Roav Viva Pro, by Anker, Alexa-Enabled 2-Port USB Car Charger for Navigation and Music Streaming, for Cars with Bluetooth/CarPlay/Android Auto/Aux-in/FM Reception

I use Alexa in my house all the time and when I recently purchased a vintage 1994 Mercedes sl500, I lost my technology. No more Bluetooth, not even an aux port and no cup holders (Yikes!). This car still has a cassette player in the radio. Since I want to keep the car original, I started looking for Bluetooth alternatives. I found lots of cigarette lighter devices that can connect via the FM side of the radio. I found one on a stalk that had decent reviews so I purchased that one. Then I found out it didn't interfaces with the phone assistant. Hoping I could use the Alexa app. No go so I looked again and found one from the same company the did support assistants. Almost bought that one and then found this device with Alexa built in. Yahoo!. Got it it. Got the package and it was very nice. Very easy install, just plug it into the cigarette lighter. Download the Roav Viva app, follow the on screen instructions, set the FM channel and off you go. I was dubious at first. I have had FM transmitters in the past and they never worked very well. This works very well. The quality of playing music over the Bose system in the car is as good as direct FM. But the best thing is, I have my Alexa back. She is the only female I can tell her what to do and she does it. Hey, I have a wife and 6 daughters. The nice thing about having Alexa built in to the device is, I can just talk. The other devices, you have to click and hold the call button for up to 5 seconds to wake up the assistant and then there can be a pause before you can ask your question. This is fast. Just say Alexa, wait a second or two for the boing, state what you want and she does it. Obviously it is not all roses. You are connected to a cell phone and subject to the vagaries of that system. Driving around town there are dead spots and your music will cut off. A few seconds later, it will come back on. In this car, if you turn off the motor, the power goes off to the cigarette lighter leaving static on the radio. Other cars will behave differently. I found out though, if you are listening to Amazon prime or Pandora and just cut the power, you have to tell Alexa to play again when you reconnect. If I tell her to Pause before I turn off, all I have to do is tell Alexa to Resume when I reconnect. BTW, the reconnect is automatic and fast. Only a few seconds and your going again. I have a 60 mile commute to my work which I haven't done yet due to the holidays. When I do that a few times, I will update with a long term use test. So far, this has worked perfectly. I have played local FM radio channels via the Alexa skills, Amazon Prime music and Pandora. The one Major complaint that I have with the Roav Viva is they do not support Spotify. Their booklet says coming soon. It better. I don't know if it is a Spotify thing or a Roav thing, but they need to get their act together. Now, I need to buy another one to put in my wife's Yukon. Well, maybe not. I think she is jealous.

(UPDATE#3) After being contacted by the seller Anker products, they sent me a new replacement unit. Looks like i had a fauity unit because the new one responds much better than the all the issues i was having with my original one. (UPDATE#2) the unit has become unusable from an Aelxa standpoint. Doesnt even respond. (UPDATE#1) I had to add a new update and also change my review rating on this product. Its getting worse and there are complete car trips that the unit does NOTHING...Just hears what i say but takes NO action. Seems to be getting worse as the unit is aging. I was waiting to write a review after i had used the device for a few weeks and on a long trip. Well that has finally happened and here I am. I want to say that I used this device in a 2005 Toyota RAV4 which has very little technological additions other than maybe power windows. The Roav Viva has a great look to it and is pretty compact. I like the fact that there are 2 USB charging ports on it. It also makes it easy to connect to the FM radio and transmits really well over the factory equipment in the car. Now for the bugginess. The unit seems to sometimes just lose its marbles. It just blinks endlessly and i have to manually reset it to get it back. I also seem to find that a lot of times the device will listen to my command but do nothing with it. It just hears it, shows its thinking and then just kinda resets its state back to waiting. I also find that there are times when it gives me a network error even though i have full signal on my phone. Perfect example is playing XM/Sirius radio channels. I find that i cant connect over the network with the ROAV but yet have no problem playing the channle over the app. There are a few more quirky little nuances but i guess for a vehicle that has very little to no technology, its an OK addition.

I have a 45 minute commute, and I'm convinced my Echo Auto invitation is never going to come, so I bought this to add more functionality to my "dumb" car. I had to force-quit the Roav app a few times during setup - it would get stuck and not move to the next step. It also took a few tries to get the app to connect to the device (I had bluetooth-ed to it already, so I had to un-do that connection and restart the Roav). I'm using the Aux output; I've used it to play music from Amazon and iHeartRadio, get directions, and give a weather update. It can't play music from my iPhone via voice command, but I can just start that manually if I want to. I'm connected from an iPhone 7; no other bluetooth items in the car (no apple watch, etc). I have a very simple setup, and so far the Roav is great. I love that it turns on automatically when the car turns on, and the LED ring is really useful to know what it's thinking. I haven't done any calls through it yet, and this is still day 1, so I'll be sure to update the review if things change!

