on the go, by texting “where” to 30644 (it’s free). If you don’t have a GroupMe yet, start one and add all the friends who’ll need an extra reminder to vote tomorrow.
• Campaign Workers – Organizing everyone is hard. GroupMe makes it easy to communicate quickly, so you’ll be able to figure out where everyone is and make sure you’re covering ground effectively. Start one now so you’ll be prepared in the morning.
• Poll Workers – Keep in touch with everyone at your polling location, no matter where you are. The voting process requires a lot of extra help — we’ll take the load off and cut down on the confusion of poll work. Start a group and add all your coworkers; tomorrow will go by much easier.

See you at the polls!

Hey, before your Halloween weekend gets too out of hand, why not set up a GroupMe to keep up with your crew? Whether you’re going trick-or-treating, out partying, or getting into mischief, you’ll need to stay in touch with your costumed friends.

It’s easy to start. Of course, you can start a group from your phone, no matter which one you have, but the easiest thing to do is to go to our homepage and put in your name and phone number. We’ll give you a free group and a phone number to go with it; just add your friends to it and you’ll all be texting and conference calling instantly. Save the number to your contacts, because it’s yours to keep for any time you want to contact those people.

While you’re on the group page, why not change your group topic to “Halloween”? It’s the little things that get people into the spirit, you know?

This is no trick, people. Get your Halloween group going now and then let us know how the weekend goes!

PS: if your Halloween plans happen to involve a Disco Biscuits concert, you’re going to want to check this out for the chance to win some pretty great upgrades.

Photo via Teo on Flickr

We’re so excited today to announce that we’re powering the Disco Biscuits‘ Halloween Run this week. Every night between now and Halloween, the band is playing shows in North Carolina and Virginia. If you’re planning on going, start a group on our special landing page (it’s free!). Be sure to add the friends you’ll be going with, too—a group of one or two doesn’t count as a group!

Each night, we’ll be randomly selecting one group (you and all your friends) to get a free VIP upgrade. All you have to do is start a group and add the people you’re going with on the GroupMe Disco Biscuits landing page.

To top it all off, Brownie himself will be dropping into one lucky group each night to ask for a little help figuring out the setlist. That’s right, you might get to help with the set list of their show. Could it get any better?

To recap: get your friends in a group on this site today, and upgrade your Disco Biscuits experience this weekend. That’s all there is to it!

Today, we have a neat story from Russ Sharek of the Circus Freaks, a Dallas-based troupe of circus-style performers. Russ initially contacted us with a support issue, but once he told us about how he uses GroupMe, we just had to ask him to share a story. After we fixed his problem, he shared this letter with us:

Herding circus performers is a lot like herding cats, except that a cat’s natural propensity for napping leads to the vague possibility of getting in a room with one long enough to hold a meeting.

Because we’re often out in the world doing insane-yet-entertaining things, email and other desk-bound social networking tools aren’t particularly effective ways to corral our out-of-control circus on a realtime basis.

GroupMe’s “mobile chatroom” allowed us to have a way to maintain constant contact, which means on a moment’s notice I know who’s available to breathe fire, walk on stilts or defy gravity for a client’s amusement.

And that means that so long as I have my cellphone, the show goes on.

Russ Sharek
Director, The Circus Freaks
http://www.circusfreaks.org

If you’d like to know more about the Circus Freaks (and look at some cool photos), check out their website!

Every week, we’re going to share a story from one of our users about how they use GroupMe in their everyday lives. You can share your story by emailing us at stories@groupme.com. 

We’re very excited to announce the release of the latest version of our iPhone app. Version 1.1 dropped on the App Store today!

The major change is in the contact selector—the screen where you choose which of your contacts you’d like to add to a group. A lot of you suggested that we add a “search contacts” box and an alphabetical side scrollbar. Well, we’ve done just that. Check it out:

Plus, we’ve fixed plenty of little bugs and made it faster than ever before.

We think you’re going to love it. It’s available now in the App Store, so check your updates or click here to download it in iTunes.

If you have any more suggestions for what you’d like to see in a future version of our app, feel free to email us—we’d love to hear from you. And stay tuned, Android users; your app is coming soon!

We’re really excited to announce that GroupMe is sponsoring the AM Only and Famous Friends party this Saturday here in New York. Check out the lineup below—it promises to be the best dance party of the week in a week filled with awesome dance parties. What better way to wrap up your week?

Plus, because GroupMe’s sponsoring this event, we can get you in for free. That’s right—even if you don’t have a CMJ badge! All you have to do is sign up a group on our special AM Only & Famous Friends landing page. Add the people you want to go to the show with, because all of you will be on the guestlist. It’s that easy.

To recap: there’s an awesome party on Saturday, and you can get in for free by connecting your friends here. See you there!

Did you know that GroupMe works on every phone? In fact, you can start and manage your groups with any phone that can send and receive text messages. Seriously!

If you have a smartphone, you probably just use the button in the iPhone app or on our website to start a new GroupMe. But if your phone doesn’t have web access, you can still easily start one on the go. Just text “#new” to any existing GroupMe. If you’re starting a group for the first time, you can text “#new” to (917) 791-2178 (save it in your contacts now!) and we’ll text you back from your new group number.

To add people to your group, text your new group number “#add [name] [number]”. For example, if you want to add your friend Mark to your group with the phone number (555) 444-7777, just send this text message to your GroupMe: “#add Mark 5554447777”.

There are a lot of #commands to help you use GroupMe to its fullest capabilities. If you ever forget them while you’re on the go, you can text “#help” to your group and we’ll reply with a quick explanation of them. Or you can always look at the whole list on our help page.

