The GroupMe SMS Alternative
Group chat that works on every phone.
Even flip phones. No apps, no internet — your group gets one number, and whatever you text to it reaches everyone.
Cancel anytime.
Why does this exist?
What happened to free group texting
GroupMe texting was free
Anyone could take part by plain text, from any phone — no app, no smartphone, no internet.
GroupMe grew into an app
GroupMe added photos, events, polls, and more. In August 2026, it announced a rolling retirement of two-way SMS. The app and website continue, but members who rely on texts need another way in.
Some groups still need texts
A new app does not help someone with an SMS-only phone. Families, shuls, and shiurim still need one conversation that includes members with SMS-enabled kosher phones.
So we built this
Klal Chat does that one job under the new rules — one number, ordinary texts, one person paying instead of nobody.
How does it actually work?
How it works
Your group gets its own number
Create a chat and we give it a dedicated phone number. Members save it once, like any contact.
Anyone texts that number
Everyone else gets it as an ordinary text, with the sender's name in front: "Moshe: Mincha at 7:15". Reply, and the reply goes to the group too.
You run it from a web page
The admin adds and removes people, sees how many texts are left, and handles payment on a simple website. Members never need it.
This is the whole of it. How many texts are left this month, and who is in the group. Members never see this page and never need an account — it exists for the one person running the group.
Coming soon
Running the group with no internet at all
That page is the one part of Klal Chat that needs a browser, and the person who keeps the list often carries the same kind of phone as everyone on it. So we are building an automated line you call: a toll-free number where the keypad does all of it — start a group, choose a plan, pay by card, add and remove people, buy more texts, change the plan, or cancel. Names come by text message, because a keypad cannot spell.
In English, Yiddish and Hebrew — every word recorded in all three, not one language with the others added later. Nobody answers it and nothing is recorded, and the card goes straight to the company that handles the payment, exactly as it does here.
It is not open yet and we are not going to guess a date. If that is the piece your group is waiting on, tell us — who needs it is what sets the order we build in.
Start a groupFree to try. Cancel anytime.
Will it work on our phones?
Built for kosher and filtered phones
Shuls, kollelim, schools, camps, chesed organizations, simcha committees — a list like that nearly always includes people carrying a kosher phone or a filtered phone, and they are exactly the people an ordinary group chat leaves behind. Here they are not a special case. They are the case we built for.
Nothing to install, nothing to filter
There is no app, so there is nothing to download, nothing to get approved, and nothing for a filter to stand in front of. The group arrives as ordinary text messages — which a kosher phone already receives.
No internet, no smartphone
A phone with no data plan and no browser works exactly as well here as the newest handset. If it can send and receive a text, it can be in the group, in full.
Everyone in one conversation
Flip phone or smartphone, everybody texts the same number and everybody gets the same messages. Nobody ends up on a second-class version of the group.
Can I move my group over?
Moving your group over
Nobody has to sign up for anything — no app, no account. You can add people yourself, or let them join with the group's code.
You add the numbers
Paste your list — one name and number per line — or upload a CSV.
They reply YES
Each person gets one text saying who added them. They reply YES and they're in — no app, no account, no password. Anyone who never replies isn't in the group.
Or share the join code
Every group gets a short code. Anyone who has it texts JOIN and the code to the group number, and they're in. Useful when announcing the group is easier than collecting everyone's number. Full join instructions and message terms: klalchat.com/join.
Move your group overTakes a few minutes. You can add people afterwards.
Why does it cost anything?
What you're paying for
Free chat apps send messages over the internet, where sending one costs nobody anything. This sends real text messages — and one group message is not one text.
One group message is many texts
Send one message to a group of 20 and the phone network doesn't see one text — it sees twenty.
The group's number has to be registered
US carriers require every business-run number to be registered and approved before it can send a single text. We do that paperwork and keep yours in good standing.
Your plan is a bundle of those texts
One flat monthly price, with the group's registered number in it. Nothing per person, nothing per message, no other math.
Compare the month, not the message
Plenty of texting services advertise a price per message. A message there is one text arriving on one phone, so a post that reaches 40 people is charged as 40 messages, and fees for the number, photos or long messages can land on top. Our price is the whole month for the whole group, with nothing added, and the calculator below shows yours before you pay anything. To compare fairly, multiply any price per message out for your group, add its fees, and put the two months side by side.
What will it cost us?
What will it cost your group?
Drag the slider to the size of your group, then tap how busy the chat is. The plan that fits lights up.
You want the 2,500-text plan — $39/month.15 people × about 4 messages a day × 30 days ≈ 1,800 texts a month.
Every plan includes the group's own registered number, and refills every month.
- No business, no EIN, no paperwork. Your name and a card. The carrier registration a group number needs is ours to handle, not yours — we do it, and we pay for it.
- No overage charges, ever. Nothing is billed that you did not buy. Run out and the group simply pauses — unless you have switched auto-refill on yourself, which is the only way anything is ever added, and it stops at the monthly limit you set.
- Cancel any time. The group runs to the end of the month you paid for, and that is the end of it.
Every plan includes the group's own number. Running low? Add 1,000 texts for $14 at any time — added texts never expire. Groups over 120 people: contact us.
Anything else?
Questions people ask
How usage is counted, what members pay (nothing), what happens if a group runs out mid-month, and how anyone leaves.
Groups bigger than 120 people? Contact us. Anything else at all? Ask us — a real person answers.
Get your group texting again
One number, everyone included, and nobody asked to install anything. Set it up with your phone and a card — no business, no paperwork.
Cancel anytime. No overage charges, ever.