What Is a Group Text?
A group text is a text message chat started by a single person and sent to multiple recipients, who then engage in a virtual group chat via the messaging app. Each participant can then see the other participants’ personal contact information.
Creating a group text is appropriate as long as all participants have agreed to participate in the chat. Group chats are particularly useful when participants must work on a project or event and the participants are not all in the same geographical location.
Group texts can take place in Apple’s Messages app, as well as Android’s messaging app. They can also take place in other messaging apps, including WhatsApp, Signal, and Facebook Messenger.
Why Being Part of a Group Text Can Be Problematic
There are several reasons why participating in a group text can be problematic. The following are all good reasons for rethinking your participation in group texts.
Group Texting Can Cause Anxiety
When you are participating in a group text, do you experience any of the following?
- Racing heartbeat
- Shortness of breath
- Nausea
- Distraction from important activities
- Repeatedly checking your phone for replies from other users
- Worrying over replies from other users
Group texting brings with it a lot of uncertainty. How will the other participants respond to your messages? Will someone take one of your messages the wrong way and get angry? While face-to-face communication allows people to read the other participant’s face and body language, allowing you to tailor your responses to the situation, text messaging does not allow us to pick up on other users’ feelings, emotions, and other indicators.
Group Texting Can Distract You From Important Things
If you’re texting or waiting for a reply to your most recent message, you may not be performing your assigned tasks, leading to issues with your parents, your boss, or anyone else that is depending on you to complete your tasks.
Group Texts Contain Plenty of Unimportant Information
While group texts can be used for informative purposes – such as sharing information and tasks on projects – they can also be a fountain of unimportant information. Any group text conversation can become a meandering distraction containing loads of worthless information.
Group Texts Consume Your Valuable Time
If you’re in a two-person text conversation, you might only send a few messages to each other per day. However, if you’re in a group conversation with say, 10 participants, that increases the chances that you’ll receive multiple messages each day. Reading and replying to these messages can be quite time-consuming, taking time away from your daily tasks, your family time, and your leisure time.
Group Texts Expose Your Personal Information
Depending on which messaging app is being used, a group text can expose your personal contact information to users both inside and outside of the conversation. Many messaging apps have access to your personal contact info, and participants in the conversation can usually view your information.
While it may not be a big deal for conversation participants to have your personal information, if they share it with other users they know, there goes your privacy. But, how to leave a group text?
What is a Spam Group Text?
Spam group texts come from scammers that are looking to phish in a large pool of possible victims all at once. Spammers will send text messages to a large group of phone numbers in a single area code.
If you see that the message you have received is being sent to a large number of phone numbers, all likely within the same area code, it’s likely that the message is a spam group text.
How to Deal With a Group Spam Text
There are several ways to deal with a spam text group, such as leaving the text group or muting the text group. In this section of this article, we’ll discuss the various ways you can deal with group spam texts, including how to block a group text on Android and iPhone.
How to Remove Yourself From a Group Text on iPhone
Getting out of a group text conversation in the Messages app on your iPhone is quite easy. You can remove yourself from a group text on your iPhone, as long as there are three or more other people in the group. Also, everyone participating in the group text needs to be using the Apple Message app.
How to get out of a group text on your iPhone:
- Tap the group text message that you want to remove yourself from.
- Tap the group icons at the top of the thread.
- Scroll down until you see “Leave this Conversation.” Tap that to leave. Users running iOS 14 or earlier, should tap the Info button, then tap “Leave this Conversation.”
If you don’t see the option to leave the group text conversation, it usually means that one or more of the users isn’t using an Apple device with iMessage.
How to Remove Yourself From a Group Text on Android
Unfortunately, on Android, the only way to remove yourself from a group text chat is to ask the user that created the chat to remove you from the group. However, you can mute a group text, which will at least allow you to go without being notified every time someone sends a text in the group chat. We’ll discuss how to mute a group text chat on Android a bit later in this article.
How to Remove Yourself From a Group Text in Other Apps
WhatsApp is one of the most popular messaging apps available today. While it is simple to set up a group text, it’s equally easy to remove yourself from a group text chat.
