# Groupchat by Chatbooks — user reviews > 41 indexed App Store user reviews of Groupchat by Chatbooks by Chatbooks, Inc., rated 4.70/5 from 328 ratings. - Source: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/groupchat-by-chatbooks/id1628911774/reviews - App overview in markdown: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/groupchat-by-chatbooks/id1628911774.md - Rating breakdown: 5★ 285 · 4★ 18 · 3★ 9 · 2★ 1 · 1★ 15 ## What do users think of Groupchat by Chatbooks? Overall sentiment: mixed **Pros** - 👍 Great for family messaging - 💡 Unique "rooms" feature - 👍 Easy to invite family - 👍 High-resolution image sharing - 👍 Seamless cross-platform sharing - 👍 Useful event feature - 👍 Good for large families - 👍 Better than GroupMe - 👍 Works well on tablets/macOS **Cons** - 🐛 App crashes frequently - 🐛 Login issues - 🐛 Inconsistent performance - 🐛 Confusing navigation - 🐛 Poor branding/name change - 🐛 Privacy concerns (phone number required) - 🐛 Difficulty finding app in store - 🐛 Ugly/awkward new UI - 🐛 Lost functionality after updates **Commonly reported bugs** - Unable to send pictures - Family members not showing up - Spinning circle on login - Room not showing up after creation - Error message when creating duplicate room - Unable to open specific rooms after update - App not working on iPhone - Shows new posts that aren't there - Mark all as read button not working - Report a bug feature not working - App crashes on launch (macOS) - Unable to get past verification code - New update makes interface awkward/ugly - Doesn't open to rooms tab - Taking away reactions - Annoying reply/reaction notification **Most requested features** - Admin option to manage groups - Ability to add/remove members from groups - Search icon for rooms and content - Ability to lock rooms directly - Multiple "fam menus" for different groups - Ability to delete rooms (not just archive) - Create polls within groups - Ability to change group icons/colors - Read receipt functionality - Support for video messages - Dark mode option ## Newest reviews (10 of 41) ### 4/5 — Overall good *2026-01-25, version 3.3.1* I wish it was possible to add or remove someone from a group. Currently, only the individual can do that. There’s not an admin option to manage the group. ### 3/5 — Has been great *2025-01-20, version 3.2.6* This has been the best app to keep up with multiple conversations at once. The last few months though, I haven’t been able to send pictures. Please six this and I’ll update my rating to 5 stars! ### 3/5 — No way to troubleshoot *2024-06-24* This all is great! All kind of different conversations can go on at once and nothing gets lost in the thread. The complaint I have is lack of troubleshooting. I crated several custom rooms and they were working just fine. I went in later to add an additional room. I went through all the steps and it finished like it did with all the others, only the room doesn’t show up on the screen. Thinking I had done something wrong, I went in to try again. But when I clicked to create it, I got an error message saying I already had a room with that name. But it’s nowhere to be found! ### 5/5 — Much better than GroupMe! *2024-05-10, version 3.1.0* Definitely some bugs and features that could be improved, but it’s a great messaging system for groups. I love that you can send pictures from the app to your chatbook!! It was so easy to make my mom a photo book for mothers day with pictures our whole family sent throughout the year. (My personal opinion: maybe rename to HeyGroup or something so schools and clubs are more inclined to try it?? I wanted to use this for a school group because it’s better than GroupMe but the name was throwing people off) ### 5/5 — Yay! working again on mac!! *2024-01-30, version 3.0.2* Glad this is working again ### 3/5 — Was better before the update *2024-01-30, version 3.0.2* The newest update makes me want to use another app. I don’t understand the need for the “home feed” when we already have dedicated rooms to such convos. Taking away reactions as well has been frustrating- not everyone uses chat books and wants to send photos there. We just want to react! The replies/reaction notification on the top is also annoying- I do not want to click through each notification to make the red dot go away. Please oh please fix these things. ### 3/5 — Latest release is… not off to a great start *2023-12-21* On the Replies and Reactions page, the ‘mark all as read’ button isn’t working. Ironically, when I went to go report it, I discovered the ‘report a bug’ feature is also not working, thus I’m posting about it here. I’m sure there are many more things I’ll discover, but my last piece of feedback for now is that by changing the app icon to green, it’s now much more difficult to find, especially because in the iOS App Library, there are already 3 green apps in the Social category that are standard on an iPhone, which doesn’t include the multiple other green Social apps I also have downloaded. Now, when I want to find HeyFam, it takes a couple extra seconds of looking at the cluster of nearly indistinguishable green app icons to find which one is HeyFam. Not a fan. ### 4/5 — Really great! *2023-11-02, version 2.6.1* We moved our family GroupMe to HeyFam and we love it. I love that we can have separate rooms and even private rooms. We use this function when