Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Phones
  3. Apple
  4. Mobile
  5. How tos

How to make a contact group on an iPhone to message multiple people

Add as a preferred source on Google
Close-up of the cameras on the iPhone 15 Pro Max.
Joe Maring / Digital Trends

iPhone has a bunch of cool features, but few are as useful as contact groups. As of iOS 16, Apple lets you pool contacts together into groups, making it easy to spam out messages to family, friends, or colleagues without needing to tinker with a bunch of clunky settings. You don't even need any extra software or apps – as long as you're running iOS 16 or later, you can quickly make a contact group on your iPhone.

Difficulty

Moderate

Duration

15 minutes

What You Need

  • An iPhone

  • An iCloud account

In this guide, we'll show you exactly how to create a contact group on your iPhone, how to send messages to that group, and how to remove contacts or delete groups from your phone.

How to create a contact group on your iPhone

When you create a new contact group, you can add as many contacts as you want. And the steps for doing so are as follows:

Step 1: On the iPhone home screen, tap on the Contacts app. You can also get there by tapping on the Phone app, then selecting Contacts at the bottom.

Open the Contacts app on your iPhone Home screen
Image used with permission by copyright holder

Step 2: Tap Lists at the top left.

Adding contacts to a list in the Contacts app
Image used with permission by copyright holder

Step 3: Next, tap Add List at the top right.

Name your new list in the Contacts app
Image used with permission by copyright holder

Step 4: In the newly formed box, type the List Name. Tap Add List at the top right.

Add contacts to a Contacts group
Image used with permission by copyright holder

Step 5: On the Lists page, choose the list you just created. Tap Add Contacts. Choose every contact you wish to add to the list. When finished, tap Done at the top right.

How to send a message to your contact group

With your contact group created, you're now ready to send messages to your group. Here's how it works:

Step 1: Go back into the Lists page in the Contacts app, then long press the list you just created.

Prepare to message everyone in a group
Image used with permission by copyright holder

Step 2: Choose Message All. Send a message to the group as you would any other message.

How to remove a contact from your group

The time may come when you want to remove someone from your group. Should the need arise, doing so is quite simple:

Step 1: To get started, go into the Contacts app, then select the list you created above.

Remove a contact from a group
Image used with permission by copyright holder

Step 2: Swipe left on the contact you wish to remove and tap Remove. Your contact has been permanently removed from your group.

How to delete a contact group on your iPhone

Similarly, you can also delete the entire contact group if it's no longer needed.

Step 1: To get started, go into the Contacts app, then choose the List page.

Delete a contacts group in the Contacts app
Image used with permission by copyright holder

Step 2: Tap Edit at the top left.

Step 3: Tap the red icon to the left of the list you wish to delete.

Step 4: Tap the red garbage icon to delete the list. Your list is now deleted.

There are a lot of unique things you can do with the Messages app on your iPhone and iPad. In iOS 17, there's even more, such as creating your own iMessage stickers. You can also edit and unsend messages, along with the option to filter unknown senders. Managing your contacts and messages can be a pain, but if you know how to take control of the settings at your disposal, it doesn't have to be.

Bryan M. Wolfe
Former Mobile and A/V Freelancer
Bryan M. Wolfe has over a decade of experience as a technology writer. He writes about mobile.
OnePlus is gone, and Android phones just became more boring in the US
OnePlus 13 vs OnePlus 11.

I wasn't expecting a smartphone brand's exit to hit me this hard, but OnePlus leaving the US and Europe genuinely did. The company has already confirmed that it will no longer launch new products in either market, although existing customers will continue receiving software updates and after-sales support. So while OnePlus isn’t disappearing altogether, it is walking away from two of the biggest smartphone markets in the world.

To be honest, the Android market in the US already feels limited. If you’re shopping for a flagship, your realistic choices almost always begin with Samsung and end with Google. OnePlus was one of the very few brands sitting in between, offering something that didn’t quite look or feel like everything else. And that’s exactly what I’m going to miss.

Read more
A niche iPhone browser quietly fixes my biggest problem with Google Search
Quiche Browser open on iPhone

If there's a new browser, email app, or note-taking app to try, chances are I've already installed it. Like every other productivity nerd, I'm always chasing the perfect setup. That's how I stumbled upon Quiche Browser. It was already close to replacing the Arc Search for me on the iPhone, but its latest update finally pushed it over the edge, earning it a spot as my default browser.

What makes Quiche so good

Read more
Google has to play fair with AI rivals on Android, and that could be good news for your wallet
A new ruling strips Gemini of its exclusive access to deep Android integration, opening the door for cheaper AI models to offer similar functionality for less.
A person using Google Gemini on the Google Pixel 9a.

After forcing Google to open up Android to third-party app stores, the EU is back with a new target, and this time it's Gemini's home-field advantage. The European Commission ordered Google on July 16 to give rival AI apps the same deep access to Android that's currently exclusive to Gemini. The order falls under the EU's Digital Markets Act (DMA), and it directs Google to stop treating its own assistant as a first-class citizen on a platform it controls.

What Google now has to hand over

Read more