GroupMe (also stylized as groupme) is a mobile group

messaging app A message is a unit of communication that conveys information from a sender to a receiver. It can be transmitted through various forms, such as spoken or written words, signals, or electronic data, and can range from simple instructions to co ...

owned by

Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company, technology conglomerate headquartered in Redmond, Washington. Founded in 1975, the company became influential in the History of personal computers#The ear ...

. It was launched in May 2010 by the private company GroupMe. In August 2011, GroupMe delivered over 100 million messages each month and by June 2012, that number jumped to 550 million. In 2013, GroupMe had over 12 million registered users. In March 2024, reports noted that while Microsoft had discontinued development of Skype for consumers, it continued to actively support GroupMe. The app received recent updates and was highlighted as a messaging platform still maintained by Microsoft, contrasting with the declining attention given to

Skype Skype () was a proprietary telecommunications application operated by Skype Technologies, a division of Microsoft, best known for IP-based videotelephony, videoconferencing and voice calls. It also had instant messaging, file transfer, ...

History

Grouply, the app that would become GroupMe, was created in May 2010, at a

hackathon A hackathon (also known as a hack day, hackfest, datathon or codefest; a portmanteau of '' hacking'' and ''marathon'') is an event where people engage in rapid and collaborative engineering over a relatively short period of time such as 24 or 48 h ...

at the TechCrunch Disrupt conference. Its creators, Jared Hecht and Steve Martocci intended the app to replace

email Electronic mail (usually shortened to email; alternatively hyphenated e-mail) is a method of transmitting and receiving Digital media, digital messages using electronics, electronic devices over a computer network. It was conceived in the ...

chains as a method of communication. After investors took notice of the app, Hecht and Martocci took a loan from Hecht's parents and began working on their app full-time. The name was changed to GroupMe in August. The same month, GroupMe raised $85,000 from investors. The app was released on the

App Store An app store, also called an app marketplace or app catalog, is a type of digital distribution platform for computer software called applications, often in a mobile context. Apps provide a specific set of functions which, by definition, do not i ...

in October 2010. In January 2011, GroupMe received US$10.6 million in

venture capital Venture capital (VC) is a form of private equity financing provided by firms or funds to start-up company, startup, early-stage, and emerging companies, that have been deemed to have high growth potential or that have demonstrated high growth in ...

from

Khosla Ventures Khosla Ventures is a private American venture capital firm based in Menlo Park, California. It was founded by entrepreneur Vinod Khosla in 2004. The firm works with early-stage companies in the Internet, computing, mobile technology, artifici ...

, General Catalyst Partners,

angel investors An angel investor (also known as a business angel, informal investor, angel funder, private investor, or seed investor) is an individual who provides capital to a business or businesses, including startups, usually in exchange for convertible debt ...

, and others. In August 2011,

acquired the one-year-old

start-up A startup or start-up is a company or project undertaken by an entrepreneur to seek, develop, and validate a scalable business model. While entrepreneurship includes all new businesses including self-employment and businesses that do not intend ...

for around $80 million.

had itself been purchased by Microsoft in May 2011, with the purchase finalized in October 2011. The app underwent a redesign in late 2012. Initially, groups were limited to 100 members, but a support request could get a group's limit raised as high as necessary as it approached the limit. In 2019, GroupMe stopped offering group member limit increases; however, the app increased the standard limit from 100 to 5000. Following Skype's downfall and subsequent shutdown, GroupMe would not shut down but rather be moved under the main Microsoft division and will be integrated with services such as

Microsoft Copilot Microsoft Copilot (or simply Copilot) is a generative artificial intelligence chatbot developed by Microsoft. Based on the GPT-4 series of large language models, it was launched in 2023 as Microsoft's primary replacement for the discontinued C ...

Usage

GroupMe works by downloading the app or accessing the service online, and then creating an account by providing your name, cell phone number, and password, or connecting through a

Facebook Facebook is a social media and social networking service owned by the American technology conglomerate Meta Platforms, Meta. Created in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with four other Harvard College students and roommates, Eduardo Saverin, Andre ...

Twitter Twitter, officially known as X since 2023, is an American microblogging and social networking service. It is one of the world's largest social media platforms and one of the most-visited websites. Users can share short text messages, image ...

account. The service then syncs with your contacts and from that point forward the user can make groups, limited to 5000 members. An individual who is part of an active group has the ability to turn off

notifications Notification may refer to: *Notification (Holy See), an announcement by a department of the Roman Curia *Casualty notification, the process of notifying relatives of people who have been killed or seriously injured *Death notification, the proces ...

for the app; users will still receive the message, but will not be notified about it. Each group is given a label and assigned a unique number. Some of the features of the app include the ability to share photos, videos, locations, create events, and emojis from various packs. GroupMe has a web client as well as apps for

iOS Ios, Io or Nio (, ; ; locally Nios, Νιός) is a Greek island in the Cyclades group in the Aegean Sea. Ios is a hilly island with cliffs down to the sea on most sides. It is situated halfway between Naxos and Santorini. It is about long an ...

, Android,

Windows Phone Windows Phone (WP) is a discontinued mobile operating system developed by Microsoft Mobile for smartphones as the replacement successor to Windows Mobile and Zune. Windows Phone featured a new user interface derived from the Metro design languag ...

, and

Windows 10 Windows 10 is a major release of Microsoft's Windows NT operating system. The successor to Windows 8.1, it was Software release cycle#Release to manufacturing (RTM), released to manufacturing on July 15, 2015, and later to retail on July 2 ...

. GroupMe messages can be received and sent through

SMS Short Message Service, commonly abbreviated as SMS, is a text messaging service component of most telephone, Internet and mobile device systems. It uses standardized communication protocols that let mobile phones exchange short text messages, t ...

(available only in the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

). Users begin by creating a “group” and adding contacts. When someone sends a message, everyone in the group can see and respond to it. The app allows users to attach and send pictures, documents, videos, and web links. Users can also send private messages, but only to users who are also active on the GroupMe app. GroupMe has been studied as a communication tool in higher education settings. Research has explored its use for facilitating course-related discussions, supporting collaboration in small groups, and supplementing classroom learning in both online and face-to-face contexts. Another study examined how platforms like GroupMe can support literacy learning by encouraging communication in multiple modes, including text and images, framing this form of digital discourse as a legitimate academic genre.

References

External links

groupme.com
{{Microsoft 2011 mergers and acquisitions American companies established in 2010 Android (operating system) software Instant messaging clients Microsoft divisions Skype

History

Usage

See also

References

External links