- Open the WhatsApp app on your iPhone or Android device.
- Swipe left or long-press on the group text that you want to exit.
- Tap “Exit Group” near the bottom of the new page that appears.
- Tap “Exit Group” again to exit the conversation.
Facebook Messenger
Facebook is a dominating presence in the world of social networks. This makes its “Facebook Messenger” chat app one of the most popular messaging apps today. Leaving a Facebook Messenger group chat is just as easy as leaving a WhatsApp group text chat.
- Open the Facebook Messenger app on your iPhone or Android device.
- Swipe left or long-press on the conversation you wish to leave.
- On the menu that appears. Tap “Leave.”
- In the next menu, tap “Leave Chat.”
How to Mute a Group Text on iPhone
It’s also easy to mute a group text conversation in the Messages app on your iPhone. To mute a group text conversation on your iPhone, do the following:
- Tap the group text message that you wish to mute.
- Tap the group icons at the top of the thread. If you’re on iOS 14 or earlier, tap the group icons at the top, then tap the Info button.
- Scroll down, then tap the “Hide Alerts” toggle button to mute alerts.
Or, when you’re viewing the list of your conversations, you can swipe left over the group text message and tap the Alerts button to mute the group.
How to Mute a Group Text on Android
While you cannot get out of a group text on Android, you can mute the update notifications. Here’s how to do it.
- Open the Android messaging app.
- Tap the group text conversation that you want to mute.
- Tap the “Menu” icon (three vertical dots in the upper-right corner of your screen).
- Click on the “People & Options” menu option that appears on the drop-down list.
- Toggle the “Notifications” option on the next screen to mute the notifications for the group text thread.
How to Mute a Group Text in Other Apps
Whats App easily allows you to mute a group text chat.
- Open the WhatsApp app on your iPhone or Android device.
- Long-press on the group text that you want to mute.
- Tap “Mute” on the new page that appears.
- On the next screen, tap how long you wish to mute the conversation. Options include “8 hours,” “1 week,” or “Always.”
Facebook Messenger
Muting a Facebook Messenger group chat is just as easy as muting a WhatsApp group chat.
- Open the Facebook Messenger app on your iPhone or Android device.
- Swipe left or long-press on the conversation you wish to mute.
- On the menu that appears. Tap “Mute.”
- In the next menu, tap either “For 15 minutes,” “For 1 hour,” “For 8 hours,” “For 24 hours,” or “Until I change it.”
What Are the Dangers of Being Added Involuntarily to a Spam Group Text?
It’s rather easy for scammers to get your phone number, allowing them to add you to a group text. But, why is this dangerous? What are the threats of being involuntarily added to a spam text group?
Data brokers sell an increasing amount of personal information about all of us. Scammers can either purchase this information from the data broker or they can simply collect it if and when there is a data breach on the broker’s servers.
With as little as your cell phone number, scammers can add you to a group text chat, where they can take advantage of you, scam you, and possibly obtain more information about you and your finances.
This is why it is important to send removal requests to as many data brokers as possible. This is also why it is important to subscribe to a service, like Incogni, that will perform data removal requests on your behalf. More about that later.
Also, scammers will include infected links in the messages. These links will take you to infected websites, which can grab more of your personal information, while also possibly installing malware onto your device or computer.
How to Remove Your Personal Information From Data Brokers’ Servers
While it helps to take care to protect your personal information, that info is still out there for purchase or to be stolen, thanks to data brokers. Data brokers collect as much information about you as they can get their hands on, and then sell it to anyone willing to pay for it or trade it to other data brokers for more information.
In addition to data brokers selling your personal information, that info may also be stolen by bad actors if and when there is a data breach.
There are hundreds of data brokers around the globe, and it’s quite possible that they have your personal information on their servers. While you can contact all of the brokers to have your information removed from their servers on your own, bring your lunch (for several days) as it’s going to take a long time before you get all of your information removed.
Also be aware that once you’re finished you’ll need to start all over again, because while data brokers are required to delete your personal information at your request, there is nothing to stop them from collecting the info again for sale at a later date.
This is why you should consider subscribing to a content removal service, like Incogni.
