Every member gets the message. Kosher phone, flip phone, or smartphone.
Shul announcements go out as plain SMS from the shul's own number. No app, no data plan, no WhatsApp group. A gabbai-only channel for the people who run the minyan, and a Group Thread for the tehillim list or the carpool.
3 days free with a real shul number and 300 SMS credits — no credit card required.
Why shuls switch
Half the kehilla is not on the WhatsApp group.
A shul announcement has to reach the member with a kosher phone, the member with a flip phone, the member who will not install another app, and the member who checks a smartphone twenty times a day. A WhatsApp group or GroupMe reaches the last one. Email reaches whoever opens email. The phone chain reaches whoever picks up. The gabbai ends up sending the same notice four different ways and still hears "nobody told me" at Mincha.
RallyText gives the shul one dedicated phone number that members save in their contacts. Leaders send from a dashboard or from their own phone by texting a keyword to the shul number. Every message goes out as a plain SMS, individually, to every member on the roster, so the phone does not matter. Replies come back privately to the leaders, not to the whole shul.
An ordinary week
What it looks like in a real shul
Sunday · 3:40 PM · Clocks changed
Mincha moves fifteen minutes earlier
Sunset is earlier this week and Mincha/Maariv shifts with it. One hundred and fifty members need the new time before they leave work, and a third of them carry a kosher phone that does nothing but call and text.
ALL Mincha/Maariv this week at 6:15 PM, not 6:30. Shiur follows Maariv as usual.
Gabbai · typed in Messages · sent to 150
✓Every member gets it as a direct SMS, kosher phone included. The two who reply "thanks" land in the inbox, not on 148 other phones.
Tuesday · 7:05 AM · Levaya notice
A levaya at 11, shiva at the family's home
The notice has to go out within the hour and it has to reach everyone, including the members who would never see a WhatsApp forward. Nobody should be left asking where to pay a shiva call.
ALL Baruch Dayan HaEmes. Levaya for Reb Shmuel Klein z"l today 11:00 AM at the shul. Shiva at 42 Maple Ave. Shacharis 7:00, Mincha/Maariv 6:15.
President · 2 SMS segments · sent to 150
✓A longer notice arrives as two numbered texts on every phone. 150 members, 300 credits.
Wednesday · 9:20 PM · Tehillim group
A new name for the cholim list
Forty members asked to be on the tehillim list. They want names as they come in, and they want to be able to add a name themselves without texting the gabbai at ten at night.
TEHILLIM Please add Chaim ben Rivka to your tehillim tonight, surgery tomorrow morning.
Mrs. Adler · Group Thread · 40 in the Tehillim group
✓Only the Tehillim group gets it, labeled [TEHILLIM] Mrs. Adler: ... — her number is never shown. The other 110 members are not disturbed.
Friday · 8:30 AM · Youth minyan
One teenager needs a reminder, and so does his father
The youth minyan leader needs to reach one fifteen-year-old about leining this week. A one-on-one text between an adult and a minor should never be private.
MEMBER Yaakov you have the second aliyah at youth minyan this week, 9:15 sharp
Committee Member · MEMBER keyword · parent + second leader copied
✓Yaakov, his father, and a second adult leader all receive the same text. The system adds the copies; nobody has to remember.
Other weeks it is "Kiddush this week is sponsored by the Klein family in honor of their new grandson," "Shacharis is at 8:30, not 8:00, because of the snow," or "The eruv is up." Same keyword, same 150 phones.
Kosher phones
Works on phones that only do SMS
A lot of the groups that leaned on GroupMe's SMS mode include members on a kosher phone, a flip phone, or any other basic phone with no apps, no browser, and often no picture messaging. RallyText was built around the assumption that the receiving phone can do exactly one thing: send and receive a plain text.
What a kosher-phone member actually receives
Joining is a text. A member texts the shul code to your RallyText number and answers a short SMS prompt. No link to open, no app, no login.
Every announcement arrives as a normal SMS. It starts with your shul code so people know who it is from. No data plan required; it works on a prepaid talk-and-text phone that has never touched the internet.
Long messages. Text is always sent as plain SMS, no matter the length. A long notice is split into several numbered texts by the carrier, and every phone that can text receives all of them.
