IPhone Group Texting

Reader Mark Ritter would like to spread the word from his iPhone more efficiently. He writes:

How can I create a group or send text to multiple recipients easily on an iPhone? Currently, I have to pick each recipient individually. I have over 30 people to send to sometimes.

Unfortunately you can't use the groups in the iPhone's Contacts area for sending a single message to multiple recipients. Instead, as you've discovered, to send one message to many you must tap in the To field of a new text message, tap the Plus icon, choose a contact, and, if that contact has more than one phone number listed in their Info screen, choose the phone number you want to use. To add the next recipient, tap the To field again, tap the Plus icon again, and... repeat.

Not very efficient. Note, however, that once you've created one such message, you can later text all the recipients in that list again without going through this rigmarole. All you need to do is to find the original message you sent to the group within the Text Messages screen (here's hoping you haven't deleted it), and tap in the Send field to create your message. When you tap Send, the message will be sent to all those recipients. Essentially it's like you're carrying on the same conversation, though it may be days or weeks later.