Comments on: iOS4 – iPhone Hidden Feature: Group Messaging Bug or SMS/MMS Chat Room?

By: JW

JW — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 16:19:56 +0000

Yesterday on my iphone 3, I sent out a funny pic to 4 people. One friend was talking to another, thinking it was me. She said the message didn’t give her the option to Reply to Sender, so she didn’t even know it was a text to 4 people. Also, I have had people Reply with something out of context to me, but upset everyone else, because the message went to them and they didn’t know that person. Help us Apple!!

By: Confused

Confused — Sun, 08 Jan 2012 09:54:10 +0000

^^^It also sends the group text to numbers I don’t have in my contacts, so people who I do not even know

By: Confused

Confused — Sun, 08 Jan 2012 09:50:35 +0000

I have a iPhone 4s and sometimes it randomly starts a group text. It usually happens when I am replying to a text someone sent me (even if they don’t have an apple device with iMessages) it starts a group text even if they sent it as just a text to me, this is confusing and weird to me. Am I doing something wrong or is this just a bug with the network (sprint) or with Apple? If anyone has answers please. Thanks

By: Lesa Hill

Lesa Hill — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 06:02:01 +0000

My question is: When a person sends a group message, am I able to see the other recipients? Thank you, so much to all the “techno-savvy!”

Lesa

Lesa Hill
541-954-2456
(I have iPhone 4S)

By: heather

heather — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 00:39:34 +0000

i tuned off group messaging and it still acted like a group message with people in the list who had iMessage. i wish it would just send messages to each person as if i typed a separate message to each. blah!!

By: ME

ME — Sun, 01 Jan 2012 19:49:44 +0000

A friend of mine sent me a group message from a droid OS. I had “group messaging” turned off in the settings of my Iphone 4S running IOS 5.01. My question is, did my reply go to just my friend, or everyone that he sent the original group message to? On my iphone it looked like a conversation between him and I, but I’m not quite so sure. If it went to others, then I might as well file for divorce.

By: Richard D

Richard D — Mon, 26 Dec 2011 01:07:08 +0000

It’s a problem. As a recipient, I can’t tell it’s a group message. You might as well call it a way monitor a conversation secretly. Since I can’t see who the message is sent to (or if it’s even got more than one recipient), those “secret” members of the chat see all of the dialogue without me even knowing. In states where both parties much consent to monitoring, it raises legal questions as well.

It’s not safe. It’s not wise. Apple needs to fix it!

By: Ad

Ad — Sun, 25 Dec 2011 17:08:10 +0000

How do you know who sent you the original group mms text? My phone just has a recipients list.

By: kpcups

kpcups — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 16:21:43 +0000

Hi! I am finding that people are getting upset. They keep forgetting that it is a group message and everyone is getting their response. Most of them do not even know who the other person is? I have a 3G. I turned off the Group messaging however I tested it to see if that stopped and it did not. Please help me turn this feature off other than just not send a group text?

By: Hockey42

Hockey42 — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 05:00:45 +0000

I have a 3GS and the first group message I got after upgrading to OS4 was from a blackberry. I replied and only as it was sending did I notice there were others in the dist list. Not a huge deal since it was just a race result but i can totally see the potential issues so I’m always sure to check for groupMMS. Also it would be good to be able to edit the list when replying so you don’t have to create a new message to reply to just the sender or anything less then replying to all.

By: Mel

Mel — Thu, 17 Nov 2011 01:26:54 +0000

This feature is MOST annoying. The iphone 4s does not even have a Group Messaging settings options per the photos at the top, only MMS can be turned on/off. Can’t believe that they haven’t got an option to hide numbers, more importantly for me – leave the conversation. I cringe now when a friend sends me a group message as I know my phone will be inundated with responses from the other recipients

By: Clever gretel

Clever gretel — Thu, 10 Nov 2011 05:32:16 +0000

Ther is definitely a problem with this feature. My sis has an iPhone 4 and sends a pic to me, her baby daddy, I dont know who else. All I see is the pic, can’t tell it’s a group message. Send a reply, only to my sis as far as I can tell, and group messaging is turned off. Get an immediate response from the baby daddy: ” why do you keep bcc’ing me on these responses?” he and I do not get along. I ha d no idea and see no way to tell that my reply is going to him too, and apparently this has happened many times now! not a good thing!

By: Uresh

Uresh — Tue, 01 Nov 2011 14:32:32 +0000

I have the iPhone 3G with iOS4 installed (which btw is a BAD idea!) and I have Group Messaging turned OFF but still when I have more than one recipient selected for a message they all can see each other. The others were all on iPhone 4 in my case, except for me. I think it’s still a bug for older phones using iOS4.

