Is GroupMe safe to use?

GroupMe integrates 27 third-party SDKs spanning infrastructure, advertising, and analytics. It collects data linked to your identity including Contact Info, User Content, and Identifiers. It includes 3 advertising or attribution SDKs. Whether this is acceptable depends on your personal privacy preferences.

What permissions does GroupMe need?

GroupMe requests 6 iOS permissions: Camera, Microphone, Contacts, Photo Library, Location (When In Use), and Calendars.

What data does GroupMe collect?

According to its App Store privacy label, GroupMe collects data linked to your identity including Contact Info, User Content, and Identifiers. It collects Location, Contacts, Search History, Usage Data, and Diagnostics not linked to your identity.

How many SDKs does GroupMe have?

GroupMe integrates 27 third-party SDKs. 3 for advertising, 3 for analytics, 2 for social integration, 5 for infrastructure, and 10 for other.

Does GroupMe use Facebook tracking?

Yes. GroupMe includes 3 Facebook SDKs: Facebook AEM, Facebook SDK, and Facebook Login. These are used for ad measurement, attribution, and integration with Facebook's advertising platform (developers.facebook.com).

Does GroupMe access your location?

Yes. GroupMe requests location access. The developer states: "GroupMe uses your location to help find relevant groups near you.".

Does GroupMe access your camera or microphone?

GroupMe requests access to both your camera and microphone. The developer says camera access is for "GroupMe would like to access your camera to help you share pictures and videos in your chats and to scan QR codes". Microphone access is for "GroupMe needs access to your microphone to make and receive phone calls and record voice messages". These permissions are only active when you grant them in iOS Settings.

Does GroupMe access your contacts?

Yes. GroupMe requests access to your contacts. The developer states: "We will upload your contacts to GroupMe’s servers to easily connect you with your friends on GroupMe.".

Does GroupMe run in the background?

Yes. GroupMe registers 5 background modes, which means it can perform certain tasks when you're not actively using it.

What are some alternatives to GroupMe?

Other social networking apps include Yik Yak , 3F , AM , Backbone , BeReal. , and BiP . Each app takes a different approach to social networking and varies in its data collection and SDK usage.

Social Networking · Privacy report

GroupMe

Free · ★4.7 · Skype Communications S.a.r.l

Is GroupMe safe?

It leans heavily on third-party trackers.

Our take. GroupMe is built with more third-party tracking code than 52% of the social networking we have scanned.

Privacy footprint · vs 97 social networkingModerate

Trackers from other companies5 · some

typical social networking: 4

Data the app links to you3 types · little

typical social networking: 5 · from its own privacy label

What it collects about you

GroupMe links 3 categories of your data to you.

From the developer's own App Store privacy label. These are the kinds of data GroupMe ties to your identity.

Contact InfoUser ContentIdentifiers

Who else is inside

It carries trackers from 3 companies.

Third-party SDKs found in the app, matched to the company that publishes each. Present in the code; we do not observe what they transmit.

🇺🇸MetaAdvertising

Facebook advertising SDKs, built to link app activity to Facebook and Instagram ad profiles.

SDKs

🏢Analytics SDKAnalytics

A product analytics platform.

SDK

🏢Other third partiesanalytics

A third-party SDK.

SDK

How it compares

Where it sits among social networking.

Every one of these apps we have scanned, on the two measures above: third-party trackers it carries (across) and data it links to you on its own label (up). Toward the top right is more invasive.

Each dot is one social networking app. GroupMe sits to the right, carrying more third-party tracking than most.

The evidence

What it's built from.

All 27 SDKs in the app, grouped by what they are for. 5 are third-party trackers.

3advertising

2analytics

2push & messaging

20standard libraries

5 of the 27 are third-party trackers. 2 are push-notification SDKs that deliver notifications, rather than tracking you across apps. The rest are the app's own code and standard open-source building blocks.

Show the full SDK list

MetaAdvertising · USA

Facebook AEM · Facebook SDK · Facebook Login

Analytics SDKAnalytics

Mixpanel

Other third partiesanalytics

Statsig

Push & messaging2 · notifications

OneSignal · OneSignalLocation

Standard libraries20 · on-device

The app's own code plus open-source interface, storage and networking libraries.

How we know this

Counterspy downloads the app from the App Store and statically analyzes its compiled binary. Embedded SDKs are matched against a signature database and resolved to the company that operates each. We also read the developer's App Store privacy label, which lists the data the app says it collects and links to you. We do not run the app or intercept its traffic, so we report capabilities present in the code and the developer's own disclosures, not proven transmission. We assess privacy and data collection, not malware, security flaws, or developer intent. Reports are automated and never edited for payment. Scan v15.56.2, 2026-04-03.

Third-party trackers are advertising, analytics and attribution SDKs detected by static signature matching. Presence shows a capability is compiled in, not that it ran or transmitted data.
"Data the app links to you" is the count of data categories the developer declares as Data Linked To You in its App Store privacy label. Labels are self-reported and not verified by Apple.
Comparison across the 97 social networking in our corpus. Trackers: median 4. Data linked to you: median 5.