How to create a contact group on your iPhone, and use it to message a specific cluster of people at once
- Making a contact group on your iPhone will let you send an email to multiple people at once.
- To create a Group, you need to use iCloud, since Apple doesn't give you the ability to make Groups on the iPhone alone. You can also install a third-party app if you prefer.
- You can always return to iCloud to add and remove contacts from the Group, or even rename it.
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If you send a lot of email, contact groups can come in handy because they let you send an email message to multiple people - friends or co-workers - at once. You can create as many of these Groups as you need, store them on your iPhone, and add them to the To: line in an email message with whatever short name you've given the Group.
It's convenient, but Apple has also made the function hard to discover, since you need to use iCloud to create and manage your Groups.
That said, there are third-party apps which allow you to make Groups on your phone, without relying on iCloud. A popular app that lets you make Groups in this way is called, simply enough, Groups. You can install and use it to make Groups if you prefer.
How to make a contact group using iCloud
1. Open iCloud.com in a web browser. You might need to log in with your Apple ID.
2. Click Contacts.
3. On the iCloud Contacts page, click the plus sign in the bottom left of the page, in the iCloud Contacts pane. In the window that pops up, click "New Group."
4. You should see "Untitled Group" appear. Replace that placeholder name with any name of your choice.
5. Click "All Contacts" at the top of the iCloud Contacts pane so you can see all of your contacts.
6. Drag all the contacts you want over the new Group you just created.
That's all there is to it - the Group is created and synced with your iPhone automatically, so you can start using it immediately. And you can always return to iCloud to add and remove contacts from your Group.
How to use a contact group on the iPhone
You can include a Group in an email message in exactly the same way as you'd include ordinary contacts.
1. Open the Mail app.
2. Tap the New Email button in the lower right corner of the window.
3. In the To: field, type the name of the Group. You should see it appear in the list of results, identified as a Group. Tap it.
4. Finish composing and sending your email as you ordinarily would.
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