Texting Through a Pandemic With Obama and J.Lo

The Community app connects A-listers with their fans—an odd proposition in the era of Covid lockdowns

Illustration: Isabel Seliger for OneZero

I’m at the point now where I don’t even bother reading Post Malone’s texts.

Same with Diddy. Same with Paul McCartney. When Barack Obama’s name pops up on my phone I tap to see what he has to say, but he doesn’t text that often so it’s fine.

I have never met any of these people; none of them know me. Their contacts are in my phone because of Community, a startup that celebrities, businesses, and influencers of all stripes can use to text their fans.

People who purchase a Community phone number (or “leaders,” as the company calls them) can send and receive text messages to followers directly, away from the public arena of social media. Two years after the company’s founding, more than 25 million people have signed up to get texts from at least one brand or celebrity on Community, whose directory includes figures like Jennifer Lopez, Mark Cuban, and Deepak Chopra.

Figuring out exactly where Community is in its growth trajectory is not an easy task. The company declined to give specifics on pricing, revenue, the current number of leaders signed up for the platform, or how fast enrollment is growing…