Is There an App to Analyze a GroupMe Chat for Abuse or Harassment?
Reviewed by Jacob Reed, founder of Verity ·
Short answer
GroupMe can export your messages, but only from its website: sign in at web.groupme.com, click your profile picture, choose Export my data and create an export. It arrives as one or more zip files; the messages are in the first one, the rest hold photos. Verity opens the zip in your browser without uploading it, lists every chat and group, leaves out GroupMe's own notices and deleted messages, and flags patterns such as threats, gaslighting and blame-shifting. In a group, you pick whose messages to read.
GroupMe is often where families, teams and co-parents talk in groups, which makes one person's messages hard to follow by scrolling. The export keeps every message with its sender and time.
Step 1: export your messages
- Go to web.groupme.com on a computer and sign in. The export is not in the phone app.
- Click your profile picture, choose Export my data, then Create export.
- Tick the groups and direct messages you want, and export.
- When it is ready, go back to Export my data and download it. A large account comes as several zip files (00001.zip, 00002.zip and so on); download all of them.
Full steps, and what the export records: how to export GroupMe messages.
Step 2: read one chat for patterns
Drop the zip files into Verity together, or just the first one. It finds the messages, ignores the zips that hold only photos, and lists every chat and group. It tells people apart by their account rather than their nickname, so someone who changed their name is still one person, and it marks you as you from your own profile. Pick a chat, and it:
- Leaves out the noise: GroupMe's notices about people joining or names changing, deleted messages, and photo-only messages.
- Flags patterns, such as threats, gaslighting, blame-shifting, contempt, demands for replies and floods of messages, each shown with the messages around it. In a group, it reads the person you choose.
- Numbers every message in date order, to read on screen for free or print as one PDF.
What to check before you upload a GroupMe export
- Where it goes. The export holds every group you ticked, including other people's messages. Prefer a tool that reads it on your own device; you can test that by turning the internet off after the page loads (how).
- Whether dates and senders survive, so every flagged message can be found again in the original.
- Your safety. If someone can see your computer, use a private window and delete the zips from your downloads when you are done.
What a pattern check can't do
It reads words and timing. It can flag a joke as an insult, miss cruelty that is politely worded, and it can't say what anyone meant or whether a court will rely on it. Polls and calendar events in GroupMe are not read. Our methodology page sets out what Verity measured and where it falls short.
Where does Verity fit?
The free preview shows the patterns found and one flagged message in full, and lets you read every message on screen, numbered in date order. Paid options are one-time: every message numbered in date order ($19), or a report quoting the flagged messages with their dates, grouped by pattern ($99 Standard, $149 Detailed). For other apps, see the guides for WhatsApp, Messenger and Instagram DMs.
This is general information, not legal advice. We make Verity, so weigh what we say about it accordingly. GroupMe is not affiliated with Verity. If you are in danger, call 911; the National Domestic Violence Hotline is 1-800-799-7233.
Check a GroupMe chat free
Try the sample first, or drop in your export. It is read in your browser and is not uploaded.