ROAV Viva by Anker, Alexa-Enabled 2-Port USB Car Charger in-Car Navigation, Compatible with Android and iOS Smart Devices

I have this working in an older (early 2000) model vehicle without bluetooth or aux and I'll explain how.I see a lot of questions from people about how you connect this to your vehicle stereo system. The Roav DOESN'T CONNECT TO YOUR STEREO. That's the first thing to understand, i connects to your phone over bluetooth and that's the only option.CONNECTION DISCUSSION:How 'alexa' comes out on your car stereo has nothing to do with the Roav. The question is how do you make your PHONE come out your stereo, the common option in new cars is Bluetooth. But your phone needs to be new enough to have 2 active bluetooth connections at once. If your phone is older, it won't be able to do this. So then your next option is to connect your phone to your stereo via an aux port and a 2.5mm cable. So Roav talks to your phone over bluetooth and your phone talks to the car over the cable. If you have an older model car you probably don't have an aux port on your stereo and certainly no bluetooth so now what can you do? Well I use an FM Transmitter that can talk to my phone on bluetooth or a 2.5mm cable. With an FM transmitter the Roav talks to your phone on bluetooth, your phone talks to the FM Transmitter via Bluetooth or 2.5mm cable (you'd use the cable if your phone is older and can't have 2 active Bluetooth connections) and the FM transmitter broadcasts on a channel that my radio is tuned to.STYLE/BUILD:The Roav is built really well it doesn't feel like cheap plastic. There's a light ring just as all native amazon echo devices have and if you don't want it to listen to you there's a mute mutton in the center. IT feels like a pretty high quality product and measures about 1" x 2" so it's larger than an average USB charger but not excessively large.FEATURES:The two charging ports can deliver up to 4.8amps total and there is circuitry inside that they call PowerIQ to deliver the maximum amps your device can take. It's not quick charge though. The spec says 2 iphone7+ phones will charge from empty to full in a little less than 2 1/2hrs.The top of the Roav has two mics that are noise canceling and do a decent job of filtering out car noise, an there's a mute button.The border of the top has the traditional ring of light found on all Echo devices that behaves just like any Echo device. I do find that it's a bit difficult to see the ring of light in the brightness of a vehicle mid-day though, the app does have brightness adjustments but even at high it's pretty dim in mid afternoon sunlight.It DOES NOT have any type of speaker inside of it and is incapable of responding to you directly without your phone being hooked up to your stereo.Otherwise there's not much on the device itself, it's pretty streamlined.THE APP:In order to make Roav work, it must be connected to your phone via Bluetooth and you need to download the app. The app and will ask for the following permissions : Contacts for (voice dialing), Phone (for dialing), Location/GPS (so it can map directions for you or find the closest whatever to your location and Storage. The app will also ask to link to your Amazon account for Echo skills, Prime features or other subscription based Amazon services like Amazon Music and to be meshed in with the rest of your Echos.The app has a 'connect' button on it to re-establish connection to your Roav when you get in the vehicle. This doesn't seemingly happen on its own. The only other option is settings where you can adjust the ring of light brightness, download the latest Roav firmware, manage connections and GPS/Mapping options. At the moment the app is fairly basic, but is required to operate your Roav.OVERALL OPERATIONSo in my old car when I turn the engine off the Roav stays ON. Which i thought was great because it would auto-connect when I came in range, but when i actually turn the engine on it cuts the power to the cig lighter socket and the Roav goes off and stays off until i pull it out and put it back in. So kind of weird. The manual actually recommends pulling the Roav out a bit so it's not always connected. How your car operates will no doubt be different than mine.When I ask Alexa to play music it defaults to Amazon's own music services, if you want to play music on another service you need to specify. At the moment the music services currently supported are Amazon Music, Iheartradio, Pandora, SiriusXM and TuneIN, with Spotify coming soon.Depending on how loud your music is when you try and give Alexa a command you may need to yell or turn down your stereo, it does do noise canceling but it can't overcome loud music it seems.Voice calling works the same as voice calling on any Amazon Echo device, just say the name of the contact and it'll search your phones contacts and ask you which number to dial if there are multiples listed , or you can just say the phone number to dial and away it goes. Pretty seamless, works as expected.The other nice thing it does is it'll interface with your Echo Skills. So I have a bunch of smart plugs / switches in my house to turn lights on/off for example. Now when I pull up into the driveway, i can say to the Roav "Alexa turn on Hallway Light" and the hallway light will be on before I leave my vehicle. That'll be really handy in the winter getting home after work when it's dark.The other handy thing it does is it will tell you where the nearest something is. So Alexas where's the nearest gas station, or where's the nearest McDonalds. The demos show that it can draw you directions on a map to what you asked about, so far I haven't made that work but it's no doubt some security setting in my phone I have to back off to make that work properly.And yes, this works with ANDROID despite the box only listing iPhone compatibility. I'm running on android 7 (Nougat) and it works great.CONCLUSION:If Alexa is fully integrated into your life, this is a great expansion to your Alexa network. Now you can take her on the road with you. It works great, does what it says it does, build quality is great. As an avid Alexa device user, i'm happy to have her in the car with me.