we are trying to plan something special for someone in the main group but we want it to be a surprise. We have separate rooms for reunion planning and Wordle. It’s just fun to have what feels like a gathering area for our family! A few things I would love to see is: 1- the ability to actually delete a room, not just archive it. We had accidentally created two rooms for the same thing and would love to be able to completely delete it. I really like the ability to archive, just add the delete as well. 2- add the ability to create polls. A lot of times we are planning family functions and want to get everyone’s opinion between several different choices. We would love to be able to create a poll within the group room. 3- the ability to change the icon for the group. I have two different family groups, both last names start with “H”, so I have to “H”’s at the top and no way to differentiate. Would love to be able to customize at least the color if not more. ### 1/5 — cant use *2023-10-10, version 2.6.1* I would love to know if I like the app… I made a fam and selected rooms but then none of my rooms showed up. I deleted the fam to try again and now when I open the app its a black screen with a spinning loading symbol. I have uninstalled and reinstalled the app 3 times and can’t get passed the verification code after entering my phone number. ### 1/5 — Crash *2023-09-22* Unfortunately no longer loads on mac. crashs on launch. Updated:7/25/23 still will not load. crashes on launch Updated: 9/22/23 still will not load. crashes on launch ## Most critical reviews (10 lowest-rated) ### 1/5 — STOP CHANGING THINGS *2026-06-17, version 3.5.1* Please for the love of all that is good and holy in this world CHANGE YOUR NAME BACK TO HEYFAM. YOU DO NOT UNDERSTAND THE AMOUNT OF CONFUSION YOU ARE CREATING FOR MY ELDERLY PARENTS AND FAMILY MEMBERS. Why would you think that changing your name to something that is a word that people use literally all the time for multiple apps would be a good thing?? Your app doesn’t even show up in the App Store when I search “Groupchat” because it’s such an oversaturated SEO term used by EVERY OTHER MESSAGING APP. Easily one of the worst branding decisions I’ve seen in recent history. Including Elon renaming Twitter to X. ### 1/5 — Trash website *2025-07-18, version 3.2.8* This is the worst app I have ever used, it should be banned ### 1/5 — Couldn’t sign up without a phone number, even though it says you can *2025-04-16, version 3.2.8* Privacy matters to me, and this app doesn’t appear to respect that. It shares contact info and turns on third-party marketing by default. I didn’t want to give them my phone number, but even though it says you can sign up with just email, that didn’t work. The “magic link” never opened the app like it’s supposed to, so I couldn’t finish signing up. My phone number is tied to my business, and I’m not going to risk handing it over when basic privacy isn’t respected. ### 1/5 — Disappointed *2024-08-12, version 3.2.3* So I heard amazing things about this app and 5 hours later we’re still getting links to our emails and clicking them and then crickets, I don’t know maybe I’m missing a step but I’ve received ove 55 links and none work we’re all stuck at the enter your email page maybe you guys can help me out with a work around 😅 ### 1/5 — No way to troubleshoot *2024-06-27* This all is great! All kind of different conversations can go on at once and nothing gets lost in the thread. The complaint I have is lack of troubleshooting. I crated several custom rooms and they were working just fine. I went in later to add an additional room. I went through all the steps and it finished like it did with all the others, only the room doesn’t show up on the screen. Thinking I had done something wrong, I went in to try again. But when I clicked to create it, I got an error message saying I already had a room with that name. But it’s nowhere to be found! Edit —— Family member were not showing up. They were able to post but not be identified. I signed out and tried to sign in again. Now I just have a spinning circle! This app is broken! I will gladly give it 5 stars if I could use it. ### 1/5 — Update *2024-06-15, version 3.2.0* Not happy with the update. I have 2 rooms HOSPITAL and FAMILY and I am unable to open the hospital room anymore. ### 1/5 — Issues with app *2024-03-09, version 3.0.2* I have an iPhone and this app is not working right at all. It shows I joined my family, but then if I close it, it shows I’m not part of a family and won’t let me past that screen. 