wilsond2

Their on ship network and off ship connection should be separate. A correctly configured network/firewall should be able to allow the devices to work to talk with each other on ship but block the data going out for all that haven't paid for Voom.

It was on android phones. I searched and didn't see anyone mention google voice that's why I posted.

Cruised on Anthem late June/early July. Before we boarded we loaded the royal IQ app. Once on board we put phones on airplane mode, hooked up to royal-wifi and paid the $7.95 per device. We did not get Voom wifi. We were able to chat between all of us using the app. We moved around the ship and the wifi disconnected. This happened frequently, whenever we moved. We had to keep reconnecting it as it wouldn't do it by itself. I randomly would get Facebook and other app notifications but if I tried to view them it said no internet connection. I normally use Google Voice for text messaging and I started getting texts. I tried responding and surprisingly it went through. I was able to text my son on the ship with me as well as phones back in the US. I'm not sure if it would have worked if I didn't pay for the RoyalIQ service but might be worth someone trying. If all you want is free texting and communicating between people on the ship this might work.