THE PROS: ROAV VIVAFor being an aftermarket device, Roav has done an incredible job creating a decent adapter to turn your car stereo into a smart radio. It mimics the Echo pretty well, having most of Alexa’s abilities with a few extras to make it fit the driving experience.Slapped with the Anker badge, it comes with two USB charging ports nestled on the bottom of a small discrete little boxed plug that fits directly into your car’s power port. No wires. No mess. Out of the way. It is really nice, especially if you are particular as I am with your vehicle. It must not be cluttered when adding extras to it.It is very simple to connect, even if you need to add an FM transmitter, like my dad, to help connect it to your radio, or like me, a Bluetooth adapter if you have an AUX port. It only connects through Bluetooth, but there are ways to get it set up in an older vehicle. There is an upgraded Roav Viva that has a transmitter built into it as well if that is easier for you. I can’t tell you how well it works, but I have faith it will. Anyway, all you have to do is plug it in, download the app on your phone, follow the simple directions, sign in to your Alexa account, and the Roav is ready to play! Seriously, it took two minutes to have it up and running.A neat added feature that is unique to the Alexa-enabled driving device is the navigation. You simply speak to Alexa and she opens up your navigation app on your phone and starts spitting out directions while lowering the volume of your music so you don’t miss a turn (which happens if you manually set up navigation through your phone, also). However, you need to be specific where your destination is located. Simply saying “Take me to the closest Wal-mart” will get you a two and a half-hour ride and across state borders. Be sure you have an actual address handy.THE CONS: ROAV VIVAFirst of all, I do have a gripe that isn’t really against the product itself. When I saw the Roav Viva online, I had some trouble purchasing it. It got lost in transit, and they didn’t have enough to replace it. It wasn’t a solitary incident either. Informing a friend just as interested in the device, he, too, had shipping problems as well. Mine eventually got to me where he had to take a loss and had to buy a lesser quality one. It was a very frustrating moment, but I highly doubt that is an issue now. I want to say they were still kinda new at the time.One huge disappointment was the charging on the device. Being an Anker product, I expected the Roav to be exceptional at charging even the most tired device! Having to have Bluetooth along with the location on my phone while having the screen on just to use the GPS was draining my refurbished Galaxy 7 with a battery that started to lose its ability to hold a charge. So on long trips, just like anyone else with an old, run-down phone, I would have to plug it in just to keep it alive. With the Roav Viva, that task was discouragingly unaccomplished. It did slow down the imminent death of my phone, but that was about it. Side note, I wonder if they were aware of the problem since they randomly contacted me to offer a free ‘Thanks for being a Roav Customer’ external battery pack on their own accord. Either way, that was super nice of them. Those battery packs are awesome, so there were no complaints out of me. They redeemed themselves after that poor service at the beginning of this experience, but I digress.Despite easy connection, there were plenty of times I had to fight the Roav to connect to my phone. A lot of the time I had to manually tap under my phone’s Bluetooth setting just for it to connect. Though a bit inconvenient, it wasn’t that big of a deal for me. I don’t ever expect things to work perfectly. Pick your battles. At least the fix was quick and instantaneous.Found out the yellow ring, the one similar to the yellow ring on your Echo at home notifying you of a message, was rather deceiving. It notifies you that you have the message, but it does not receive them nor sends them out. Even the phone function was poor. I tried several times to see if I could improve the quality for the person on the receiving end of the phone call to hear me, but it deemed impossible. All you heard was the sound of someone talking underwater about a mile away. The Roav user heard the repetitive ‘hello’s’ and the ‘can’t hear you’s’ beautifully, but nothing coherent was making its way back to the other end.The most annoying thing, at least for a music blaster like me, is that it doesn’t hear it’s wake word when the radio volume is increased. I love loud music, and some of mine are bassy, too (I like electronic music), and the Roav did not respond to my yelling just to wake it up. Every time I wanted to change the track, I would have to lower the volume to almost nada to get its attention, then turn the volume back up only to find out I want to skip to the next song. Rinse and repeat. So much for hands-free! Also, if I was playing a round of a game like ‘Song Quiz’, I would have to turn down the volume during the ad portion of the game just so she wouldn’t confuse herself by giving herself her own commands. It was entertaining the first time around, but it got old real quickIn the end, I still enjoy the device and would recommend it to anyone.~initiativetavern.com

