Android user beware

[ISABELLA]

We are currently on Gateway. We upgraded to unlimited Internet to communicate with family and friends. Apparently you can only text to an I phone, but not to an Android. There is no where it was advertised or warned. Besides that, Internet service is hit or miss. Browsing is at 50%, emails works about 30%of the time. Very disappointing to pay for partial usage of the service.

[ngrund]

I presume you mean texting to someone off the ship-I had no problem with my Android (just got off Prima)-you need to enable WiFi calling if your carrier offers it (I'm on T-Mobile) and select WIFI preferred.

 

You also need to make sure you activated and connected to the external internet (not just the NCL ship wifi for using the NCL app)

[fredflint]

That is odd i was able to txt on the Star  I use the "messages app"  with the 3 dots inside

 

The 3 dots is the  Samsung I assume for  Samsung phones but may for others the basic bubble is google

 

https://www.guidingtech.com/samsung-messages-vs-android-messages/

[mamajean1113]

I use What's App when I cruise.  I get the unlimited minutes and I have no issues.  I am able to text, call and video chat for the whole cruise. 

[ISABELLA]

We went to I cafe and IT specialist told us, that we have an IPhone and can communicate only with iPhone but not android. It was odd to hear since we had no problem on other cruise lines. Maybe Gateway don’t have the same providers as other ships.

[hallux]

On my cruise on the Escape in March I was able to receive messages on my Android device using the Google Messages app while not signed in to the internet (just on internal ship WiFi).  It was a group message so it was MMS rather than standard SMS.  The Android recipient needs to be able to use WiFi texting in order for it to work, that may have been their issue.

 

I bought the unlimited internet the following day so I was online the rest of the trip anyway...

 

1 hour ago, ISABELLA said:

Maybe Gateway don’t have the same providers as other ships.

The "provider" shouldn't matter, it's the configuration of the ship's servers (specifically the proxy server into which you login to get internet access) to allow the messaging protocol(s).

[ISABELLA]

Maybe I wasn’t clear. We have iPhone and we’re told that we only can text and receive texts from iPhone, not to and from android. Sorry if I confused the issue.

[ngrund]

yes but if you are connected to the "real" internet it shouldn't matter.

 

I believe the iPhone only is only pertinent when just using NCL's internal wifi

[eileeshb]

9 minutes ago, ISABELLA said:

Maybe I wasn’t clear. We have iPhone and we’re told that we only can text and receive texts from iPhone, not to and from android. Sorry if I confused the issue.

Ahh what they mean is that you don’t have to login to the ships WiFi to use iMessage which is specific to iPhone/iPads. If you want to use wifi based messaging on any other app/device you need to actually login to the WiFi. 
iPhones can use traditional SMS, iMessage, WhatsApp, messenger, viber… etc. to send messages but only iMessage will work on the ship without any costs and iMessage doesn’t communicate with Androids. 
it’s a quirk of how the wifi is configured on the NCL ships, they don’t block the specific port used by iMessage as they use it internally themselves for other reasons. 
if you have the unlimited wifi package from NCL you can send messages via any app you choose and only SMS/MMS will attract charges for mobile roaming while on the ship. 

[bortman23]

As @eileeshb mentioned, iMessage for iPhone is something completely different than traditional SMS (aka "texting") which uses a network from a cell company.

 

Recently google rolled out RCS for Android phones in the messages app. All pixel phones should support it now, with other android phones using it depending on the brand etc. It's fundamentally the same as iMessage, but for android.

 

My brother was on a cruise in April and was able to message me (not on a cruise) with no issues. He was in airplane mode with the wifi turned on; but with his internet package turned off. 

 

It appears that Android users no longer need to have iPhone envy when on NCL: https://www.androidpolice.com/how-to-enable-disable-rcs-chat-google-messages/

Edited May 14, 2023 by bortman23

[hallux]

24 minutes ago, bortman23 said:

It appears that Android users no longer need to have iPhone envy when on NCL

For the record - my group chat for which I received a message during the first day oof my cruise in March contains an iPhone user so it is not an RCS chat yet it still came through even without being signed in to the internet.