Some people in the group have a flip phone, so every message goes out as a plain text. If you have a smartphone, you can read the same group here instead — in an app with pictures, names and a buzz when something comes in.
The flip phones get the text. You get it here.
There is nothing to install and nothing to search for. Tap through the five screens.
It looks like bunchtext.com/c/cohen — your group’s name at the end. It is on the flyer the organizer printed, and the organizer can text it to you. If your group has not turned the app on, ask them to; you keep getting the texts either way.
The screens above are drawn from the real app, not photographs.
The first time you sign in, the app asks “How do you want messages?” Both answers are fine, and either one can be switched later from the same screen.
Messages arrive in the app with a notification. Your phone’s text inbox stays quiet. This costs the group nothing at all — no text is sent to you.
You get the text as always, and the same message in the app. Good if you are not sure yet. The text is billed to the group like any other.
It then opens like any other app, with its own icon. This is also what turns on notifications, so it is worth the twenty seconds.
Open your group’s link in Safari, tap Share (the square with the arrow at the bottom), scroll to Add to Home Screen, then Add.
Open your group’s link in Chrome, tap the three dots at the top right, then Add to Home screen or Install.
Nothing to search for and nothing to download. The link is the app — that is why it works on an old phone and a new one the same way.
The app is a switch in your group’s Web chat tab: $10 a month off the group’s balance, and then every smartphone member can use it free. Turning it on also gives you the group’s link and a printable flyer with the number, the link and the small print the carriers require.
Members who choose “here, in this app” stop costing the group anything, because no text is sent to them. A group where half the members move into the app roughly halves the bill.
Turning the app on changes nothing for the members who do not use it. They keep getting the same texts on the same number, and they do not have to do anything.
Members added by email — instead of by mobile number — use the app only. They are in straight away, get no texts, and cost the group nothing.