What’s Grouped{in}? Unfortunately, exactly what you think it is.

It is undoubtedly the year of group messaging apps at SXSWi. In fact, some might call it an all-out war for the juice left on your iPhone. If you happened to be anywhere near Texas this weekend then you likely saw more than a few Grouped{in} stickers slapped onto everything in Austin from office buildings, bridges, water coolers to trash cans.

So what is Grouped{in}? Is it like a Linkedin version of GroupMe? Is it a professional daily deals service? No, unfortunately Grouped{in} is exactly what it sounds like. It’s yet another group messaging app.

The new app claims to be, “the only mobile app that allows you to: organize and simplify group communication across multiple channels- including private in-app group messaging, phone, SMS, e-mail, Facebook, Twitter and beyond.” Like GroupMe and Fast Society– users can share their location and photos.

Users can also place calls- both single and conference calls to group members as well as send in-app emails. The app gives users access to sponsored, public and nearby groups, including offers from local merchants (maybe that’s the Groupon part but I haven’t seen offers yet).

Unlike GroupMe and Fast Society, Grouped{in} allows you to check out the Twitter and Facebook streams of other group members. It’s that extra, connective step that goes against the ethos of most other popular group messaging apps; the greatest part of GroupMe and Fast Society is that they leave the giant social networks out of the experience. But for some- the Facebook and Twitter integration might be enough of an allure to check it out.

For SXSW, Grouped{in} has a couple groups to check out including Austin News KXAN for weather updates, The CW Austin for film updates and RunTex for sports and outdoor activities.

The app, created by Brian Magierski, the CEO and co-founder of Appconomy is easy to sign up for using Facebook connect. Aesthetically, it’s golden red design is nice but using it is bothersome as it crashes frequently and tries to pull up Facebook’s Appconomy page without prompt.

Grouped{in} walks the fine line between private messaging and public social networking. But for this simple tech reporter, it’s an app that’s trying to do too much without doing one thing better than the rest.

But if you’re intrigued, download it for free in the app store here. iOS only for now.

Also see our recent articles on GroupMe, Fast Society, CloudTalk and HeyWire, the other group messaging apps in the run for attention at SXSWi this week.