A Moxie Mo Show special blog post:

So I happened to go into my new iOS4 settings (on my new iPhone 4, but would work on iPhone 3 series as long as you’ve upgraded to iOS 4.0) and noticed there’s a new thing called Group Messaging. Had no idea what it is, so I turned it on. What I’ve read is that Group Messaging basically threads your SMS/MMSs and shows a double-head icon so you know that you sent out a SMS or MMS to multiple people. That’s no biggie, right? Here’s the settings to turn Group Messaging on for SMS/MMS:

I got a MMS (photo) from my friend, Alex, of his dog… and I openend it up and saw the picture of his dog. I didn’t think anything of it until I could see at the top of his MMS message every other number that he sent the photo to. It wasn’t just to me, but to four other numbers. I saw their numbers as well. I thought this was weird so I started googling about this… I’m not sure if most iOS4 iPhone users even know about this new change? So I did some research and a test…. sure enough, this is either a bug or it’s meant to be a new feature – no more group MMS/SMS without everyone seeing who you’re sending it to… AND they can all speak to each other within the same “Group SMS/MMS”! UPDATE – It’s no bug, a group MMS, when turned on, can be a “instant chat room” for everyone you send your SMS/MMS to!

So here’s what I found in a Mac forum from an iPhone iOS4.0 user: “Group Messaging seems slightly confusing to me… Given the written material released from Apple, the impression you get from it is that when you send a group text out, any replies sent back from any member of that group message is all grouped together in one thread. Having said that, it seems to function different than advertised…now when I send group messages out they are sent as an MMS not an SMS, even if it only contains text. Furthermore, and even worse, everyone that I messaged is able to see the full list of people I sent the message to. I dunno if this is how the function is intended to perform but it was certainly not explained that way.”

So I knew what I had seen from my friend Alex was something different. So I asked Alex to test it out with me and two of my best friends (Kasie and Kristine). As you can see, they at first couldnt’ see who I was sending the photos to until I told them to go into their iPhone settings – Messages – and turn ON Group Messages (see photo above).

BAM – every one of us could see each other’s numbers and THEN Alex could text Kristine within my original MMS and she could reply back! It was like a “Chat IM” but in MMS format.

I can see where it would be fun – you send a group text or photo to a group of friends, everyone then gets to respond to that message and talk to others besides the original text/MMS sender. But I also think this could be DANGEROUS if you’re sending something to your friends and your boss – do you really want your boss to see your friends information or vice versa?

Update: In order for Group MMS to work, you need it to be turned on. It can be a very useful and cool MMS/SMS chat tool between friends… but if you do NOT want everyone seeing who you’re texting or sending a pic/video of, turn off Group Messaging in your iOS4 iPhone settings. Want more info? Subscribe to the Moxie Mo Show – one of the hottest, moxiest tech podcasts around!