HAL App Messaging

[Samanthac25]

Quick question - do you have to be connected to WiFi to message in the HAL app? Or can anyone onboard message each other without paying for WiFi? I’m traveling with my teenager and will need to be able to communicate with her onboard when she ditches me 😜. I purchased WiFi for myself so we’d have it just in case we need it but was trying to avoid having to purchase it for her because I don’t want her glued to the phone on vacation. 

[dfish]

You do need to be connected to the ship's wifi, but that is not the paid wifi.   I was able to message my sister with no problem and she did not have paid wifi.  

[Gigi1977]

You may message w/o paid WiFi.  However there is no alert on HAL’s messaging.   I wish they would ad a feature so there was an auditory alert.  

[purduemom1]

2 hours ago, Gigi1977 said:

You may message w/o paid WiFi.  However there is no alert on HAL’s messaging.   I wish they would ad a feature so there was an auditory alert.  

 

Yes, this would be a great addition. We used the messaging on our cruise last May. There were 5 of us-all adults so the messaging was very helpful-as long as you remembered to check it frequently. 

[rucrazy]

10 hours ago, Gigi1977 said:

You may message w/o paid WiFi.  However there is no alert on HAL’s messaging.   I wish they would ad a feature so there was an auditory alert.  

 

A Vibration feature would be nice as to not disturb others!

[Cruise Suzy]

4 hours ago, rucrazy said:

A Vibration feature would be nice as to not disturb others!

 

I agree - I do NOT need to hear audible notifications to those nearby when I'm trying to relax by the pool or dine.

[vms]

We had mixed results on our last cruise on Zuiderdam. I had no issues on my iPhone except a fairly delayed message one time. My mom had nothing but problems with her Android- it wouldn't allow her to log-in, then wouldn't recognize me as someone she could chat with even though we were sharing a room, then consistently wouldn't deliver messages timely.

 

It is nice when it works, but when it doesn't...

[strickerj]

I see there's a recent discussion on messaging in the app, so I'll reply here rather than starting a new one: I assume everyone has to have their own login? Or can you message other individuals on your itinerary with everyone logged into the same account?

[mimii]

I did not find the app useful on our Zuiderdam cruise last week, although I was not trying to use messaging. I wanted to use the app because a few years ago I used one on a Carnival cruise and it was fantastic. So I was pretty surprised that the HAL app was useless for me. As stated here, you must be on wifi but you don't need to buy an Internet package. Your smartphone will pick up the free wifi for the app, and there are instructions in your cabin. I have an Android, and I wanted to use the app just for it's other features, such as the daily schedule, the additional place where I could make my own schedule/favorites, the ability to browse and purchase shore excursions, look at my account, and more! But the first 2 days they said they were doing an update so the app was not working. After that it did work, but I could not access the features. Eventually I was able to do so and saw they were wonderful, but they only worked for a few minutes before the wifi died or something -  the app just kept spinning . This happened EVERY day, whenever I tried to use it. Either it would not connect at all, or else I was not able to complete whatever I hoped to do. I saw on the daily schedule that sometimes the IT person had hours he would answer questions, so I went to see him near Guest Services. After about 20 minutes he got it to work, but by the time I reached my cabin, it didn't work any more. I asked him if others had reported it never worked, and he said others were using it without complaints, but I find that hard to believe, especially since I took several MS Studio classes and the Internet was intermittent and exceedingly slow there!!

 

At any rate, I would hope the messaging would work well for you, as some here have answered, but I would not plan to depend on it! Good luck.