Both currently have issues.

JOIN: Join is quite buggy at the time. Sometimes you can join, others you cannot, haven't found a pattern yet or even a workaround. What DOES work, if you have to contacts named exactly the same they should auto-join.. eventually.

GROUPS: No easy way to do individual groups within contacts itself (other than star, or recent contacts). However, there are apps on the market that give some grouping functionality to your phone. (I'd recommend Contacts GroupU)

 

I have yet to figure out how to do it from my cell yet but if it that important to you can do it on the gmail account on line very easily and it will sync to your phone if your setting allow.

 

Didn't play with it too much. It forced closed when I try to remove from a group. Eventually it worked. other than that I'm sure there are some minor issues, but I'd probably go with it over nothing. I'll play aroudn with it and let you know when I get a chance.

 

I haven't worked with this, BUT it should sync on its own. If not open contacts, menu, accounts, clikc ur gmail acount, menu again and then force the sync.

As for texting the group, the easiest way is to use handcent texting app. You can compose a message and add the group (not available in default program). As for viewing the group in your contacts, menu display, uncheck everything except for the desired group. a bit of a pain.

 

Everything has to be done within the app itself. Open a group, select all, then click text. For me it open up handcent (in an existing thread, ERROR HERE) with the list of people it is going to at the top. However it does seem to send to that list. So kinda weird but it does work. I'm not sure what your question is exactly. Does this answer?

 

Contacts GoupU is working for me (I used it w/Handcent).

I created my groups, put my contacts into them, and then in Handcent when I go to Compose I hit the + button next to the address field and all my groups are listed....looks very cool.

But, when I sent a test text to a group with two people in it, only the first address got the text. The second text shows up in handcent as trying to be sent (progress circle-thingy) but it didn't appear to finish. However, when I checked the text got sent to both phones properly. So it does work...

 

Never used chomp, but from what I hear yes.

Personally I am a fan of handcent, does everything I need plus a highly customizable interface if you want to go there too.

 

i agree i love handscent

 

Interested to hear if anyone else experiences what I did when sending to a Contacts GroupU group from Handcent...that the last address keeps showing like it's in progress (doesn't seem to finish) but the SMS is received by all the numbers in the group.