Texting without Voom

[the fish]

Voom is great for those who need it - we like to unplug from the outside world on a cruise but want to keep in touch with family members on the ship.

 

We were on Harmony 3 years ago without Voom and could text/chat over the Royal app for free, but the lack of notifications of new messages on the Royal app was disappointing (at least it was free).  While connected to the ship's wifi for the Royal app, we were able to text/chat using Hangouts which does give notifications of new messages.  I think we could also message family back home using hangouts without Voom but not exactly sure - our main goal is to communication with those family members on the ship.

 

Can anyone share if the Royal app now gives notifications of new messages?  Is it still free to chat using the Royal app with family on the cruise?  We are going on Allure if the ship matters.

 

Also, does Hangouts still work for getting messages out as an alternative to the Royal app without Voom?

 

Thanks in advance.

[SNemeth]

No experience, but my understanding is no notifications and it is now $1.99 per person per day to use the messaging on the Royal App.  No other messaging is supposed to work without VOOM.

[Biker19]

5 hours ago, the fish said:

 

Also, does Hangouts still work for getting messages out as an alternative to the Royal app without Voom?

No, all/most ships have closed that loophole. 
 

RCI CEO said they would eventually make the text/chat function within the app free, but not yet. 

[the fish]

Thanks for the responses.  $2/day per device is fine but I hope they got the notifications working.  Wasn't going to complain when it was free but if I'm paying...

[broadwaybaby123]

5 hours ago, the fish said:

Voom is great for those who need it - we like to unplug from the outside world on a cruise but want to keep in touch with family members on the ship.

 

We were on Harmony 3 years ago without Voom and could text/chat over the Royal app for free, but the lack of notifications of new messages on the Royal app was disappointing (at least it was free).  While connected to the ship's wifi for the Royal app, we were able to text/chat using Hangouts which does give notifications of new messages.  I think we could also message family back home using hangouts without Voom but not exactly sure - our main goal is to communication with those family members on the ship.

 

Can anyone share if the Royal app now gives notifications of new messages?  Is it still free to chat using the Royal app with family on the cruise?  We are going on Allure if the ship matters.

 

Also, does Hangouts still work for getting messages out as an alternative to the Royal app without Voom?

 

Thanks in advance.

I can't speak for the Royal app, but I do volunteer work for Google. Hangouts is being discontinued and split into two apps: Google Chat (texting) and Google Meet (video calls). I do not know how well either of the apps work on a ship as I typically don't use Internet on the ship. I do know that Google Meet is free and is integrates into the GMail app or you can use it as a separate app. I don't know if Google Chat is free, as that's associated with Google Workspace, which is typically a paid service. I get Google Chat for free as one of my perks.

 

My understanding for the Royal app is it needs to be open and running in the background in order for texting to work. I've heard it won't give you notifications of messages if it's not open.

[the fish]

Last day on the Allure and can confirm that no messaging apps we tried (imessage, google chat, hangouts) without Voom.  We decided to hold off on the $2 Royal app texting until we felt like we needed it and made out fine without it.

 

We did get a one day pass on Voom to make a couple wifi calls, but that stream service was so slow - couldn't stream any videos or music in a reliable manner.