By: Karen

Karen — Tue, 18 Oct 2011 20:22:44 +0000

Found this when I went searching for answers about what just happened to me. Wow. My boyfriend sent me a naughty picture this morning, and it showed up in a separate text thread. I thought that was really strange, since pictures always just get sent to our usual conversation. Then I noticed that it was a “Group MMS” and there was another number.

“… Did you send that picture to more than one person?”
“I didn’t try to… *checks things*”
“So… ***-***-****. What is that?”
“That would be the entry right below yours in my address book. Crap. I have explaining to do and embarrassment to have.”
“And you’re sure you’re not lying to me. =/”

This was followed by 8 texts of apology and a good verbal butt-kicking from me.
Um… Thanks, I guess, iPhone. I shouldn’t have had to find out this way, but I’m glad I know.

Thought I’d share. Maybe someone can find some amusement in my distress.

By: Friend's phone being hacked by gf... by substance - TribalWar Forums

Friend's phone being hacked by gf... by substance - TribalWar Forums — Tue, 20 Sep 2011 19:52:15 +0000

[...] iOS4 – iPhone Hidden Feature: Group Messaging Bug or SMS/MMS Chat Room? | Moxie Mo Show [...]

By: Cheryl

Cheryl — Wed, 07 Sep 2011 19:07:15 +0000

I find it rude to send a group message to a person who doesn’t realize it and thus replies thinking only the sender will read. My best friend has a tendency to do this and I fear I can’t be candid in any text because who knows if the group string has ended. How can you tell a group conversation is over and you are texting one on one? Another annoying thing about it for the person who isn’t interested in group messaging is that we get to pay for each text of our reply as well as the incoming replies from others in the group.

By: Ashley

Ashley — Thu, 18 Aug 2011 21:01:17 +0000

I have a question about group messaging, which I don’t really like. If it we more like email and had a reply or reply to all feature, maybe. My example is: I have group messaging off. I often get texts in group messaging mode from others. I did read that there’s no way to opt out of getting everybody’s response, which is disappointing. So since my group messaging is off but there’s is on, does my response go to everybody as well even though I have mine off? If so this whole thing is really shady because then people are texting people and giving their phone numbers unknowingly to people they don’t know and who they might not want to see their personal response and they have no control over it because it’s the person that sends the group message in the first place who has control.

By: EL

EL — Wed, 17 Aug 2011 12:30:17 +0000

My experience is much like Jason’s above. I turned off group messaging, but still have people complaining that they are getting messages from people they don’t know or I get a reply and it lists all the recipients of the original message. It appears to be doing “group” messaging no matter what I do. I hope this new update makes this better and not worse.

By: Moxie Mo

Moxie Mo — Wed, 17 Aug 2011 03:37:34 +0000

@Sue – no, I don’t believe so. Only the creator of the group MMS/SMS (example: Moxie Mo sends a text, like you see in my blog post above, to 4 friends… I can see all of their replies because I have it turned on. If any of them have their Group MMS on, they can see the replies to).

Hope this helps!
Moxie Mo

By: Sue

Sue — Fri, 12 Aug 2011 07:54:53 +0000

I have a 3gs. I have group messaging turned off. I f I send out a mass text can someone else see the responses. Let’s say I send to Jay & Dee, I have group messaging off, but Dee has her’s turned on, can she see the conversation that me & Jay are having?

By: ichtakiita

ichtakiita — Tue, 09 Aug 2011 18:27:09 +0000

apparently you can only used it if you have att,
i test both my friend and mines and when i put her t-mobile simcard you can’t find this settings, as soon as i pop my sim card to her phone (i have att) the settings pop up. not cool so not all my friends have the chat thingy.!

By: Nicholas Caito

Nicholas Caito — Fri, 29 Jul 2011 20:09:34 +0000

iPhone 3GS, iOS 4.2.1.
I am not using Group Messaging (it is Off in Settings). I was recently told that every time I send a message to multiple people, all recipients can see every other number I sent the message to.

I’ve done a lot of big sends to 8-10 people before (which always count as 8-10 separate text messages on my bill), but now there are privacy concerns because everyone can see who else I am now sending messages to. Co-workers, family, and exes certainly don’t need to know each others’ numbers.
This has already lead to some strange messages sent back and forth between people.

By: Christine

Christine — Sun, 03 Jul 2011 16:40:57 +0000

Quick question: When you send out a Group MMS, will that text also show up in the recipient’s individual text messages from that person? For example, Mary and Jane are friends. If Mary sends out a text to Jane and Sue, will Mary’s text to Jane show up in Jane’s Group MMS and also in Jane’s invidual text messages from Mary previously?