I drive all over and listen to audio books from audible (amazon company) and thought getting this would supplement my drives allowing me to communicate like my dots and plus devices do. Pro- Easy to install, easy to pair and if it works a nice unit. Plus matches the blue leds of everything in my CRV. Cons- Too many words in the audiobooks set this device off which causes audio to reduce while the roav try’s to figure out command. -Way too many “Weather service not available try again later” but if I use my phone with Alexa it works immediately. -Too many service connection poor, try again later. -Not a fast charger for your phone. Just a regular charger. Not a big problem for me since I’m driving for long hours it gets the job done. I’ll go back to my fast charger anker car plug, I’m past the return window so will see if someone else in the office wants it, otherwise I’ll pack this up and forget about it. I did not contact anker because I believe the product is working correctly, it’s just not that good of a product. I wanted to try the amazon version but they will not sell it to our business account.

I had this for over 4 years and just threw it out. The constant need to login everytime Alexa decided she wanted to do new updates became annoying, and this never really connected well to my car stereo - sometimes it worked, sometimes it didn't, which was very annoying. And when it did connect, the volume was very average quality. Even local radio stations have better volume, so this wasn't awesome. And maybe it was my cell service provider, but I can rarely recall a time where Alexa actually worked when I asked her a question. I spent more time dealing with Alexa logins and updates, it became to be too much. But at the time I purchased this, it's all there was, and I worked with it. But now there are many bluetooth adapters and I found a new awesome one. I personally wouldn't buy this one again.

An outstanding product. Used in a 2010 Toyota Prius With a Moto E5 plus phone. For an item that is the size of a normal charger, this device is packed with features. It's is easy to set up with the Android app, just connect to Bluetooth, pick your station, and login to alexa. Devices have always connected within 20 seconds of me starting my car. FM transmission from the device to my stereo is static free and crisp, voice recognition picks up my voice even at loud radio volume, and hands free calling works without issue. Alexa itself is hit or miss with some functions, setting up appointments can be a pain, but that is an Amazon problem, not the devices. Recommended for anyone who wants smart functions in their car without a complicated setup. FYI, if Alexa isn't your thing and your phone is mounted in an area that can easily pickup your voice, than this device and Android Auto w/ Google assistant works like a dream. All of my issues with Alexa disappear when using this device and Google together, including access to more music services, voice texting, and preprogrammed routines (i.e. when I get into my car and say "hey Google, good morning" it automatically starts navigation to work, tells me the weather, tells me what's on my calendar for the day, then starts my favorite Pandora station. The roav will still handle sending audio to the stereo and hands free calling, and the phones mic will handle Google assistant requests.

I purchased the Roav Viva this past weekend. I had wanted to have Alexa in the car for some time and have been waiting for the Amazon Echo to be released for almost a year. You need to be "invited" to buy it. Yeah.... Anyway, I found this as an alternative. It does what it says it can do and does it well. The Alexa functionality works like a charm. I have access to Amazon Music, TuneIn, iHeart radio, audible... and all the rest. This device is actually MORE versatile than Amazon's mythical product. It plugs into your cigarette lighter and is small and discreet. Instead of being limited to listening via BlueTooth, you can set up the device to broadcast over the radio. I did that and it works amazingly well. Of course, if you are blasting your radio, you do have to turn it down if you expect Alexa to hear you. Finally, the two chargers have a lot of power and work extremely well. They do more than keep your phone from dying. They charged my nearly-dead iPhone to full charge in about an hour. In short, if you're looking for an Alexa device in the car, this is a really good choice. If you're tired of waiting for Amazon to determine if you're special enough to get an invitation for their product, go with the Roav Viva. It seems like a better product anyway.

Maybe if you have no experience with Alexa devices and no experience with Roav devices this would seem like a good device. As for me, I LOVED my old Roav SmartCharge F2 and my only complaint was that I wished it would have voice control. I bought this device even though it was over priced based on how great that one was and it has been a disappointment in literally every category. 1) It doesn't work with Spotify even though it said it would. I've heard reports that other people have started having Spotify work so I hope that maybe I'll get that update soon. As for now, it just says "Spotify isn't supported on this device" when I ask it to play Spotify. 2) The sound quality is noticeably worse than my old Roav that I only paid $18 for. I'm using the FM transmitter function so I admit that you might have a better time if you did a hardline connection. But I used the FM transmitter on my old Roav device and it was great. 3) It understands what I'm asking, but it can't do any of it. I tell it to send a text message and it can't, I tell it to order a pizza which is advertised above and works with my other Alexa devices and even works if I turn the Viva off and just use the Alexa on my phone. The Viva says it can't. I ask it even a simple question and it can't answer. It seems like there might be some wire crossed with it accessing internet through my phone because I just can't figure out how to do anything. 4) Given the price of this device and how wonderful my previous Roav was, I admit that I came in with high expectations, but this device has been a total disappointment at every level. It is a terrible value for the money. Just get the SmartCharge F2 for a quarter of the cost and you'll have a far superior device. I'm sure they'll get there eventually with a combo Roav/Alexa device, but this is not the one. 5) Another reason why this is worse than the old F2, it doesn't start up as quickly and this causes two problems. First, it makes the the radio make a loud static noise until the Roav picks up (maybe not a problem if you're not using the FM transmitter). And second, since the voice controls are totally ineffectual and since this device doesn't auto start music like the older version did, I'm put in the position of either just sitting in my driveway until this device decides to connect to my phone or trying to manually turn the music on while I'm driving. The only improvement I've noticed over previous models is that the Bluetooth range seems to be longer. I've got inside the store and left my car running only to realize that my audio was still connected to the Viva. I don't know that I have any real need for my car audio system to stay connected to my phone at that range, but it might come in handy at some point.