How to Create and Manage an iMessage Group Chat

iMessage group chats let you send a message to multiple people at once — all in one shared conversation where everyone can see and reply to each other. This is perfect for coordinating with family, keeping up with a circle of friends, or organizing a get-together without sending the same text to each person separately.

iMessage group chats work between people who all have iPhones (and have iMessage enabled). If someone in the group has an Android phone, the chat switches to MMS (a standard group text), which shows up in a green bubble instead of blue and has some limitations.

Once a group chat is created, anyone in it can send a message and everyone else will see it. You can give the group a name so it shows up clearly in your message list — something like "Family Chat" or "Book Club."

Managing a group chat is worth knowing: you can silence notifications for a busy group without leaving it (using the Hide Alerts option), you can remove yourself from a group when you no longer need to be part of it, and on newer iPhones you can even see a screen showing everyone in the group and their recent replies.

Group chats are saved in the Messages app just like individual conversations. The thread grows over time and you can scroll back to see older messages, photos, and links that were shared.