You may find yourself caught up in work and not paying attention to your phone for a while, and then suddenly you have 36 unread messages. Welcome to the joys of the group text.
For many individuals, group texting is a convenient way to communicate and coordinate with multiple people at once. Some text groups are temporary—such as when they’re created for trips, events, etc.—while others are more long-lasting when they’re among a group of close-knit friends who either spend a lot of time together or simply like keeping in consistent communication with each other.
For others, group texting can feel a bit exhausting, leading to muting conversations or simply not replying much or at all. Dallas-area resident Megan England said she mostly likes group texting, though it’s a bit conditional.
“I hate overly large group chats,” she said. “I feel like a max of three to four people is the sweet spot.”
Some individuals generally either enjoy chiming in or feel compelled to contribute in some regard to the group chat, whether by reacting to someone else’s text, coming up with a clever reply, taking the conversation in a new direction, or sending some form of media. There’s one aspect one can often find in many group texting threads that England truly appreciates—memes.
“I love sharing memes and getting them,” she said. “They are my love language.”
Aside from entertaining one another with pictures or GIFs, a thread with multiple individuals can be beneficial in certain instances in which having the same conversation with several different people in separate threads would be rather silly and tedious. Dallas-area resident Alex Barrientos said he appreciates the efficiency group texting can often provide, making it easier to collaborate among multiple people.
“Group texting is a great feature to have on our mobile devices,” he said. “I would hate to have individual text threads to communicate with multiple people. I enjoy the collaborative aspect from group texting.”
Similarly, pertaining to the ability to collaborate more easily, Dallas-area resident Josh Odegard said he is a fan of group texts specifically for events (such as trips for out-of-town races) in which several people are attending and/or participating.
“It makes it easier for planning the trip as well as for when everyone is there,” he said. “Everyone gets to see how everyone is traveling and where they’re staying, and you don’t have to send multiple texts to different people letting them know where you’re going for meals or asking what everyone else is doing.”
In addition to various group travel situations, Odegard said he also sees the benefits of having more longstanding group texting threads with different groups of friends who get together on a regular basis.
“It’s easier to send out a ‘what’s everyone up to this weekend?’ or a ‘who wants to Loon at Noon™ today?’ in a group text than it is to ask around trying to find out if anything is going on,” he said.
Not everything is peachy when it comes to the ability to talk to multiple people at once, though. While Barrientos said in addition to the collaborative aspect, he enjoys sharing funny jokes and memes on certain topics via group text, there are various components of some group threads that don’t make him thrilled.
“The worst part is when you get added to a text thread with Android phone users,” he said. “There are certain iPhone features that are not compatible.”
Odegard, one of those aforementioned individuals who opt for the Android, has a solution for such issues that allows group texting still to occur but through different platforms.
“I still prefer group messaging using apps like Facebook Messenger over group texts since it’s universal between all devices, making it easy to add people to a group well after it’s been established—or to remove someone who no longer deserves to be in the group,” he said.
There are times when being part of a group text can become a bit much for some people, particularly when the notifications seem endless. England said when she begins to feel overwhelmed with excessive communication in group threads, don’t expect her to stick around.
“I just end up leaving,” she said. “If it’s that important, someone can text me individually.”
For those who are part of group text threads and don’t want to leave them but also don’t want their phones or watches letting them know each time someone in the group text reacts or replies, there is the option to mute notifications, which Odegard said he does on occasion.
“Sometimes the group texts can turn into social chats,” he said. “It’s not usually a big deal, but for some of the bigger groups with 10+ people, there are times when I’ve had to mute notifications because my phone was dinging every one to two minutes. I just wait until I have time to catch up on what I missed and then re-enable the notifications.”
Significant events or situations can also spark uproar in a group text, leading to seemingly endless notifications. For Barrientos, this happened on a heart-wrenching day in February when Luka Doncic was traded to the Lakers.
“My multiple group text threads were out of control all night and the next day,” he said. “I had to put my phone in ‘do not disturb’ mode for 48 hours. I could not keep up with all of the threads. I had to finally stop responding and let the text threads fizzle out. I’m still upset with the trade. FIRE NICO!"
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