Best Messaging Apps to help kids stay connected while traveling
Without a doubt, traveling the world with my kids has been one of the most rewarding experiences of my life. Hiking volcanoes in Guatemala, touring ancient Egyptian tombs, or swimming with wild dolphins in Mexico, every adventure that we’ve had has been made 10 times better because we’ve done them together.
But as rewarding as it is, traveling with kids has its share of difficulties as well. Jetlag and road trip boredom aren’t much fun on their own, but the truly hard things are the questions that keep you up at night. Questions like:
“Is traveling with my kids actually worth it?” It is.
“Can my kids get the education they need while traveling?” They can.
Or even, “How can I help my kids stay connected with their friends while we’re traveling?”
Luckily, since internet connectivity is available in most places across the globe, keeping in contact with friends is easier than ever! As long as you have that internet, staying in touch with friends is as simple as choosing the right app.
Communication Apps to help Kids stay Connected
One of the biggest barriers to keeping in contact with long distance friends is often just choosing the right platform for chatting with them. International phone calls can get expensive fast, so I typically lean towards web-based messaging platforms.
Because these programs use data instead of minutes, they are often cheaper than making phone calls and are often able to be used on a computer or tablet, instead of just on a phone. As my kids don’t have their own phones, this is a huge help!
Here are some of our family’s favorite messaging apps that we use with our kids.
Zoom
Zoom is by far the most well-known communications app on this list, but it is also my least favorite favorite way of keeping in touch. However, it is a staple in the world of video calls and gets used for everything from remote learning courses to work meetings.
It does a great job of making video calls easy, but getting everyone on the same page about when the call should happen requires using other messaging platforms. It doesn’t really do messaging. Just video calls. And having to schedule everything out doesn’t really feel like connecting, especially for kids.
Really, the main thing that Zoom has going for it is that it’s already installed on most people’s devices and works across pretty much every account ecosystem out there. (Looking at you, Facetime.) If you don’t want to have to persuade your kids’ friends to create a new account somewhere, this is the app you want. But there are definitely better options out there.
Messenger Kids
Since my kids are under 13, Messenger Kids is our go-to app for helping them stay in touch with friends. At its core, it’s essentially the same as the regular grown-up version of Facebook Messenger, just with some added security features for kids.
Kids can only chat with contacts that have been added to their contact list and approved by a parent account. And parents regularly get informed about who their kids have been talking to and for how long. Messages can’t be erased, and external links can’t be shared.
Honestly, it sometimes feels too locked down, but with younger kids, I totally get it.
Messenger Kids also includes fun things like simple games and filters for video calls, which our kids love.
The big thing, for me is that Messenger Kids gives our kids the ability to send messages to their friends at any time, whether their friends are “online” or not. This is pretty standard for most messengers, so I’m not giving them too much credit for it, but it is a pretty important feature. Most families are already using Facebook Messenger to communicate with friends and family, so it’s relatively easy to get everyone set up, and I love that I have so much control over who my kids talk to.
If your kids are under 13, Messenger Kids is easily the best platform for them to be able to stay in contact with their friends without needing a ton of supervision. They will eventually outgrow the kids version, but by that time, it’s pretty simple to upgrade them to the full version of Messenger.
Note:
One of my friends from the UK has brought it to my attention that Messenger Kids is not available worldwide, as there are several European countries that do not allow it, including the UK. If you are looking for a kid-friendly messaging alternative, check out Xooloo Kids Messenger. It’s not nearly as popular as Messenger Kids, so you may have trouble getting friends to adopt it, but if you are from the UK or trying to keep your kids in touch with a friend from the UK, it is one of the best alternatives out there.
Signal
If you’re looking for something a bit more privacy focused (read: not owned by Facebook), Signal is the best option out there. As with most messengers, kids must be at least 13 to have a Signal account, so it won’t work for younger kids, but it’s a good choice for teens.
Over the years, I’ve personally used Signal several times to keep in touch with friends, and I think it would be pretty easy to get my kids set up with it as well. The one thing about them is that, similar to WhatsApp, they require a phone number in order to set up an account. If you need a phone number for this and you are from the US, you can sign up for a free Google Voice number. Just do it before leaving the States, as it’s a pain to try to get one from overseas.
