Queen Camilla uses an "old-fashioned" mobile phone with no apps.

Queen Camilla doesn't use a smartphone

Queen Camilla doesn't use a smartphone

The 77-year-old royal - who is married to King Charles - isn't able to join in with her family's WhatsApp chat group because the old-style "brick" device she uses isn't capable of supporting such forms of communication.

Asked if his family uses WhatsApp to stay in touch, Camilla's son Tom Parker Bowles told Woman + Home magazine: "We do – my children, my sister and cousins – but my mum still uses an old-fashioned Nokia telephone, so [she] can’t. I think it’s for security.”

And the food writer admitted it is hard to keep in touch with his mother and relies on the news to keep him informed as to her whereabouts.

He said: “She’s working a lot harder. She’s always worked quite hard [so] it’s still the case of, I ring my mother, she doesn’t answer, I look on the television [and think] ‘Ah! She’s in Jersey’.”

For reasons of security, little is known about the royal family's mobile phones, but the late Queen Elizabeth was rumoured to own a Blackberry while the Daily Telegraph newspaper reports the king doesn't own one at all and instead relies on staff taking his calls.

Charles' son, Prince William, admitted earlier this year he is concerned people spend too much time on their mobiles.

Touring a youth club in London, the 41-year-old Prince of Wales - who has three children with wife Catherine, Princess of Wales - spoke to a group of teenagers who confessed to spending a lot of time scrolling on their devices.

He replied: “The grown-ups are guilty of it too. We have got to be better at it."

And William's brother, Prince Harry, has spoken of his concerns about young people accessing harmful material on their internet-enabled devices.

He told CBS News: “We always talk about in the olden days, if kids are under your roof, you know what they are up to. At least they’re safe.

“But now, they could in the next room, in a tablet or phone, going down these rabbit holes, and within 24 hours they could be taking their life.”