For an "announcement list" mode like this, it would be nice if the owner could blast out texts to everybody, but any responses would only come back to the owner.

This would make it valuable to every employer, they could make an announcement list of employees and then blast out a notice whenever somebody calls in sick.  Folks can reply to the list owner, but no conversations get started.   Thanks for listening!

Announcement list is exactly what I am looking for.  This is perfect for coaches and managers of teams.  When you want to get everyone notified of a change but don't want everyone putting their 2 cents worth into the announcement.  Reply would just go back to the sender of the original message.

Agreed - would need to make the ability to create a conference call a leader-only action.

Agreed - Tried this program and it caused mass confusion

I am early into testing - but loading Groupme up with a bunch of controls is only going to clutter it up.  Anonymity is the first and biggest enemy...the ability to ADD and/or REMOVE members of the group --  Admin REMOVE should take care of chatty and/or confusion making idiots!  ...my 2cents

Agree, this would be a great way to send out mass messages that do not warrant a response from the group.  That should be an option that can be turned off or on by the group owner.

We are looking to use Group-Me as a Call-Out system for our Search & Rescue Organization. This "announcement" feature is REALLY needed. For a Call-Out we want the entire Search Team notified, but only the Incident Commander needs to see the replies for who is available.

Is there a date when this feature will be added?!!!!

We're looking to also use GroupMe for different ministries in our church and would love to have a church 'overview' loop that only admins would be able to message to and the entire church body would have the updates sent to them. Would be more than willing to pay for this feature. We love using GroupMe for the different small groups now; this would take it over the top. 

I had switched to Disco Messenger because it had this feature, however now Disco is shutting down. Please consider adding this. We used Disco over the weekend for an event with "announcement only" and it worked great. This feature is greatly needed!

Just wanted to mention that I'd also like to see an announcement-only feature. I realize you want to encourage reply-all discussions--why not make that the default, but at least make an announcement-only option available? This is not only extremely helpful for organizers/leaders/teachers, but it would actually help save users money (a lot of people either pay for each SMS message or don't have unlimited text... if everybody in a group gets all the messages it would quickly get very expensive. I have a 250-message plan with Verizon, and I could easily see hitting my threshold fast if reply-all is the only option). Help us save our money, please! If it's just a configuration issue, why FORCE us to pay more money for unnecessary messages? Surely you could be sensitive to people's financial concerns! Thanks.

We just switched from Disco because it shuts down on Tuesday.  We use the "announcement only" or "reply only to administrator" feature to communicate with our Youth Group members.  This was the recommended replacement app, but the set-up had everyone's phones ringing constantly!  PLEASE add a setting for announcement only or we'll have to find a new app!  It looks like there is great demand for this feature.  Are you working on it?

I would love to see the "annoucement only" feature or a "reply to administrator" option as well.  The last comment about this was 3 months ago.  Any progress towards it?  Thanks, guys.  Looking forward to a response.

I love GroupMe, but if you needs don't necessarily fit for this service, try doing a Google search for "cel.ly".  It is a similar free service with that can accommodate bigger groups without jumping thru hoops. Has a one way notification features and moderator roles.  I've moved my bigger groups to this service.  GroupMe still works best for the smaller groups.  Hope this helps!

I have 83 kids on our rugby team.  I agree with everyone on here.  I desperately need an app that's announcement only.  I send out a text to say that practice is cancelled, and my phone rings incessantly for the next hour or so with kids just casually chatting.  Please create either an announcement only or allow for all replies to go to the sender feature.  For each person that asks, you can assume there are at least 500 that want it as well but just aren't asking.  I'd easily pay for the announce only app. 

I just had five girls beg me to stop this app as every time someone replies, they all get charged for a text.  Obviously this is not going to work as they are all chatting themselves into bankruptcy.  I guess I'll have to keep looking.

That's a big rugby group! Ours number about 60 for our two teams, and yes, an announcement feature would be great for coaches!! 

Is there any progress towards adding this feature? We need it desperately. I want to be able to send important messages out to my employees. Sometimes I  do need this to acknowledge the message with a simple reply. However, I don't want every single employee to be getting each other's reply. How much closer are we to getting this "announcements only" feature or "reply to administrator only" feature? I am having to search for another group texting app that allows me to do these announcement style texts.   Does anyone here use another service that allows this? What are you guys doing for your rugby teams now? 

I really need this feature as well, to send out meeting times and locations for a student org I am a part of. I would just use facebook messenger, but groupme automatically sends texts if people don't have smartphones, which i also need. 

we also have a community response group for emergencies. we could very much use the announce only mode for a groupme group. we currently utilize 3 groups. one for actual calls, one for msgs for "open" calls and one for chit chat among the members..

Adding my voice to the chorus for an "announce" setting. Apparently there are still lots of people who don't understand how group messages work, even when they've had it explained to them. Our team puts out an announcement and we get 5-10 "Billy has the flu" messages back. Sometimes this happens multiple times per day - annoying and text-plan depleting. Seems simple and not at odds with the GroupMe mission. 

Is anyone else using a platform that has this?

@JohnKomp - Try a Google search for "cel.ly".