Fast Society’s co-founder Matthew Rosenberg told me the company saw the writing on the wall at South by Southwest this past spring, when a number of messaging apps went head to head at the show. While the market seemed white hot, Rosenberg saw the limits of how far he could go with the group text messaging model. Rather than throw itself into the next version of the app, the New York-based team started plotting a new product, one that harkens back to the original vision for Fast Society.

“We originally thought of Fast Society as a way to save moments and capture experiences together but because of the circumstances and the competition, we got caught up in group text messaging,” Rosenberg said. “So much of it was about the technology but when we got to SXSW, we realized it wasn’t a tech problem, it was an experience problem.”

Rosenberg said the group messaging space has become saturated and the products have become fun features but not good businesses. Fast Society was one of the early pace setters and introduced things like including voice calls and sharing pictures and location. It was among the first to strike deals with brands, partnering with companies like MTV and others.

But Rosenberg said the business has low barriers to entry and some of the monetization models including like sponsored groups or advertising based on what people were texting wasn’t attractive. More fundamentally, he said there’s only so much that can be done through group messaging. And now that companies like Apple and Google are moving into the space while Facebook bought Beluga and Skype bought GroupMe, it becomes even less attractive for a start-up.

“It’s been a great place to build our chops and it’s been a street brawl with other companies, but we saw that the barriers were getting lower and no one was really winning,” Rosenberg said.

Rosenberg is tight lipped about what the future holds but he said it will explore emotions and experiences much more deeply. The company continues to survive on $380,000 in seed funding it received last year and has enough to launch Cameo.

Some of Rosenberg’s words could be looked as the parting shot of an entrepreneur who couldn’t keep up in the group messaging space. But he raises some good questions about how many companies can really succeed in the space and whether it can support stand alone businesses or is basically a feature that will replicated by bigger companies. WhatsApp, a company I profiled, has been thriving but it’s unclear how many others can join them. Also, it’s a good lesson on what happens when start-ups begin chasing fads rather than remain focused on their original passion. Rosenberg sounds like he’s fired up again. We’ll see if the plucky start-up can make a go of it on the rebound.

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Groupie was founded in 2008, received its trademark in May of 2009, and has formally opposed GroupMe’s trademark with the United States Patent and Trademark Office. It is now awaiting word from GroupMe, which has until Aug. 15 to decide how it will proceed. If GroupMe challenges Groupie’s opposition, it will begin a process of discovery that will ultimately lead to a ruling unless the two sides settle.

Groupie co-founder Jordan Adler said the company is not looking for a cash settlement though it is not ruling out any options. He said the three-man startup was forced to act because there was increasing confusion about the two companies.

“We feel that they’re too similar, especially when you talk about it audibly,” Adler said. “GroupMe, Groupie. Given that we’re in the same space and on the same platforms, it’s bit too much for us.”

GroupMe responded with a statement: “They (Groupie) are opposed to our federal trademark application, but we do not believe we have violated their trademark rights in any way. We have every intention to pursue our trademark application and to continue to use the GroupMe name.”

Groupie is an iOS and web app that lets people create groups, both public and private and allows people to message back and forth and meet each other. It has about 60,000 users so far. GroupMe, which launched last year after winning TechCrunch  Disrupt’s hackathon, is on iOS, Android, Windows Phone 7, BlackBerry and the web and is more focused on private group messaging.

Adler said up until recently, Google would list results for GroupMe when people searched for “Groupie iPhone.” The company was founded by Adler and fellow NYU student Leo Efstathiou while the two were business students there. They are a bootstrapped team and have not turned a profit from their free app.

These types of trademarks disputes happen frequently in the tech world, and there are plenty of similar-sounding startups. In this case, GroupMe is doing a lot better than Groupie and most of that success has likely not come by people mistaking GroupMe for Groupie.