Photos. The only thing RallyText ever sends as an MMS is a photo that a leader has approved as a picture message. Leaders can approve a photo as a plain-text link instead, which reaches phones that block picture messaging. If your members are mostly on kosher phones, approve links, or skip photos.
Hebrew and Yiddish text
Anything you type goes out as written, Hebrew letters included. The thing to know is how carriers count it. A plain-English text fits 160 characters in one SMS segment (153 each when a message is split). The moment a message contains a Hebrew or Yiddish letter, or an emoji, the carrier switches encoding and a segment holds only 70 characters (67 each when split). RallyText bills one credit per segment per recipient, so a 140-character Hebrew announcement to 150 members is 3 segments each, 450 credits, where the same announcement in English is 150. Hebrew is fine; just keep it short, or transliterate the long ones.
What you get
Built around how a shul is actually run
✡️
Roles that match the shul
Pick "Shul / Synagogue" at signup and the roles become President, Rabbi, Gabbai, Committee Member, Member, and Parent. Calendar events are shiurim and minyanim, not practices and games.
🕯️
Gabbai-only channel
Any leader texts GABBAI and a message to the shul number and only the President, Rabbi, Gabbai, and Committee Members receive it. Who has the keys, who is leining, who still owes for the kiddush: it stays off the members' phones.
📖
Tehillim, chesed, and carpool as Groups
Organize the roster into Groups, each with its own keyword, such as TEHILLIM, CHESED, or CARPOOL. Set a group's Thread mode to Open and any member can post to it by text. Posts arrive as [TEHILLIM] Name: message, so nobody's number is shared.
🔒
Numbers stay private
Members only ever see the shul's number. Announcements are sent one by one, replies go to the leaders' inbox, and Group Thread posts carry a name, not a number. Phone numbers in the roster are encrypted.
🗓️
Shiur and event reminders
Put the weekly shiur, the melave malka, or the chevra kadisha meeting on the calendar once. A reminder text goes to the roster automatically 24 hours before, and members can subscribe to the shul calendar from Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, or Outlook.
👨👦
Youth minyan texts copy a parent
Every account starts with minor protection on. A one-on-one text from a leader to a member under 18 automatically copies a parent and a second adult leader, and is logged. If nobody on the roster is under 18, support can switch the account to adults-only.
From the gabbai's phone
Keywords instead of logins
Nobody needs to open a laptop between Mincha and Maariv. From the phone number on file as a leader, start a text to the shul's RallyText number with a keyword and it is routed for you. Each example below is real shul-mode wording.
Kehillas Beis Shalom
(732) 555-0100 · shul number
SHUL MODE
ALL Shacharis 8:30 this week because of the snow, not 8:00. Eruv is up.
Gabbai · every member
GABBAI who is leining this week? Still need a baal koreh for the second day
Rabbi · leaders only
FAMILY Klein Mazel tov on the new grandson. Kiddush is confirmed for this week.
President · one household, privately
Thank you. Can we add Reb Shmuel's name to the tehillim list?
Mrs. Klein · member · private reply to the inbox
🔒
Members see only the shul number
Mrs. Klein's reply reached the leaders' inbox. Nobody else on the roster saw it or her number.
Text this
Who gets it
ALL <message>
Everyone on the shul roster: members, parents, and leaders.
GABBAI <message>
President, Rabbi, Gabbai, and Committee Members only.
MEMBER <firstname> <message>
One member, privately. If the member is under 18, a parent and a second leader are copied.
The linked parents of a youth-minyan member, matched by last name. Only useful for households with a child on the roster.
TEHILLIM <message>
Everyone in the Tehillim group (an example Group Thread you create), labeled with the sender's name.
Members who reply without a keyword send a private reply to the leaders. The full list is on the keyword cheat sheet and in the setup guide.
Pricing
Priced by messages, not by members
RallyText plans run from $10/mo for announcements only (200 credits), and two-way plans from $29/mo (2,000 credits), $59 (4,000), or $119 (8,000). Every plan includes a dedicated shul phone number and unlimited contacts; plans differ by monthly message credits. One credit is one SMS segment to one recipient. Go over and it is $0.04 per credit, billed at month end, with a warning at 80%. See full pricing →
Here is the arithmetic for a shul of 150 members, assuming each announcement fits in one English SMS segment. A month is about 4.33 weeks.
