Known issues with Text-A-Group v2.0.0
- When adding a contact to a group, if the contact does not have the first name or surname field populated, the application will display “(null)” for the field which isn’t populated.
- Upgrade button on help screen doesn’t work.
- Contact images can become merged with others when scrolling large groups.
All of the above issues have been fixed in v2.0.1 (currently awaiting Apple approval). Apologies for any issues caused.
Known issues with Text-A-Group v1.0.0
- When adding a contact to a group, if the contact does not have the first name or surname field populated, the application will display “(null)” for the field which isn’t populated. This has been fixed in v1.0.1. Apologies for any issues caused.
Garry Whitten's Blog 
When adding a contact even with first and last names occasionally I still get an entry of null instead of the phone number. Help?!
Hi Neil,
Thanks for your comment. Can you clarify which field the null appears in? You mention first and last name and also the phone number. Is there any specific contact that it does it on? Ie is there a pattern to it? Anything you can provide to help me investigate the issue would be much appreciated. Also can you confirm you have the latest version.
Thanks,
Garry
I can add lots of contacts like its suppose to let you but when it comes to sending the group message it the screen goes black and won’t load it has loaded a couple of times and when you send a message it says sent but no message has been sent ? The app just dosnt work? Can I have a refund please?
Hi Dean,
Sorry to hear that you’re having issues. The app is being used by many people who have not had the issues that you report. Once you select a group, the application passes the contact details to the iOS messaging app to send the actual message. Once you hit send, this is iOS messages. If the text is created and the list of contacts displayed then the app is working as designed. The app has been tested on iOS 5, 6 & 7. If you’re still having issues then you are more than welcome to contact Apple support for a refund using their refund process. Developers have no ability to provide refunds directly.
Thanks,
Garry
I’ve got iPhone 5 with ios7 and using v2.0.0 of text a group. The null for forename problem is back when I add new contacts to my existing group (setting up group worked fine previously for contacts that had no forename).
Also, I’ve also got a contact I’m trying to add and the number is coming up null (obviously has a number in the contact details) but is not being added to the group.
Think this has just started happening since last update.
Also, I have a picture for the contact who is 5th of 20 contacts. This picture has been copied to the 10th, 15th and 20th contact so there is an initialisation problem when viewing the group.
I’ve looked at this today and it seems that the image background is shown from the previous image with the no contact icon over the top. Is that the case or do you have the complete image? Does the contact who’s photo is replaced have an image?
Hi John,
I have submitted a new version to Apple for approval. This new version fixes the issue with (null) in first name or surname fields, adds support for the company name and also addresses the image overlap issue that you reported. The update should be available next week at some point as it takes a few days for Apple to review.
Thanks for notifying me of the issues.
Hi John. I’ve fixed the null issue for the name. Just waiting for Apple to approve the update. In terms of a null number. I haven’t seen this. Can you give me the format of the number or how it’s displayed in the contact so I can investigate. Thx.
I thought about the format so I tried it both ways.
07 and +44 7
The difference with this contact was a new mobile number. I deleted the contact from the group, changed the number then tried to re-add to the group. The number always comes up null.
Ok thx for that. What’s the attribute name next to the number? iPhone, mobile or something else? Is this the only contact with an issue? Could you try duplicating the contact by creating a new contact with just the number and see if that contact has an issue also?
The attr is mobile. I created a new contact and added the mobile, then added to group and number now appears. So it doesn’t seem to like changing the contact details then re-adding to group.
Exact contact change was old number under mobile attr. Added another mobile attr with new number. I think I tried to add the new number to the group. This didn’t work so I went to edit the contact and deleted the old mobile number. Tried to add again but still didn’t work.
Ok so it’s working on a new contact so maybe something isn’t quite right on the old contact. The app seems Apples contact API so I don’t have any control of this type of issue. It’s a strange one.
Hi Gary,
I have recently added a the group App to my Iphone, I have added more than 5 members of a group to which I was prompted i would need the upgraded version… I accepted the charge as prompted to which i have paid but still have no upgrade of the App on my phone…
Can you point me in the right direction of how to rectify this.
Hi Nick,
Thank you for downloading and paying for the upgraded version!
If the transaction completed successfully then you can try the Restore purchase button in the Help tab. If that button isn’t available then the purchase was successful. If Restore purchase doesn’t work then it may be the transaction didn’t complete correctly. In this case you can use the upgrade button and complete the transaction again.
Apple won’t allow you to be charged for this in-app purchase twice and you will get a notification to say that you’ve already purchased and would you like to download the content again. Say yes to this and all should work fine.
Let me know how you get on. Thanks again,
Garry
Hope support is still being offered because the posts above are all at least four years old.
Running iOS on an iPhone 6 and I am having problems with group messages not being sent to all members in my group of 63. It appears the ones not receiving the message may be mostly users with Android devices. Are we supposed to disable iMessages in Setup before sending group text messages? I tried that today after a failed message and it appears that may have worked. You are about the 4th or 5th app I have tried for group texting and I have had similar problems with all of them.
Hi Eric, sorry to hear this. On iOS the only way to send messages is via the built in iOS message app. What the Text-A-Group app does is build and pass the distribution list to the messages app. I’ve not seen this issue on the groups I have with mixed users but they are around 10-20 users. Not as much as your 63. Do you get the same issue with iMessage on and manually adding the 63? I believe in this case it will probably switch to iMessage off automatically. Maybe this just takes some time with a large list?
It’s strange. When I first sent the message this morning all the recipients were listed in “blue” print which I believe means it is going out as an iMessage. When several Android users complained they didn’t get it, I tried a trick I learned from another app which is to shut off iMessages and Group Messaging in settings. After doing this and loading the message, the recipient list showed in “green” print and it appears everyone may have received it. At least I heard from a few that didn’t get the first one saying they got the second.
I believe iMessage was on when the group list was built and saved. Are you suggesting that I may need to load the entire list manually each time I want to send a message?
Thank you.
Hi Eric, so I think there could be something affecting the list, such as one of the settings you mentioned. I have iMessage turned on and use SMS when iMessage not available turned on too. For me I see an all green list (SMS as you correctly pointed out). The other thing to check (which could be forcing it down the iMessage route) is that you have all phone numbers added. It’s possible to add emails (Apple IDs) and send an iMessage to them.
You don’t need to manually add them each time. I was looking for you to try it as a test (for a few – not all 63) to see if it tries to do the same.
I will verify that each recipient is entered as a phone number and not an email addy and get back to you. Thank you.
No worries. If not (worst case) you can just turn off iMessage before you send to the group and then pop it back on after. Not ideal but I’m not able to change the iOS messaging settings ☹️
One more thing I forgot to mention. It appears your “Support” link on Apple’s App Store app is broken. When I click on it takes me to a generic dead link page. I found this thanks to Google.
Ok – I’ll check that out. Thx for letting me know.
Garry, I have verified that all recipients are entereds as a telephone number and not an email but I am still having problems with the list coming up in “blue” as an iMessage. If I edit the email recipient list, either adding or deleting a member, then the list comes up “green” as a SAS.
Ok so it sounds like it is taking some time to verify the list. As it’s the iOS message app and part of the OS it’s hard for me to change / debug this. Mine always defaults to green.