Looks like the new update fixed group chats.
Ha! Apple is pretty conservative with the changes they make to ios. They even hired the dev of mobile notifier almost 3 years ago and still haven't incorporated quick reply. Baffles me some of the choices they DON'T make sometimes. I recently found an old iPod 2nd gen with jailbroken ios 3 on it and it has nearly every feature stock ios 7 has in it in some form via tweaks.
Is the update available?