To not understand WhatsApp group chats?

I have several:

• a few for work (essential - rotas are posted there. The place wouldn't run without it
• a group chat for arranging Saturday morning coffee with friends
• one with my DCs - mainly for sharing funny stuff and arranging meet ups
• one for my health condition with others with the same condition

To add to the good work done by post-Covid neighbourhood/street whatsapp groups - one of our neighbours recently had a very serious accident. His DW is able to keep us all abreast of his progress without having to answer dozens of individual enquiries from concerned neighbours. We also use it for sharing info. about lost cats, missing parcels, power outages, pothole complaints procedures and local road closures. Invaluable - don't know how we coped before!

I'm not in a street one but have groups for pretty much everything else.

Work group
Work group for everyone except the boss
Uni friends group
Ex work colleagues group
2 school class groups
School governors group
Scouts group
About a dozen groups related to various political things I'm involved with.

I like that they are easy to use, set up, leave and free to share photos.

I'm in:
Close family.
Small group of people connected to my self employment work.
Half a dozen neighbours.

The neighbours one is friendly and supportive without being intrusive. Parcels taken in, surplus courgettes, that sort of thing.

I’m in loads of what’s app chats. This is how people communicate now. Some people don’t want to join them, that’s fine

I'm in none 😂 feeling left out now

The neighbourhood one is great for missing parcels, issues with entrance gates etc. it's not misused.

The issues with WhatsApp groups is when people start publishing irrelevant stuff. I'm not in any of those

We have one for our road. It’s handy for the people who have a rare condition that means they’re incapable of checking the council website to see what day the bins go out. Very occasionally it’s useful for letting each other know about roadworks and stuff.

I’m in one for my main group of friends, DH’s siblings and my cousins.

i find it moderately intrusive. Sometimes the friends one is a bit ott. For example, when one person was getting overly sentimental about Andy Murray.

DHs sibling one is a minefield. I’m on it because he didn’t initially have WhatsApp. I remain on it because he switched it off because of no filter babble and an open row between some siblings. I remain on to let him know of any important news of elderly relative

None. Never used it, and no plans to start.

I'm only in
Official work one
Work one with no managers
Netball

Our street WhatsApp is great. People borrow and lend things, do each other favours, get rid of things they don’t need, recommend services or tradesmen, make each other aware of anything dodgy (we had a broken man hole cover, a fallen tree and a dodgy guy trying car door handles one night).

Other than that, I’m in a family chat and one with my old school friends.

Our road WhatsApp was set up at the start of Covid, when it was used to support one another / help those who were isolating / to share things that were in short supply / etc and has grown into a lovely community of friendly neighbours. All sorts go on there, from the standard checking about the bins, to offering people spare tomato plants or plums off a tree, to the odd fundraiser (sponsorship or a coffee morning), to sharing footage from CCTV or ring doorbells when someone's car gets broken in to, to people asking for recommendations for trades, to borrowing things occasionally. It's great. If I moved to a road where there wasn't one, then I'd offer to set it up.

I'm in literally dozens of WhatsApp groups though. I was quite surprised in the thread last week about how few some people are in.

Childhood friends
In-laws
Family
Friends from playgroup
School year ds
Me and dds
Dh friends and partners
Zumba
Yoga
Dog walker
Book club
Mumsnet friends
Work

I’m in a book club one, one with the staff of my hairdresser because I manage their social media - people post photos of hair they’ve done so I can write copy and schedule posts - and one which is me, the salon owner, and the salon manager. We don’t have a street one but I do have specific neighbours who are friends and we have individual chats.

Work is all Teams, but my best work friend and I stick to WA for fear of getting sacked for our bad language and general insubordination!

We have a work group chat which is only used for people wishing each other a happy birthday. It's mine at the weekend and I'm dreading all the birthday messages from my colleagues

We had a street one for the Jubilee Street party and we kept it to organise a Christmas mince pie and mulled wine party, summer party etc.

I am not part of the work one. I only have one phone and don't want to be contacted for work related things when at home.

I have one for our running club to organise competitions, lifts etc, and we have one for the family, originally set up for my gran's care (more like for my mum and me to put updates on my gran's care while the rest did nothing but hey).

Street one
Can you put my bin out
Can you bring my bin in
Collect a parcel
Does anyone want any home grown - add vegetable

First dips on stuff people are getting rid off!

We had one guy who was a DIY expert people would post their DIY questions but he's moved - a great loss!

Ring doorbell footage - they are usually good!

Gardening questions

There was one instance where people were slagging off one neighbour but had forgotten he was actually in the group!

Lost cats

The list of who lives at what number that gets posted when someone new moves in is useful!

I love our Street WhatsApp!

I have work ones & friend ones too! And little groups set up to organise something - I don't know how I ran my life before what's app!

I'm just on two for my kid's sports teams.
We did have one for work but they've made their own internal message thing now.

I've never been on a street one, everyone around here just posts all the bins, lost cats and strange men stuff on the local Facebook Grumbler.

I haven't got any family ones, my kids and other family members use Snapchat and my parents still use FB messenger.

Is it really that difficult to understand why it might be needed?! Some recent topics on ours:

• who has which broadband provider
• apologies for parking/builders/noise whilst someone has their driveway done
• anyone seen the missing recycling bin
• does anyone have any cardboard boxes spare for a craft project
• missing a parcel - anyone seen
• dodgy person spotted
• anyone got any moving boxes
• would anyone mind putting the bins out whilst we're away
• going on hols and have loads of fresh food in fridge - does anyone want
• faulty street light, has anyone reported
• anyone got any double sided tape
• having a party/bbq, apologies for noise
• having a party/bbq, anyone want to come

Etc etc

Used pretty much daily

7 for work but they are only used during the work day to communicate with those people as things happen.

Me and my teens. I post important info about plans/times etc, son ignores it and daughter posts sarcastic memes 👍

Two for the kids clubs - goes mental on arranging days then it's quiet - and one friendship one which is sensibly quiet as we are all introverts.

I’m in multiple group chats with various groups of friends (some where there’s 3 of us, one up to 17) they are really useful for organising events (otherwise the back and forth between loads of different people would be agonising)… and also just for general chit chat and gossip.

In a work one, family one and yes- the local street one! The street one is great for finding lost parcels, lost cats, chit chat about road closures etc.

I like all of them, make my life easier for sure!

I’m in loads. Village one (like a street one as we are actually a small hamlet). Work (our business, only a total of 18 staff, really useful). Family (DH, me, both kids and their spouses). Extended family on each side. Girlfriend group. Best friend and her extended family group. People I know from being in school. (50 years of friendship) etc etc.

All are really useful ways of communicating with a group in one go.

I have a family one, a work one, one for an activity group/arrangements and one larger social one which is like local Google. You can always mute/archive them if you feel your phone is too busy.