Or "roll your own." Pick whatever tech you prefer -- Slack, Google Groups, Discord, whatever -- decide on some theme for starting a group, start inviting people.
The problem with that is the channel you join will either not be advertised very well or it will be huge (because it's advertised well). It's hard to find a good, small channel if you don't know anyone to refer you. You can't just go to /r/DiscordServers/top
This kind of private groups are really popular amongst extended family or friend groups in countries where apps like WhatsApp are popular (which is seemingly every country but the US)
It’s crazy how which platforms are popular has shaped how people communicate
I’m from Argentina. Here the we have WhatsApp groups for everything. Friends, coworkers. Even is common to have groups that are subsets of groups from a bigger one, because of more affinity or willingness to discuss certain topics that will spam the bigger one. So yes, I can pretty much confirm that this private groups change a lot the way we communicate.
Facebook messenger seems to be the replacement for WhatsApp in North America, at least in my circles. I have dozens of Facebook messenger groups, with different subsets of friends and activities.
