TikTok’s hottest show, The Group Chat, thrives because of the gossip

This past weekend brought major revelations and answers to questions millions of viewers have been waiting on. No, not on The White Lotus but the latest instalment of The Group Chat, a new gossipy and compulsive short-form show that’s taken TikTok by storm.

The Group Chat is the creation of Sydney Robinson (@thatgirlsydjo), who writes and stars in each video dramatizing a text thread between a group of girls. Call them clips, episodes, whatever you like — but more than 25 million people are watching the action play out on their for-you page, with Hailey Bieber and Charlie Puth among those making their thoughts known in the comment section.

The first video, which was posted in late March, immediately sets up the premise: a group of roommates are planning a dinner and one of them wants to invite her boyfriend. It’s a controversial move and one that instantly splits the group. Robinson, who plays all of the characters, switches between portraying Hailey (the girl with the boyfriend) and the rest of the group, as they try to keep him away from their girls night. Over three subsequent parts, things have escalated: an offended Hailey leaves the chat only to dramatically return, promising she would leave her man at home. Though, that doesn’t quite pan out when Justin (the boyfriend) appears at the restaurant regardless.

The series is DIY and shot on a miniscule budget with a storyline that is very lowstakes, but Robinson’s economic storytelling and depiction of complex female friendship dynamics has struck a cord. “I don’t think I’ll ever watch real TV again,” one user posted. If you wanted to be a little pretentious, or annoy a Letterboxd bro, you could say the videos are essentially mini mumblecore movies, the indie flicks Greta Gerwig made her name with.

While Robinson plays each member of the group chat, Justin’s voice was heard in Part four and some outside help was needed. Of course, fans immediately picked up on the sneaky cameo. Charlie Puth, who had been watching on his phone like everybody else, had DM’d Robinson and offered to play a part. One voice note later and he became second on the The Group Chat call sheet.

Famous cameos are one way of gauging popularity, as are the number of blue ticks in the comment section. “Every single brand that I could name” has started commenting on the posts, Robinson told TODAY, a telltale sign of major virality. She’s gaining 100k new TikTok followers a day and recently passed the million mark. Obsessed fans are also role playing as her characters, while episode recaps have become a thing, too.

It would be tempting to see the success of The Group Chat as an existential threat to TV and movies — why pay for a theater ticket or a Netflix subscription when there is something great to watch on your phone? — but that line of thinking feels too reactive. What makes The Group Chat compelling isn’t necessarily its witty dialogue or miniature format, but that it just hinges on good old-fashioned gossip. “People have really convinced themselves that this is based on real drama from my life,” Robinson told Rolling Stone (raising yet more questions about media literacy right now). An accurate comparison for The Group Chat isn’t The White Lotus or Severance, but the Am I The Asshole? subreddit or popular podcast Normal Gossip, places where you get to eavesdrop on other people’s problems. Robinson knows it, too. “It’s just an addictive thing to watch, like reality TV,” she said in that same interview. “When the tea is piping hot, it’s piping hot.”

That said, the interest in short form content reflects a wider trend in media, with scripted dramas adapting to the phone-first era. Duanjus – Chinese for micro-dramas – have become a huge success while last year ReelShort briefly overtook TikTok on the U.S. app store, with more than 30 million downloads in the past three years. Vertical TV could well be a genre unto itself, with lo-fi productions like The Group Chat leading the way.

More pressing for Robinson, though, has been wrapping things up. She just dropped the season finale and is already looking ahead. As a devotee of the algorithm, Robinson knows she can’t keep quiet for long. She already has more ideas brewing, including a bachelorette event and a birthday party. “Just because the dinner segment has ended,” she told TODAY “doesn’t mean the group chat is done.”