About RHUL Mobile
Last updated: 29 September 2026
RHUL Mobile is an independent campus app for Royal Holloway, University of London students. It is built and run by SHACKSOLUTIONS LTD, a UK-registered software studio, and it is not part of, or affiliated with, the university or the Students' Union.
The story
The idea got tested at Founder's Square in the rain. We were reading a paper timetable pinned to the bus stop, waiting for a bus with no way to tell if it was running late or on time. Citymapper did not cover the campus shuttle. The official Royal Holloway app did not do bus times. The intranet had a PDF.
Two weeks later the first build of RHUL Mobile shipped with one feature: live bus arrivals. A handful of students installed it. Then their friends did. The next feature was laundry, because the second most annoying part of halls life was walking down to the basement of Founder's to find every machine in use. After that, the campus map, because freshers kept asking where the Moore Building was.
Five years and a lot of updates later, 5,100+ people use RHUL Mobile across Royal Holloway. Still free to use.
An independent app
RHUL Mobile is not part of Royal Holloway or the Students' Union, and neither runs it. The university has its own Royal Holloway app for prospectus and welcome content. RHUL Mobile does a different job: it covers the handful of things students open their phones for every day, and does them in two taps.
The app uses public data sources: the operator's own published timetable and running status for the buses, and the public machine-availability API for laundry. The campus map data is OpenStreetMap, manually verified against the official Royal Holloway maps and checked on foot.
Who built it
RHUL Mobile is built and run by SHACKSOLUTIONS LTD, a UK-registered software studio. We build useful, opinionated apps. RHUL Mobile is our first. If you want to get in touch, email rhulmobile@shack.solutions.
What is in the app today
- RHU departures, counting down, for every campus and Egham stop.
- Live laundry machine availability across five hall laundry rooms.
- Interactive campus map with real walking directions over OpenStreetMap data.
- SU and university events in one feed.
- Every RHUL society and sports club in one place.
- A student marketplace for textbooks, furniture and housemates.
- Deals from local Egham businesses shown right next to your campus map.
- Food outlet opening hours across campus.
- News from the university and the Students' Union in one feed.
How it is funded
The student-facing app stays free to use. There is no subscription to read content. The Deals tab is paid placement from local Egham businesses, and there are a small number of optional in-app purchases (marketplace bump credits and the like) that some students choose to use. Server costs are covered by the Deals tab. If you run a business near Royal Holloway and want to reach students, have a look at the partner page.
Guides
Things on the site that are not features of the app, just useful for being a Royal Holloway student:
- Wellbeing and mental health support at Royal Holloway. What the university offers, what is free anywhere in the UK, and how to access it without a login.
- Getting from Heathrow Airport to Royal Holloway. Bus 8, Uber, train. Costs and times.
- RHUL Mobile vs the official Royal Holloway app. What each one is for.
Get in touch
Bug reports, feature requests, anything else: rhulmobile@shack.solutions. We read every email and reply within a couple of days.
Press and partnership enquiries: same address. The full press kit is here.
Find the app on Instagram and TikTok at @rhulmobile and @rhulmobile.