2 of my family member’s says it’s working for them. 1 has an iPhone and the other an android. They can see where I joined but I either get blank screens or has me enter my email then my phone number and can’t get any further. I tried using a QR code to get in and it still is not working. Deleting app and looking for something we can all use. ### 1/5 — Irritating Functionality *2024-02-17, version 3.0.2* Constantly shows me that there are new posts on my banner, but when I go into the app, the new posts aren’t there. Randomly shows me what’s new over and over even though no update has come in. This app is poor. ### 1/5 — App keeps getting worse *2023-12-23, version 3.0.1* While HeyFam started off as a great app, each release makes it more buggy and more complicated to use. This latest release has us absolutely scratching our heads. Most of our family can’t reply to threads, some of us can’t send photos, and none of us can report bugs. The navigation and structure of the app is confusing and unintuitive. The app icon went from being unique and cool to blending in with every other iOS communication app. What was once a great chat app that I recommended to everyone has become buggy, complicated, and nearly unusable. I wouldn’t recommend this app anymore until these issues get fixed. ### 1/5 — Crashes on launch *2023-10-13* Unfortunately no longer loads on mac. crashs on launch. Updated:7/25/23 still will not load. crashes on launch Updated: 9/22/23 still will not load. crashes on launch Updated: 10/13/23 still will not load. crashes on launch ## Most praised reviews (10 highest-rated) ### 5/5 — Great family app *2026-03-31, version 3.3.1* The best family/memory centric app I’ve used to create different rooms to discuss different topics, share funny pictures, cute videos of kids, and so much more. Highly recommend! ### 5/5 — Great app! *2026-03-09, version 3.3.1* Fills a niche needed for families too big for a group chat but who still want to stay close ### 5/5 — Great for family messaging *2026-03-06, version 3.3.1* Love this app, use it for group message with my family! Miss when they were updating it more/use native writing. It had fewer bugs and was better. ### 5/5 — Best App for family messaging! *2025-12-03, version 3.3.1* The app is easy to use, family friendly and best of all it’s easy to invite your family to join. I love the event feature, the separate channels that can be made “rooms”, and the notification options. Highly recommended from our fam to yours. ### 5/5 — The Best Messaging Fam App! *2025-12-01* The whole famdamily is on this app and we love it! Invite everyone! If some in the fam are a little less social during the day and need to be heads down they can modify notifications. Got that aunt that wants to send pics and emojis all day long she will love it because the image sharing is hi res and easy. Have a suprise party you are planning you can create a private room and invite the party planners to go all out. The family has a lot of events. This app allows you to easily create an event, share and add to the calendar. Now everyone is in the loop. The family convo is continuing and it took 1 link and 1 text to share the app with the whole family! HeyFam 👋 is awesome. 👏 Nicely done Chatbooks! ### 5/5 — Love *2024-09-12, version 3.2.4* I am loving this. I have six children three of which live out of state and there were lots of texts going around in text thread and they kept on changing and it was kind of crazy and I found this app and we started using it and I absolutely love it. ### 5/5 — Hey Fam is Awesome *2024-09-11, version 3.2.4* Thanks for putting together a most amazing app. I love the fact that you can have different rooms. It’s a wonderful tool to keep our family in touch!!! ### 5/5 — Updates🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻 *2024-08-17, version 3.2.3* I’m Love this app Please can you put a search icon to find the rooms and to find any information in the room (When the room is locked, just the name of the room or just the Emoji) And also for us to lock any room straight from your room, you don’t need to delete it to be able to Lock it and erase everything. Also let us make several different fam menus so you can have personal fam, your fam, your significant others fam, friends fam an so much more. All free Thank You ### 5/5 — Updates🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻 *2024-08-13* I’m Love this app Please can you put a search icon to find the rooms and to find any information in the room (When the room is locked, just the name of the room or just the Emoji) And also for us to lock any room straight from your room, you don’t need to delete it to be able to Lock it and erase everything. Thank You ### 5/5 — No way to troubleshoot *2024-06-28* Edit —— 6/28/24 - the app has been fixed for now. I’m giving it a 5 star rating as long as it’s working as it should. Edit —— Family member were not showing up. They were able to post but not be identified. I signed out and tried to sign in again. Now I just have a spinning circle! This app is broken! I will gladly give it 5 stars if I could use it. This all is great! All kind of different conversations can go on at once and nothing gets lost in the thread. The complaint I have is lack of troubleshooting. I crated several custom rooms and they were working just fine. I went in later to add an additional room. I went through all the steps and it finished like it did with all the others, only the room doesn’t show up on the screen. Thinking I had done something wrong, I went in to try again. But when I clicked to create it, I got an error message saying I already had a room with that name. But it’s nowhere to be found! **Developer response:** Hey, Becky! We've been in contact with you through email and appreciate your feedback as we continue to better this app! We're hopeful the latest updates from our Dev team will have solved these issues. --- *Data collected daily from the US App Store and indexed by [AppsHunter](https://appshunter.io/). User reviews are verbatim App Store reviews. Ratings, prices and chart positions refresh continuously; this snapshot is from 2026-09-07.*