GroupMe changes ownership in the Windows Phone Marketplace with latest update

By Daniel Rubino
published

GroupMe

Here's one that will cause some confusion: there are now two GroupMe apps in the Marketplace. The first one is v3.0 which reported on back during Mobile World Congress. That's the version 3.0 overhaul that we really like as it includes a Live Tile, notifications and a complete UI redesign.

But it also had a few bugs and quirks as many of you had pointed out. Luckily, version 3.1 is now out and it reportedly fixes a lot of those issues. Problem is, you won't see the update notification for the Marketplace.

The reason? There is a second, newer GroupMe app in the Marketplace but it's listed under Microsoft Corporation. For those keeping track, Skype bought GroupMe in 2011. Microsoft bought Skype, so by the transitive property, Microsoft owns GroupMe. And we guess they are now claiming it as their own, re-releasing the official app under their account (in fairness, there's no other way for them to get around this issue, so two it is).

We imagine the first GroupMe (under that company's name and left at v3.0) will eventually be pulled, but for now we recommend you uninstall that app and go get the new one with the bug fixes and keep up to date.

Grab the new Microsoft GroupMe here in the Marketplace for free. Thanks, Adrian, for the heads up!

Daniel Rubino
Daniel Rubino
Editor-in-chief

Daniel Rubino is the Editor-in-chief of Windows Central, head reviewer, podcast co-host, and analyst. He has been here covering Microsoft since 2007 when this site was called WMExperts (and later Windows Phone Central). His interests include Windows, Microsoft Surface, laptops, next-gen computing, and for some reason, watches. Before all this tech stuff, he worked on a Ph.D. in linguistics and ran the projectors at movie theaters, which has done absolutely nothing for his career.

15 Comments
  • Thanks for the heads up. The Microsoft version is much better with the live tile notification as I test with my girlfriends HTC radar
  • so I guess when they say there's no way to do it, they really do mean it.
    It's probably a very small change to move an app from one account to anoter, I assumed it's just the legal issues and processes that are involved that no one wants to deal with. It's strange MS doesn't do it even for their own apps
  • Mmhmm
  • Ders is a problem m ain't gettin any confirmation sms...
  • You will have to see whether the network you are using is supported. Go to their desktop site & find out.
  • yeap i installed it last night. This change also made it available in new countries. i am in Greece and GroupMe was not available here before
  • Installed it, enter my phone number and never receive any pin, help anyone? :/
  • I don't get it. What is the difference between using this app and just using the group feature on Windows phone?
  • If your users are international, sending SMS gets very expensive. This uses data first (SMS if not available). It also has cross-platform support making it easier to get Android and iPhone users on board.
  • Also, GroupMe works more like a group chat, so that whenever anyone in the group replies it gets sent to everyone in the group, not jsut whoever texted them using a group from their phone.
  • I don't think native group chat works as expected between different platforms.
  • With native group messages your people can't talk to each other. With this its an actual group conversation
  • Thats not true. Native group messaging is supposed to work the same with everyone in the conversation receives every messgage sent. The problem is it just doesn't actually do it very well, which I assume is due to there being no standard around how carriers and devices handle them. 
  • Native chat works perfectly between my friends and I who have iPhones and Windows Phones. I use GroupMe because a few of the other guys are using Android and they cant get group messages in 1 thread. As long as MMS and group messages are allowed on iPhone and WP7, native chat works perfectly
  • You can now install this app in the UK