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I want to send "Happy Thanksgiving!" to 35 different people, but I do not want it to be treated as a group message. How can this be accomplished on the iPhone 4S (with or without jailbreak applications, such as biteSMS) with iOS 5.1.1?

The reasons that I would not want it treated as a group message are:

  • I do not want the recipients to see the numbers of other recipients
  • I do not want the recipients' replies to go to multiple people
  • I do not want the recipients' replies to be grouped in a group message, but to instead be part of each individual thread
  • depending on the message, I may specifically not want a given recipient to know that other recipients received the same message.

Optimally, the solution would also allow pictures to be attached and would automatically send iMessages instead of text messages to iOS users - but those parts are less important than being able to send plain text messages.

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  • Have you tried changing Settings > Messages > Group Messaging to off? If this solves your problem, I'll convert it into an answer.
    – Andrew Larsson
    Dec 14, 2012 at 20:08
  • I had not tried that. I've tested it out a little and it seems to work. I'll test it out more and give you an update.
    – corvec
    Dec 17, 2012 at 20:05
  • That's good to hear.
    – Andrew Larsson
    Dec 18, 2012 at 21:45
  • Okay, that seems to work :) It's a bit unwieldy, of course, but I imagine I can find an SBSettings toggle or something.
    – corvec
    Dec 19, 2012 at 1:01
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    Also, group messages to Google Voice contacts are silently dropped, because GV doesn't accept MMS.
    – endolith
    Sep 12, 2014 at 1:31

2 Answers 2

Reset to default
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The option you're looking for is located at Settings > Messages > Group Messaging. Turning this off will send all messages individually to their recipients.

Note: Disabling MMS Messaging will remove the Group Messaging toggle from the list.

Note: Some cellular service providers do not support Group Messaging, so if you have MMS enabled, and you still don't see Group Messaging, then it's likely that your provider does not support it. From Apple: If you don't see an option to turn on MMS Messaging or Group Messaging on your iPhone, contact your carrier.

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    I don't have a Settings> Messages > Group Messaging option on my iPhone 4s. How do I turn it off?
    – user45176
    Mar 15, 2013 at 1:49
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    I don't have the option either, maybe it depends on the carrier. Can you add a screenshot to the answer to make it clear at least what you are looking at here?
    – nohillside ♦
    Mar 26, 2013 at 15:05
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    I have an iPhone4 iOS 7.1.2 my carrier is Vodafone New Zealand, and I don't have this option.
    – Myster
    Jun 21, 2016 at 23:08
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    I usually do. But even if I enable MMS and close/reopen settings I don't get a Group Messaging option (iOS 9)
    – nohillside ♦
    Jul 19, 2016 at 18:49
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    I'm guessing it's Provider-related. I don't have it either, iPhone 6S, iOS 9.3.5, Carrier O2, UK.
    – Tetsujin
    Sep 1, 2016 at 18:47
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If you have a Mac you can use https://porterhouse.app which lets you do that with a single click, and sends as iMessage to iOS users too

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