Incogni
Subscribers to Incogni will find that the company works tirelessly to remove your personal information from data brokers’ databases, relieving you of the need for you to individually contact each data broker.
Incogni does charge a monthly or annual fee for its services, but its subscription rates are some of the lowest around. While you may roll your eyes at signing up for yet another subscription service, Incogni’s business model makes sense for consumers. Because, as long as you are subscribed, Incogni will continue to stay on the lookout for new data brokers, while periodically checking in on all of the brokers to make sure they haven’t added your data back to their databases.
While Incogni helps to protect your private information, you will need to provide a bit of personal information to the company, but they only use it to confirm which data broker has your personal data. Happily, Incogni does not share your information with any third parties. They only use the information – which includes your full name, your Social Security number, email and home address, and other info – only for data removal purposes.
Incogni sends data removal requests to brokers on a regular basis, ensuring that your information will not make an encore appearance on their servers. The service also keeps an eye out for new data brokers, immediately contacting them to have your information removed from their servers.
Okay, this sounds like a great service, but times are hard, how much is this going to cost? Compared to other data removal services, Incogni’s pricing is quite budget-friendly, especially considering the trouble it might be saving you down the line. Opting for a monthly subscription will cost you $12.99 per month (plus tax). You’ll save a considerable amount off of the monthly price if you opt for an annual subscription, which is $6.49 per month when you pay $77.88, plus tax annually.
Once you’ve subscribed to Incogni and provided some info and agreed to allow them to act on your behalf, the service begins collecting information about data brokers, both new and old, to determine if they may have collected your personal information. Information collected by data brokers can include your Social Security number, phone number, email addresses, home address, and more.
As far as data brokers are concerned, the more info they have about you, the better. This is because the more information they have about you, the better their customers like it. The information is purchased by and used by marketers, job recruiters, banks and loan companies, insurers, and yes, scammers, to send you text messages, emails, snail mail, targeted advertising, and other types of pesky communication.
Sadly, the bad actors of the world also use this personal information to separate you from your hard-earned cash or to collect additional information by scamming you. They use the info to conduct phishing expeditions, creating credit card accounts in your name, or any other nefarious scheme where they can make a quick buck.
Incogni first determines which data brokers around the globe are storing your personal information in their databases. Many data brokers only collect information about residents in their area of the globe. This means some data brokers will be ignored. Incogni only contacts the data brokers that are likely to have your information at hand.
While doing this, Incogni also stays alert for new data brokers, contacting them with a data removal request on your behalf, if the service determines that they may have your info.
The service also contacts all of the brokers with removal requests on a regular basis, to help ensure that your information doesn’t show up on the brokers’ servers once again.
Once Incogni gets to work, you may see requests for additional information if a data broker requires it before accommodating the data removal request. Some brokers will even ask for a copy of your government-issued ID before removing your personal information.
It should be noted that data brokers have 30 to 45 days to remove your information from their servers (depending on their location), and many of them will not remove your data until the very last minute, as this allows them to sell your data for as long as they can.
Users that are concerned about their privacy will appreciate that Incogni is owned by VPN provider Surfshark, which is a privacy-centric company and does not sell your personal data to third parties. You can also edit or delete any of your personal data that is stored on Incogni’s servers.
Unfortunately, Incogni’s removal powers are limited to residents of Europe, the United Kingdom, Canada, and the United States. Keep in mind that privacy laws in the United States can vary from state to state, so your removal options may vary, depending on the state you reside in.
I especially like Incogni’s handy dashboard feature that allows users to monitor the progress of the removal process at a glance, with both a pie chart and removal scoreboard showing where the process stands. The dashboard displays the number of data brokers that may have your information, the number of removal requests that have been sent to those brokers, and how many requests have been completed so far.
In Conclusion
Unwanted group text messages can be irritating, as well as dangerous. While there are ways to stop group spam texts, or to at least silence the notifications, it makes sense to reduce your digital footprint by removing your personal information on data brokers’ servers, and by keeping your data off social networks.
By using services like Incogni, you can easily remove your data from multiple locations, with little effort on your part.