Shul
Announcements
Credits / month
Plan that fits
150 members
1 a month
150
Pay As You Go, $10/mo (200 credits). Announcements only: no replies, no Group Thread.
150 members
1 a week
150 × 4.33 ≈ 650
Team, $29/mo (2,000 credits), with room for a Tehillim thread.
150 members
3 a week
3 × 150 × 4.33 ≈ 1,950
Team at 2,000 is tight; one levaya notice puts you over. Team Plus, $59/mo (4,000 credits), is the comfortable fit.
400 members
1 a week
400 × 4.33 ≈ 1,730
Team, $29/mo (2,000 credits).
400 members
3 a week
3 × 400 × 4.33 ≈ 5,200
Organization, $119/mo (8,000 credits).
A two-segment notice counts double. A Hebrew notice counts per 67-character segment. Pay As You Go is send-only, so the tehillim Group Thread needs Team or above.
Leaving GroupMe
Move the shul in about 10 minutes
GroupMe is retiring its SMS mode, which is the only part of GroupMe a kosher phone could use. What is changing and when is on its own page; here is the move.
Sign up at rallytext.app/auth/signup and pick "Shul / Synagogue." You choose your shul code and get a dedicated local number during signup; no card is needed for the 3-day trial.
Add your members. Upload a CSV of names and phone numbers from the shul office, or add people by hand. Anyone you skip can add themselves in step 4.
Create a Group Thread for the tehillim list or the carpool. In the Groups tab, make a group, give it a keyword (TEHILLIM), and set its Thread mode to Open. Turn on Auto-join (first the master switch under Settings → Audience, then on the group) so people can add themselves by text.
Share the code and the number. Announce "Text KBSHALOM to our shul number" from the bimah and in the old GroupMe group before its SMS access ends. Members send that one text, answer the role question, and they are in.
Send your first announcement. From your phone, text ALL followed by your message to the shul number, or use the dashboard. Everyone receives it as a plain text.
Yes. Joining, receiving, and replying all happen over plain SMS, so any phone that can text works, including kosher phones and flip phones with no apps or browser. Text messages are always plain SMS, however long; a long one simply arrives as several numbered texts. The only MMS RallyText sends is a photo a leader approved as a picture message, and leaders can approve photos as a text link instead for members whose phones block picture messaging.
Yes. Any text you type goes out as written. The one thing to know is cost: carriers fit about 150 characters of plain English in one SMS segment but only about 65 characters of Hebrew, Yiddish, or emoji, so a Hebrew announcement of the same length uses two to three times as many credits. Short Hebrew lines, or transliteration, keep it to one credit per member.
Members see only the shul's own RallyText number. Announcements go to each person individually, so nobody sees who else is on the list, and replies come back privately to the leaders' inbox rather than to the whole shul. In a Group Thread, posts arrive labeled with the sender's name, never their number. The roster, with phone numbers encrypted, is visible only to the leaders you add: President, Rabbi, Gabbai, and Committee Members.
Three ways. A member texts your shul code to the shul number and answers one question about their role: member, gabbai or committee member, parent, or follower. Or you upload a CSV of names and numbers from the office. Or you share the join link rallytext.app/join/YOURCODE for people who prefer a form. Everyone confirms by text, and STOP always works.
Credits count one SMS segment per recipient. A one-segment announcement to 150 members uses 150 credits; to 400 members, 400 credits. Pay As You Go is $10/mo with 200 credits, announcements only, which covers about one announcement a month for a 150-member shul. Team is $29/mo with 2,000 credits, about one announcement a week for 400 members or two a week for 150. Three a week for 150 members is roughly 1,950 credits, so Team Plus at $59/mo with 4,000 credits is the comfortable fit. Three a week for 400 members is roughly 5,200 credits, which is the Organization plan at $119/mo with 8,000 credits. Going over costs $0.04 per credit.
Nobody should hear about the levaya afterward.
Import your roster, pick a shul number, send your first announcement. Setup takes a few minutes and the first 3 days are free with no credit card.