But stepping back, it shows that this field has gotten quite competitive and startups need any edge to get ahead. GroupMe may just be a victim of that. They’ve done a great job iterating their apps and the latest 3.0 release, which includes a new questions function and international support, is a sign of the fast progress they’ve made. Groupie’s Adler said he’s not targeting other group messaging apps. But it’s unlikely they would be opposing GroupMe’s trademark if it hadn’t had as much success as it has experienced.

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1. Cozi. This software turned up when I decided we need a smarter way to manage our shopping lists, but it does much more. For our needs, I want to allow each family member to contribute to a centralized list when we need something or run out of a product. Cozi can do that with multiple lists — say, one for groceries and another for clothes — so if we didn’t buy something, the person who neglected to put it on the list will have to do without. The software also offers a family calendar, to-do list, and a group journal. It’s a free (ad -supported) app with service for iOS, Android and the web, but there is a paid version that eliminates advertising.
2. Google Calendar. Sometimes the simplest solution is the best, and for our family, Google Calendar is the method we use to keep track of everyone’s activities. Everyone in the house has a Gmail account and tracks all appointments and events in the Google Calendar. We all share the calendars, and I even share a personal calendar with my ex-wife, which helps us schedule events with our son in a way that avoids calendar conflicts. Since it’s web-based, we all have access from computers and handsets, plus the last holdout in the group finally migrated to a smartphone, so we can now all check calendars on the go.
3. Glympse. This is a handy tool to see where family members are. It’s particularly useful for when I pick up my son every other week. Due to irregular work hours and traffic, I’m often running late for my scheduled pick-up time, which is inconvenient for everyone involved. Glympse solves that problem by shooting my exact location in real-time to my son while I’m on the road. The free software for iOS, Android and Windows Mobile lets you specify who can see your location and for how long, so it’s a perfect solution. Of course, it could also be used when the family splits up at an amusement park or is spread out at the local shopping mall.
4. Brightkite. What used to be a social-networking and location-based app transformed into a free group chat solution last year. The software does use up carrier text messages, but allows for our entire family to have a digital conversation when the need arises. Since the software supports image sharing, it can be a life-saver when everyone is hungry and checking different places to eat: a few camera snaps of the menus and we can all decide where to dine at the mall, for example. Brightkite supports Android, iOS and mobile web browsers.

I’m going to continue my quest for family-oriented software solutions, and will follow up as I find more. Meanwhile, what apps are helping keep your family together?

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Beluga, a group text messaging mobile app, is all about this kind of interactivity, with its ability to bring contacts together and let people share information and communications in real time. It was started ironically by three former Google employees, Ben Davenport, Lucy Zhang and Jonathan Perlow.

Here’s what Om said last month on the power of Beluga and other messaging services such as Yobongo.

What’s common between these two apps is their ability for synchronous messaging. This messaging can, in turn, become the under-pinning of what I earlier called interactions.

Ability to interact on an ongoing basis anywhere, any time and sharing everything, from moments to emotions – is what social is all about. From my vantage point, this is what Google should focus on. If not — you know it very well — Facebook will.

So there you have it, Facebook was in sync with what Om was saying and clearly gets where the game is going. It has a new robust messaging system that is more intimate than the traditional e-mail inbox. And now it’s making a play for a solid application that should extends its communications story into mobile.

Here’s a statement from Facebook:

We’re psyched to confirm that we’ve just acquired the talent and assets of Beluga, whose simple and elegant mobile apps blew us away as a solution to help groups of friends stay in touch on the move. We’re looking forward to welcoming co-founders Ben Davenport, Lucy Zhang and Jonathan Perlow, and we’re excited that the team will continue their vision for groups and mobile communication as part of Facebook.

For Beluga fans, Facebook said the service will continue “for now” with accounts and data preserved. More information about the future of Beluga will get announced in the coming weeks. It’s possible that Beluga may get discontinued as has happened to other Facebook acquisitions such as Drop.io. But for now, there’s still hope it will continue to live on.

The acquisition also further underscores the heat in the group text messaging space, something I wrote about last year with start-ups GroupMe and Fast Society. Expect to see a lot more news as those and other start-ups gear up for South by Southwest.

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