GroupMe is a popular messaging app owned by Microsoft that is often used by school groups, sports teams, or groups of friends.  Students frequently use the app to send private or group messages and many parents wonder if GroupMe is safe for their students to use. 

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What is GroupMe?

• GroupMe is a free, messaging app where users can send either direct messages or group messages from their computer or mobile device using WiFi
• Users can send and share photos, videos, GIFs, polls, files, and create events
• Students have the option to join their school community to connect with others in the same school by entering their school email address
• When registering for a GroupMe account, users must be able to verify a phone number to be associated with the account

Top Concerns of GroupMe

• Students can share their exact location with others through the app and when their geo-location is enabled, they can easily connect with nearby strangers
• Since activity from GroupMe doesn’t show up on their parents’ phone bill (like text messages), students could use the app to hide their messaging activity
• GroupMe does not offer end-to-end data encryption, which means that anyone in the company can read the messages

What can parents & educators do?

• Turn off the location-sharing feature and discuss with students why it’s not safe to share your location with others through apps
• Remind students that messages sent privately are never truly private because anyone could take a screenshot of a message and share it with other people
• Encourage students to turn off “Enable sharing” from their profile to keep their account more private
• Since GroupMe messages are separate from text messages, parents should remember to open the app to monitor messages

Additional Information about GroupMe

• Group members can add others to the group chat that don’t have the app, as long as they have a phone number.  GroupMe messages can be sent through SMS messaging which means that students don’t have to have the app on their phone to view or respond to messages from a group chat
• There is no way to delete messages sent within the app, although users can “hide” messages on their own device that they have sent to others
• Microsoft also owns Skype, and GroupMe users are able to video chat with others (privately or within groups) through the app using Skype
• Spam is prevalent on GroupMe and students may receive messages from unknown users or from bots
• When searching for GIFs and videos to share through the app, students may easily come across mature content

What is GroupMe rated?

Apple App Store rating: 12+

Google Play Store rating: E (Everyone)

Owned by Microsoft

Privacy Policy

Services Agreement

Additional tips for families

• Remind students that GroupMe can comply with government requests to reveal personal messages if they are asked to do so (Source: Screenrant)
• Remind students that they should not respond to messages received from unknown users.  Create a Family Media Agreement WITH your student and talk about your family’s plan for how to handle interactions with strangers and how to appropriately use this group chat app

Privacy/setting recommendations for GroupMe

Turn off Location Sharing

• Tap the person icon in the bottom right corner of the app
• Tap “Settings”
• Scroll down and tap “Open settings app” to take you to your device settings for GroupMe
• Tap “Location” and make sure “Never” is checked

Do not allow GroupMe to access phone contacts

• Go to the GroupMe “Settings” menu 
• Scroll down to “Sync contacts to server” and turn off (gray)

Turn off "Enable sharing"

• To keep their account more private, students can turn off "Enable sharing"
• Tap the person icon in the bottom right corner
• Tap "Edit Profile"
• Make sure "Enable sharing" is turned off (gray)

Turn off notifications

• To decrease distractions for students, consider turning off all notifications
• Go to the GroupMe “Settings” menu
• Under “NOTIFICATIONS & SOUNDS”, turn “Enhanced notifications” to off (gray)
• Consider turning notifications off from the phone settings menu
• Tap “Open settings app”
• Tap “Notifications”
• Turn “Allow Notifications” to off (gray)

How to block another GroupMe user (Private Message)

• Tap the message icon at the bottom left 
• Tap the message
• Tap on the other user’s icon in the top right corner
• Tap the three dots for More
• Tap “Block”

How to block another GroupMe user (from a group)

• Tap the message icon at the bottom left 
• Tap the group message
• Tap on the user’s photo to the left of their message
• Tap the photo in the top right corner
• Tap the three dots for More
• Tap Block

What others are saying about GroupMe

Examples of GroupMe in the news

[A sorority at the University of Central Florida] has been suspended after allegations of its members posting an explicit photo, offering payment to complete schoolwork and swapping IDs to buy alcohol [on GroupMe]. - Yahoo! News

After information about an upcoming test was posted in an introductory anthropology class GroupMe chat, about 70 students at the University of Texas at Austin are facing either automatic failing grades or expulsion for being members of the group message. - The Cougar, student-run newspaper

Why do students want to be on GroupMe

• It’s an easy method for students using Android, Apple, or Windows devices to communicate together and not have to worry about the different functions of each type of phone (Apple’s blue text bubbles vs. Android’s green bubbles)
• Students can be a part of large chat groups with the ability to remove themselves from the groups and they can participate in multiple chat groups within one app
• Compared to other group chat apps, GroupMe makes it very easy to search and share GIF’s, images, and videos
• GroupMe messages do not get recorded on parents’ phone bills, which some students may find attractive

What do other parents say about  GroupMe

Mature content available. I was surprised to find a bunch of mature/pornographic GIFS available. This is especially frustrating since many of my son's school groups use this app. Just search various things in the GIFs and you will see what is available. I wouldn't want any age kid to see this. - Parent, Common Sense Media

Conclusion

GroupMe is a popular group chat app that many students use to communicate with their friends, school groups, clubs, or sports teams.  Parents should be aware of the features of this SmartSocial Gray Zone app and make sure that they are having continuous conversations with their students about the potential dangers of using the GroupMe app.

More resources for parents, students, & educators

Learn about another popular messaging app: WhatsApp Safety Guide for Parents & Students

详细了解另一款适用于群组和课堂的热门消息应用程序： 提醒应用程序指南：家长、教育工作者和学生需要知道的内容

收听 Rachel 和 Andrea 在这篇文章中讨论 GroupMe 应用程序 momTalk 播客 剧集