Most WhatsApp lists are built by hand: someone collects numbers on a clipboard or a connect card, then types them in on Monday, and a few are always wrong. Text JOIN turns that around. People add themselves, from their own phone, at the moment they are interested.
Each organization on MsgOrb has a short join word, such as GRACE, and each group can have its own, such as YOUTH or PARENTS. When someone sends JOIN YOUTH to your WhatsApp number, MsgOrb adds them to the Youth group and replies with a welcome. Plain JOIN, or JOIN with your organization’s word, adds them to the group you choose as your main list.
How it works
Text JOIN runs on your organization’s own WhatsApp number. There is nothing for people to download.
Pick a word for each group
MsgOrb suggests one from the group’s name. Words are letters and numbers, such as YOUTH, CHOIR or PTA2026.
Print the sign
Each group page shows its word with a QR code and a sign to print. Scanning the code opens WhatsApp with “JOIN YOUTH” already typed to your number.
People press send
They are added to the group as an active contact, named from their WhatsApp profile, and get a welcome reply such as “Welcome! You’re now on Grace Chapel’s Youth list.”
Ideas for every kind of organization
Anywhere you would hand out a clipboard, put a QR code instead.
Churches
A code on the bulletin, the connect card and the screen before the service: JOIN for the main list, JOIN YOUTH, JOIN CHOIR and JOIN VOLUNTEERS for ministries.
Schools
A code on the classroom door and in the welcome pack, so each class’s parents join their own list: JOIN GRADE3 or JOIN PTA.
Events
A code at the registration table or on the badge for attendee updates during the event and after it.
Volunteers
A code on the sign-up sheet, so volunteers land in the team that will message them about shifts.
Shops and studios
A code at the counter for offers and class updates, with an easy way to stop.
Consent you can show
Text JOIN is opt-in by design: the person writes to you first, from their own phone, with a message that says they want to join. MsgOrb records how each contact joined, so you can show where your list came from.
Every welcome message says they can reply STOP at any time, and STOP always works. Someone who stopped and later sends JOIN again is added back.
Follow up automatically
Joining is the start. Give the group a series of follow-up messages and each new person gets them on their own schedule: a welcome right away, for example, how the group works on day 3 and an invitation to the next event on day 10.
A series has up to 10 messages, each an approved WhatsApp template, sent right away or on a chosen day at a set hour, up to 90 days after joining. It goes to everyone who joins once you switch it on, however they join: Text JOIN, the join link, an RSVP, an import or by hand. Replying STOP or leaving the group takes them off it.
What it costs
Text JOIN is included on every MsgOrb plan, Free included. People who join count toward your plan’s member limit. The welcome is a reply to a message they sent, so it counts toward the 1,000 free replies Meta includes each month for your WhatsApp number.
Follow-up messages are included on every plan too. Each is a template, which Meta charges like a campaign message.
See plans