The main draw for using apps like Signal is that messages sent using them are end-to-end encrypted, and no copies or records of your messages are kept on a server somewhere. This is huge for privacy, but probably overkill for the kinds of messages my kids send to their friends. Still, if you’re concerned about privacy, this is the way to go.
The big downside to Signal, and other lesser known messengers, is that it can be difficult to get other people to sign up for a new service. I’ve only ever communicated with a handful of friends over Signal, while most of my parent-to-parent communication happens over WhatsApp.
Marco Polo
I mentioned earlier that having the ability to send messages to friends when they aren’t there is a big advantage of apps like Messenger Kids. Marco Polo takes that same idea and applies it to video communications!
Essentially Marco Polo users record short video messages to send to friends or family in the same way that a text message gets sent. Once the friend receives the message, they can send back a video of their own to continue the conversation!
This one is particularly great for using with kids, though because of the nature of video messaging, we let the kids use our Marco Polo accounts on our phones instead of putting it on their devices. We’ve found it to be really great for keeping in contact with family members in particular.
Marco Polo doesn’t do the standard video chat “thing,” though, so if you want to do real time communication with friends you’ll have to look elsewhere.
Discord
While most of the apps above tend to focus on directly messaging particular friends, Discord takes another approach. It has a focus on groups and topics instead of people, giving it much more of a forum feel, but still includes powerful text, voice, and video messaging capabilities.
Essentially, it feels like the Slack platform, but for non-work related communication.
Discord has a heavy focus on being the messenger used by gamers to talk with each other about their favorite games, but the platform can be used by any group of friends to keep in touch. All it takes is for one person to create a server, or group, and then invite their friends to join.
One of my favorite features is called “Voice Channels.” These are like voice chat rooms that your kids’ friends can drop into or leave as they like. Each voice channel can host up to 100 users at a time.
If your kids are wanting to keep in touch with a larger group of friends, Discord is an excellent choice.
Setting up a server is a little more complicated than setting up a group message in other apps, but the benefits are worth it. You can read more about setting up a Private Discord Server here.
The one downside here is that it is possible for kids to join other Discord servers using their account, including public servers that can be joined by anyone. As such, Discord requires users to be at least 13, and it’s worth talking to your kids about staying safe on the internet before setting up an account for them.
As long as they only join private servers with their friends, it’s not really an issue, but it is worth knowing about.
WhatsApp or Facebook Messenger
When it comes down to it, the best tool for getting a job done is often the tool you already know how to use. Facebook’s messaging apps are the two most popular messengers worldwide, in large part because of how simple they are to get set up and use.
They both feature standard text messaging features, group messaging, voice calls, and video calls, making them about as full-featured as you could want. You can sign up for either messenger using just a phone number, or you can use just a Facebook account to sign up for Messenger.
It should be noted that these are full-fledged “grown-up” messaging apps, and it is possible to receive messages from people outside of your known contacts when using them. They do not have the same parental controls that you would get with something like Messenger kids.
However, they are really convenient to use, and if your kids are old enough to sign up for an account (13 for Messenger, 16 for WhatsApp), it’s probably worth getting them set up, with a reminder to be safe.
Update: Meta, the parent company for Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp etc., is in the process of adding expanded supervision capabilities for teenage accounts starting this week (June 25-30). These measures are going to include things like giving parents more information about the accounts that are interacting with their teens, the ability to turn off chat notifications after a specific, and the ability to restrict messages from people who are not on an approved list.
This could be great for families with younger teens who are still in need of a bit of support in their online interactions! It requires getting an invite from your teen’s account in order to work, and it is still being rolled out worldwide, so it may not be available for your family just yet.
Practically speaking, I don’t know how well these features are going to work, as I don’t have any teens yet, but it’s encouraging to see efforts being made to help protect our kids online.
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No matter which apps or methods you choose to help your kids stay connected with friends, it’s important to remember that helping them to have that connection is absolutely worth the trouble.
