Comparison

ABC Contacts vs Group SMS

Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.

Head to head
About

ABC Contacts

Manage your contacts with ease. Create, edit, and delete contacts and groups, send mass texts and emails, and organize your address book. Features include backups, birthday notifications, and sharing options.

Highlights
  • Create, edit, and delete contacts & groups
  • Send mass texts and group emails
  • Backup and restore contacts
  • Birthday and anniversary notifications
  • Share and export contacts
  • Organize contacts by company and favorites
Features
Read full description

ABC is the complete contact manager! With ABC, you can easily create, edit, and delete contacts & groups. Send mass texts and group emails. View recently created contacts. Share or print your contacts. Create backups. Get birthday notifications. And so much more: CONTACTS: • View all of your contacts organized by account or group • Easily find a contact with ABC's powerful search tool • Select multiple contacts and perform a number of actions including text, email, share, and delete • Quickly perform a number of functions with one touch directly from the contact card GROUPS: • Create groups of contacts from any account including iCloud, Google, Exchange or Outlook • Filter contacts by one or more groups at the same time • Add & remove contacts from a particular group • Add & remove groups from a particular contact FAVORITES: • Create a list of favorites allowing you to quickly call/message/email those contacts GROUP EMAILS & MESSAGES: • Send messages to groups via iMessage, SMS, & WhatsApp • Send emails to groups via Mail App or Gmail App • Attach photos & documents, including from Dropbox • Assign the to/cc/bcc email field to each contact individually • Give your message a personal touch - Automatically refer to each contact by name COMPANIES, BIRTHDAYS, ANNIVERSARIES, MOST VIEWED, RECENTLY CREATED/MODIFIED/DELETED: • Sort your contacts by company name • View upcoming birthdays & anniversaries • View your most frequently viewed contacts • View recently created & modified contacts • View & restore your recently deleted contacts SHARE CONTACTS: • Share one or more contacts via text message, email, or various other services • Export contacts in the CSV or vCard format DELETE CONTACTS & GROUPS: • Quickly delete contacts & groups BACKUP: • Create a backup of any contact account • Restore your backup to any contact account CLONE CONTACTS & GROUPS: • Clone a contact from the contact card screen including all contact fields & groups • Clone a group so you don't have to add all of the group members manually START SCREEN: • Specify whether the app should load the contacts, groups, or favorites screen at startup SHORTCUTS: • Press & hold a contact or group to conveniently perform a number of common functions SYNC CONTACTS WITH GOOGLE: • Fully compatible with the "Contacts Sync For Google Gmail" app so that you can sync your iPhone/iPad contact changes to Gmail WORKS WELL WITH OTHER CONTACT APPS: • Any contact changes you make with this app will be reflected in any other contact app that queries the iPhone address book (including the standard Contacts & Phone app) COMPATIBILITY: • Compatible with iPhone, iPad, iPod, iOS 15, iOS 16, iOS 17, iOS 18, iOS 26 LANGUAGES: • Translated into English, Spanish, French, German, & Italian SUBSCRIPTIONS: • ABC offers a "Premium" subscription which removes advertisements. • The "Premium" subscription is priced at $0.99 USD and the subscription length is 1 year • Payment will be charged to iTunes Account at confirmation of purchase • Subscription automatically renews unless auto-renew is turned off at least 24-hours before the end of the current period • Account will be charged for renewal within 24-hours prior to the end of the current period, at a cost of $0.99 USD • Subscriptions may be managed by the user and auto-renewal may be turned off by going to the user's Account Settings after purchase • Any unused portion of a free trial period, if offered, will be forfeited when the user purchases a subscription to that publication, where applicable • Terms of use: https://playaapps.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/360003030954 • Privacy Policy: https://playaapps.zendesk.com/hc/articles/229824667

About

Group SMS

Easily send personalized SMS messages to multiple contacts at once. Create custom lists, use templates with variables, and schedule messages for future delivery. Syncs across devices via iCloud.

Highlights
  • Personalized group SMS
  • Custom contact lists
  • Message templates with variables
  • Scheduled SMS sending
  • Send history log
  • iCloud sync across devices
Features
Read full description