By: Ken

Ken — Sun, 26 Jun 2011 18:34:37 +0000

iPhone 3Gs here
Had group messaging OFF
Sent MMS and replies were going to everyone. Had friends asking me who xxx-xxx-xxxx was. Didn’t realize what was going on. How do I ensure this doesn’t happen again?

By: Chelsea

Chelsea — Sat, 18 Jun 2011 04:50:32 +0000

So I have an iPhone 3GS. And I turned my group messaging on and sent a text to 3 people hoping we could all chat at the same time to make plans. Well I wasn’t getting their texts in this “chat room” type thing you guys are talking about, their texts were all showing up separate. How can I get all my friends to talk in one conversation with this feature?

By: Moxie Mo

Moxie Mo — Thu, 16 Jun 2011 01:17:10 +0000

@Kate – no, you need to read the latest and greatest. Sorry if this confused you – this article was written months ago, when it first came out.

Much more control over MMS group chats is available as long as you have iOS 4.3x (and now that iOS 5 is coming, this will be even completely different – all messaging will be in ONE message area – your texts, MMS, instant messaging, etc will now all be in ONE app).

More info? Check out our episodes at front page.

By: Kate

Kate — Thu, 09 Jun 2011 10:04:00 +0000

So I’m confused. If u don’t have your group messaging feature on and u still attach say 5 people to a text, those who respond will be sending a text to the 5 other people including me? So no matter if u send it through group messaging or just attaching multiple people to one text, any response will be sent to everyone?

By: SvenAlan777

SvenAlan777 — Fri, 27 May 2011 00:54:55 +0000

I have this feature turned on because I use this every once in a while. I do however, wish that it only applied to messages that were outgoing. So here is where I have the problem. My iPhone sends random outgoing group MMS messages and it will do this when I’m not even touching the phone. I have replaced the phone once and they found out that it’s a network issue with Verizon but it still keeps on doing the same thing. I hope that this feature can be tweaked to perform better or be more personalized. Something needs to change!

By: CapnKep720

CapnKep720 — Fri, 27 May 2011 00:09:14 +0000

I agree about this being very DANGEROUS!!! One of my friends/supervisor would send MMS texts out and I would respond to him. Little did I know, that Group messaging is default to “ON” mode. So, I would respond to him, thinking it was only being sent to him. Turns out, it was being sent to everyone, including someone I didn’t know. Keep in mind, this iPhone is my work and personal number. This was going on for months and this other person, who I didn’t even know, thought I was harassing him and threatening him because he didn’t know the actual context of the message I was sending to my close friend. He ended up calling and complaining at the place where I work, saying that I was harassing him. Let’s hope I don’t lose my job over some stupid feature I didn’t even know existed, never mind knowing it was off or not.

By: Moxie Mo

Moxie Mo — Fri, 29 Apr 2011 00:11:27 +0000

Group MMSing is now becoming very popular (and I see the need now) – iOS 4.3.2 gives you much more control over group texting/MMS. That said, Fring just created a FREE app where you can VIDEO CHAT with 4 people at once! So, is this the new “group MMS”?

By: Grippnault

Grippnault — Sun, 17 Apr 2011 20:24:46 +0000

I get the purpose of the feature, and I also understand why a lot of you dislike it. What I don’t understand is if your phones group messaging feature was turned on right after you downloaded the update or if you manually turned the feature on, and if you did maunally turn it on, did you do any research to find out what it actually did before you started using it? When I read “Group Messaging”, it automatically raised a red flag to me.

By: Moxie Mo

Moxie Mo — Sat, 26 Mar 2011 02:54:11 +0000

Scott, we know it’s not a glitch. This post was written when iPhone 4 came out and no one knew/knows about it. But you’re right, you can change your settings.

By: scottylala

scottylala — Fri, 25 Mar 2011 16:54:15 +0000

this group chat changed with one of the updates… but, there’s also the option to turn it off in settings… its not a glitch… it came with the iPhone4

By: Jason

Jason — Wed, 02 Mar 2011 15:29:47 +0000

WHY doesn’t the group texting on iphone give you the option to “LOAD EARLIER MESSAGES” like in a normal text. After a while, as the chat gets longer, it overwrites itself!

By: Dachef

Dachef — Wed, 02 Mar 2011 01:38:15 +0000

Sending to a group on the iPhone you could send it to only 10 ppl when had a nokia 6230 I was able to make a group and send it too Manu more ppl. Also with a blackberry was able to send to more then 10 ppl… Inlove the iPhone but there’s things that apple didn’t catch on to