Of course, if you do have an iPhone, our app is really great (and Android users, fret not, your app is coming soon!). But GroupMe is for everybody, no matter what phone they use. We’re committed to that.

Today, we have an amazing story from Scott Lawrence in San Francisco. Scott learned this summer that he has Stage IVa oral tongue cancer. He recently underwent surgery to remove a part of his tongue and replace it with an implant, which he wrote about on his blog, Scott Versus Cancer. Here’s what he had to say about GroupMe:

Losing my tongue to cancer was scary.  

Not knowing what to expect coming home from the hospital after surgery worried me, to say the least. I had set up some online help to try to organize my support network—email accounts, calendars, a messaging system on my website. None of them seemed to “stick”, and I ended up confusing my friends with logins, passwords and other diversions. I saw a write-up about GroupMe on TechCrunch and signed up. 

I was lucky to keep enough of my tongue to be able to swallow and can speak (somewhat). Right now, I’m using GroupMe to keep my Volunteer Army (~15 strong) posted with updates from doctor visits, tests, and my general health.  With one month of recovery from surgery passed, I still have radiation and chemotherapy to look forward to. That’s going to be five days a week, out of the city, for radiation and three hits of chemo here in the city. 

Since I’ve got everyone plugged into one place with GroupMe I get nearly instant replies to any request and imagine that it’ll be even more useful once I need to start going to those treatments. I can let my network know where and when and any one of them can offer to help, at the same time letting everyone else know that it’s taken care of. Likewise, if someone can’t make it they can let everyone know at once instead of me having to do it individually. 

GroupMe offers some peace of mind in this whirlwind that has become my life. Thank you!

If you’d like to learn more about Scott, take a look at his blog or follow him on Twitter.

Every week, we’re going to share a story from one of our users about how they use GroupMe in their everyday lives. You can share your story by emailing us at stories@groupme.com.

If, like many of our users, you’re on Foursquare, it’s easy to share your location with your friends on GroupMe. From any location page on your Android or iPhone Foursquare app, just press “Share”, then “by text message”.

Foursquare creates a new text message with the name and address of your location, and all you have to do is send it to your GroupMe. It’s that easy.

Try it out next time your group is trying to meet up!

Startup Weekends bring together talented developers, artists, designers, marketers, and business managers for one weekend with one goal in mind: creating innovative new startups. GroupMe was born out of a hackathon very much in the same vein, so we know all about the importance of good communication in early-stage startups.

That’s why this weekend, we’re bringing the power of our Sponsored Groups to Startup Weekends in four different locations—New England, Denver, Los Angeles, and Olympia. Teams of about 4-10 people working to cultivate brand-new startups will each use a GroupMe to keep in touch during what’s sure to be a very hectic 54 hours.

Plus, because the GroupMes will be sponsored by Startup Weekend, organizers will be able to reach everyone with notifications, reminders, and other important information as it happens, just like we did at Austin City Limits.

Best of luck to all teams—we’re looking forward to seeing what you all create!

Have you heard? Legendary rapper MC Hammer has been dropping into a few lucky groups. Last night two groups were surprised to receive a lucky text message: “Hammer has been added to your group.”

Hammer texted back and forth with members of the groups, then called each one for a brief chat. It’s apparently a life-changing experience, too:

Hammer’s excited to drop into a few more groups over the next few days, so you and your friends still have a chance to talk to him! All you have to do is text “#hammertime” to one of your existing groups with four or more members, and he could drop into your group next.

And if you don’t have any groups set up yet, it’s really easy. Just enter your name and phone number on GroupMe.com and add a few friends to your group, then text “#hammertime” to the new number to become eligible for the lucky call. 

Oh, and one more thing. Follow us on Twitter to hear the latest updates on GroupMe, including when MC Hammer will be calling next. 

Move over, FaceTime. GroupMe’s got HammerTime.

Text “#hammertime” (including that pound sign, all lower case) to any of your groups with more than four members, and we’ll enter your group into our contest. Over the next few days, the one and only MC Hammer will be calling and texting with groups. Really.

That’s right; you and your friends (co-workers? family members?) might all get to talk to MC Hammer. Boom. What are you waiting for?

If you don’t have any groups on GroupMe yet, get on it. It’s easy! You don’t want to miss out on this chance. 

The GroupMe team is presenting all our new features tonight at the New York Tech Meetup at NYU’s Skirball Center. Come and see us demo them all—sponsored groups, our new iPhone app, and one more surprise we’ll be debuting tonight. 

And if you’re going, be sure to sign up your personal NYTM group, and we’ll send you a few text reminders about the event, the afterparty, and other things you’ll need to know. It’s easy, we promise. Go for it.

Tickets are sold out, but unused tickets will go on sale at 7:20pm. Get in line, people.

We are thrilled to announce that we have officially joined Austin City Limits Music Festival as a mobile partner.  Check out the ACL Music Festival GroupMe!

From the official ACL Blog:

Whether you come out to Zilker Park with an entourage of a few or twenty, it can be a chore to coordinate with your crowd. Why chase after your chums when you can just use GroupMe? A two-way “reply-all” text service, it lets you chat with multiple friends at once via text message (complete with timestamps) no matter what cellphone they own. Sort of like carrying around your own personal chat room. Plus, it’s the perfect compliment to our official ACL Apps! Setting up a group is easy, and it’s totally free. GroupMe works on EVERY phone. As long as you can text message, you can create groups. Go to http://groupme.com/acl, enter your name and phone number and you’re done! You can add your ACL Music Festival crew via text message by texting “NEW” to 512-522-5972, or you can simply create an account and add people online. You can also download the official GroupMe iPhone App in the app store for easy group setup and management.