Group SMS — One message, all your contacts. The fastest way to send personalized SMS messages to groups, distribution lists and contacts — right from your iPhone, through the Messages app you already use. --- GROUPS & LISTS --- Import your iPhone contacts into groups or build custom distribution lists from scratch. Add contacts manually or import thousands in seconds from a CSV file exported by Excel, Numbers or Google Sheets. Your address book stays untouched. In a group, the app spots contacts that share the same number so you can leave out the duplicates with one tap (Pro). --- SCAN CONTACTS FROM A PHOTO (PRO) --- Take a photo of a sign-up sheet or a printed list, or pick a screenshot: Group SMS reads names and phone numbers right on your iPhone. Check the list, fix any misread number with a tap and import only the contacts you select. --- MINI-CRM: LIST FIELDS (PRO) --- Every extra column in your CSV — amount, due date, plan, membership number — becomes a field of the list. Write a message to the list, tap the fields to insert them, and each customer receives their own values. A real preview shows exactly what every person will get, and the app warns you about contacts with missing values. Next month, re-import the updated file into the same list: contacts are updated, not duplicated. Select only who still has an amount due and send your reminder. --- TEMPLATES --- Save your most-used messages as templates and send them in one tap. With Pro, use {name}, {surname} and {phone} placeholders, with a default value when a detail is missing. Pro also includes a library of 15 ready-made messages for appointments, gyms and clubs, shops, notices and events. --- PERSONALIZED SENDING --- When a message contains variables, Group SMS opens one message per contact, already filled in with their details. You confirm each one with a tap; turn on auto-open and the next message opens by itself. Nobody sees the other recipients. --- ONE BY ONE OR IN BLOCKS --- One by one, the default: each recipient gets their own message, nobody sees the others and no group chat is created. You confirm every message with a tap. In blocks: up to 40 recipients per message, so fewer taps. If recipients use iMessage or RCS, iPhone turns it into a group conversation where everyone sees the others' numbers and replies: the app reminds you before every send in blocks. --- EXCLUDED NUMBERS (PRO) --- Add people who asked not to be contacted — manually, from your contacts or from a list. They are left out of every send automatically, even if your subscription ends. --- SCHEDULED SMS --- Plan one-off or recurring messages — daily, weekly or monthly. The app reminds you at exactly the right time and opens the message ready to send. --- SEND HISTORY --- Every send is logged automatically: see who received the message, and resend to the rest with one tap. --- ICLOUD SYNC --- Your groups, lists, templates and history sync across all your Apple devices via iCloud. --- PRO --- Upgrade to Group SMS Pro to send to every contact of your groups and lists (the free plan sends to the first 25), remove the “Sent with Group SMS” signature and unlock contact scanning, the template library, duplicate exclusion, list fields, excluded numbers, scheduled reminders, personalized templates, send history and iCloud sync. Group SMS never sends messages on its own: every SMS is sent by the iPhone Messages app after your confirmation. Group SMS is free to download. Group SMS Pro is optional: price and duration are shown in the app before you confirm any purchase. Subscriptions renew automatically unless cancelled at least 24 hours before the end of the period. Terms of Use (EULA): https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/

Screenshots

ABC Contacts4 screens
Group SMS4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is review sentiment: ABC Contacts at 87% against Group SMS's 25%. ABC Contacts also leads on rating (4.6 vs 3.5) and ratings volume (1.2K vs 4). Group SMS's advantage is ads (none vs shown) and update cadence (fortnightly vs every 2 months). On price, in-app purchases and monetization model there is nothing between them.

Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. ABC Contacts sells 4 in-app purchases, starting at $0.99 per year and Group SMS sells 4 in-app purchases, starting at $0.99 per month. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

ABC Contacts holds the better App Store score, 4.6 against 3.5. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: ABC Contacts has 1.2K ratings behind it against 4, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 87% of ABC Contacts's written reviews are positive against 25% of Group SMS's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

ABC Contacts ships an update every 2 months, Group SMS fortnightly. The most recent releases landed on October 26, 2026 and October 29, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard7 real differences · 3 level
ABC Contacts versus Group SMS: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterABC ContactsGroup SMS
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.6 (1.2K ratings) — better3.5 (4 ratings)
Positive reviews86.7% of reviews — better25.0% of reviews
Number of ratings1.2K — better4
Update frequencyEvery 2 monthsFortnightly — better
AdsYesNo — better
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFreemiumFree with in-app purchases
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPod — betteriPhone
Requires iOS15.0 — better17.0
Further details — not scored
Size19 MB7 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperPlaya AppsCarlo Di Giuseppe

Customer experience

ABC Contacts

All ratings1,244 ratings
Positive92.4%
Neutral3.9%
Negative3.8%
Written reviews444 reviews
Positive86.7%
Neutral5.6%
Negative7.7%

Group SMS

All ratings4 ratings
Positive50.0%
Neutral25.0%
Negative25.0%
Written reviews8 reviews
Positive25.0%
Neutral12.5%
Negative62.5%

In-app purchases

4 purchases

ABC Contacts

Subscriptions1
  • Premium (1 Year)$0.991 Year
One-time3
  • Premium (Lifetime Access)$1.99
  • Make Contribution$4.99
  • Larger Contribution$9.99
4 purchases

Group SMS

Subscriptions2
  • Group SMS Pro – Monthly$0.991 Month
  • Group SMS Pro – Yearly$9.991 Year
One-time2
  • Remove Banner$0.99
  • Group SMS Pro – Lifetime$29.99

Questions

Is ABC Contacts free?
ABC Contacts is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Group SMS free?
Group SMS is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, ABC Contacts or Group SMS?
ABC Contacts is rated higher. ABC Contacts averages 4.6 out of 5 from 1.2K ratings, while Group SMS averages 3.5 from 4 ratings.
Do ABC Contacts or Group SMS have ads?
ABC Contacts shows ads; Group SMS does not.
Which is updated more often, ABC Contacts or Group SMS?
ABC Contacts ships an update every 2 months, and Group SMS fortnightly. Most recently, ABC Contacts was updated on October 26, 2026 and Group SMS on October 29, 2026.

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