Group texting apps are all the rage these days (okay, so they may share some of that rage with those perpetually angry birds). All the cool kids are using them to bypass SMS costs (who knew that those were such an issue?) and quickly get messages across to entire groups of friends. One of the contestants in this space that's almost exclusive to iOS and Android is GroupMe. When this service launched, its main selling point was that it worked on any phone, in fact using SMS to deliver messages to groups.
Today GroupMe has announced version 2.0 of its iOS and Android apps, and with it comes a slight shift in the model. Your data connection is now used by default to send messages, just like in the case of most of GroupMe's competitors. However, GroupMe still offers you the SMS way of doing things if you prefer it, or if you don't have a usable data connection.
Other than that, location sharing is now supported, letting you see your friends on an interactive map. Inline sharing of photos is also now available, and you can invite people to GroupMe even if you don't know their phone number, using email, Twitter and Facebook. Each group still receives a unique phone number, so your friends who don't have an iPhone or Android device can still be part of your group.
Download GroupMe 2.0 for iOS from the iTunes App Store
Download GroupMe 2.0 from the Android Market
source: GroupMe Blog
