Royal IQ Messaging - A Review (Harmony of the Seas)

[GuavaTechAngels]

Here's a quick review of the $9 up charge messaging feature on the Royal IQ app.

 

First of all, it didn't even work on my cousin's iphone. She had the iphone 5 or 6? I know it worked on my other relatives' newest generation iphones.

 

I have a Galaxy Note 3 and it worked on my phone but the connection was unstable. About 40-50% of the time, I got this error message:

 

The Chat service is currently unavailable. Please try again later.

 

The iphone relatives where the app was working reported the same issue so I don't think it's a problem with Android phones.

 

This is really frustrating when you're trying to meet up with and plan things with friends/family on board the ship and either you're waiting for a reply or they are waiting for your reply.

 

I was hoping to use this as a replacement for the rather pricey internet package but it's so unreliable and unstable, you can't really count on this app for instant communication.

 

Another downside of the messaging feature is that THERE IS NO GROUP MESSAGING. There's only 1 on 1 messaging. This is a real PITA as well. To make matters worse, you CANNOT copy previous messages. So, if you wanted to copy a message you already sent and resend it to another person, you can't do that. Instead, type out your message and then copy it BEFORE you send it. Then, you can paste and message it to others.

 

The app also doesn't notify you of incoming messages unless it's running in the background. That means, if you close or kill the app completely, you won't get any notifications of any incoming messages. So, make sure that you leave the app running in the background if you want to be notified of new messages. On Android, just press the HOME button and you can run other apps while Royal IQ is still active in the background.

 

One interesting thing that we noticed is that iMessage works on "Royal Wi-Fi". So, if you're on iphone, try that out instead.

 

I'm guessing that Royal Caribbean closes all ports on Royal Wi-Fi and only has one or two ports open for the account data and messaging feature of Royal IQ.

 

iMessage just happens to use the same ports.

 

Not only that, the incoming phone calling feature of Google Hangouts happens to use the same ports as well because I was able to receive incoming phone calls through Google Hangouts but not making outgoing calls.

 

Messaging on Google Hangouts did not work on Royal WiFi.

 

We tried to use the voice calling feature, but that never worked.

[Clarea]

Thanks for the detailed report. This will help people decide if they want to deal with the poor user interface and unreliability of the RoyalIQ App, or pony up for internet access for their texting needs.

[yknot13]

Was on Harmony last week and loved the Royal IQ app. Used on my I phone 6. I had to restart phone a few times but other than that a great service for 7.95 for the week,

[easyboy]

Thanks for your feedback. Always nice to learn from other's experiences.

 

 

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[RSLeesburg]

Just to add to this - we had Voom for free as part of Sky Class perks, and iMessage worked consistently throughout the cruise. I sent text and pics to family, scheduled service for my AC, and kept in touch with my wife. It was awesome. Although, I am not sure I would pay for Voom just to text.

 

 

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[rbschultz]

Here's a quick review of the $9 up charge messaging feature on the Royal IQ app.

 

First of all, it didn't even work on my cousin's iphone. She had the iphone 5 or 6? I know it worked on my other relatives' newest generation iphones.

 

I have a Galaxy Note 3 and it worked on my phone but the connection was unstable. About 40-50% of the time, I got this error message:

 

 

 

The iphone relatives where the app was working reported the same issue so I don't think it's a problem with Android phones.

 

This is really frustrating when you're trying to meet up with and plan things with friends/family on board the ship and either you're waiting for a reply or they are waiting for your reply.

 

I was hoping to use this as a replacement for the rather pricey internet package but it's so unreliable and unstable, you can't really count on this app for instant communication.

 

Another downside of the messaging feature is that THERE IS NO GROUP MESSAGING. There's only 1 on 1 messaging. This is a real PITA as well. To make matters worse, you CANNOT copy previous messages. So, if you wanted to copy a message you already sent and resend it to another person, you can't do that. Instead, type out your message and then copy it BEFORE you send it. Then, you can paste and message it to others.

 

The app also doesn't notify you of incoming messages unless it's running in the background. That means, if you close or kill the app completely, you won't get any notifications of any incoming messages. So, make sure that you leave the app running in the background if you want to be notified of new messages. On Android, just press the HOME button and you can run other apps while Royal IQ is still active in the background.

 

One interesting thing that we noticed is that iMessage works on "Royal Wi-Fi". So, if you're on iphone, try that out instead.

 

I'm guessing that Royal Caribbean closes all ports on Royal Wi-Fi and only has one or two ports open for the account data and messaging feature of Royal IQ.

 

iMessage just happens to use the same ports.

 

Not only that, the incoming phone calling feature of Google Hangouts happens to use the same ports as well because I was able to receive incoming phone calls through Google Hangouts but not making outgoing calls.

 

Messaging on Google Hangouts did not work on Royal WiFi.

 

We tried to use the voice calling feature, but that never worked.

 

Interesting. Google Hangouts worked on my last cruise on Allure. I communicated pretty frequently with work as they were having a crisis.

[Biker19]

Interesting. Google Hangouts worked on my last cruise on Allure. I communicated pretty frequently with work as they were having a crisis.

 

Allure does not have the Royal IQ app mentioned by the OP - I assume you used Hangouts with a VOOM package. That's a separate issue.

[cvskult]

If you buy the Internet package can you use the messaging in royal iq for free?

 

 

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[Biker19]

If you buy the Internet package can you use the messaging in royal iq for free?

 

No. Besides, once you have a VOOM package, you can use WiFi texting to communicate.

[cvskult]

No. Besides, once you have a VOOM package, you can use WiFi texting to communicate.

 

 

Right but some people have voom and others don't m. Thanks

 

 

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[GuavaTechAngels]

Interesting. Google Hangouts worked on my last cruise on Allure. I communicated pretty frequently with work as they were having a crisis.

 

On some sailings RCI will give everyone the internet package for free. It depends on the popularity of the sailing.

 

When my cousin went on the Allure in August 2016, they gave everyone the internet package for free.

[rbschultz]

Allure does not have the Royal IQ app mentioned by the OP - I assume you used Hangouts with a VOOM package. That's a separate issue.

 

Also used on Quantum when it launched.