4/18/18 Update. After VIVA reached out to me to discuss my experience with their product, I’ve revisited my review of the VIVA.If VIVA’s goal is to create the in-home Alexa experience in your vehicle., then VIVA comes close, sort of. Before purchasing the device you’ll want to evaluate how you use Alexa in your house and then, what you’d envision it doing in your car. Alexa’s role for my family is mostly to sit on a shelf and wait patiently to give weather reports, answer lots of random and sometimes silly questions, to add stuff to shopping lists, as an intercom, sound a call to dinner, and play music.The biggest hurdle to overcome, and what interferes with VIVA being that same in-home experience, is VIVA’s reliance on your mobile phone as the go-between itself and your vehicle. Unfortunately the VIVA cannot connect directly to the vehicle’s BT. This negates the seamless Alexa in the background effect and where this may become a greater issue is dependent on how your vehicle handles BT audio input from your mobile phone. In our 2014 vehicle, BT audio is a “source” which you’ve got to select in the stereo system. So, unless you’ve selected the mobile phone BT source, you’ll get nothing in terms of banter from Alexa, and by selecting a source, you’ve then eliminated FM/AM/CD/DVD/XM/etc., etc as the other potential sources of audio.The workaround is to stream EVERYTHING (meaning radio, music, etc.) via Alexa/Mobile phone. This allows you to listen to your audio material and ask Alexa random questions, with all audio/responses coming thru the vehicle's stereo system. This method consumes more data but it’s the most seamless experience until Alexa gets on-board/baked in treatment. I don't see any way around it, if you want to have your music/radio playing and always have Alexa on tap too, without switching audio sources back and forth. With VIVA, streaming everything is what we’ve been doing, although the audio quality isn’t as great streaming as it is directly from the radio.Phone calls: Mediocre quality. Comparing to the vehicle’s onboard calling, the sound quality thru the VIVA to the mobile phone is not great, probably due to the extra layer of BT, although Alexa had no trouble responding and calling the correct people when asked.Navigation: Not workable since for this function the VIVA device requires your phone to be unlocked and running the VIVA app. You’re better off using onboard or your mobile phone’s navigation.Spotify: Not supported by the VIVA.VIVA app: You must install and have the VIVA app running on your phone. The app can be minimized and entirely in the background, and the phone can be screen-locked. I double checked the following: With the phone running the VIVA app in the background and screen locked, and phone in the glovebox for good measure, I've confirmed that you can ask Alexa to play music, add stuff to lists, random questions, call, but not use Navigation. Additionally, households with multiple drivers will each need the app on their mobile phone.Bottomline: If you use Alexa as an assistant at home/office and want it in your car for the same sort of stuff, like adding pasta to the shopping list, answering math questions, etc., the VIVA is a workable device but its not nearly as ready/seamless as having a DOT or ECHO sitting on your shelf waiting to interact. I'm not convinced VIVA adds anything to newer vehicles with onboard BT and related functions. In fact for higher level functions such as NAV and calling, your phone’s or vehicle’s built-in systems are probably much more efficient and effective particularly on newer phones with 'ask Siri' or similar voice activated assistants. Build & appearance, as I said before, it’s a solid bit of hardware. Customer service is solid as well.For a VIVA -- Your best luck may be had in older vehicles that don’t have onboard BT or baked in NAV. I think the VIVA may be a better idea for the folks that hook their phone up to their stereo via a cable, or thru an FM/BT transmitter arrangement. You wouldn't be fighting with the vehicle's onboard BT systems and the connectivity expectations wouldn’t be as high-- maybe maybe not.Previous Review:Okay.. It's a great concept. In fact, we'd used a battery powered Dot and hotspot to do this prior to purchasing the VIVA. The Dot/hotspot method actually has some advantages over the VIVA, which I'll get to below.It's typical Anker build quality. A really nice dual USB charger, looks nice. It does basic Alexa functions well. "Hello..., Time, Weather, etc." More advanced commands, such as navigation or music requests can get dicey at times perhaps due to audio reception in the vehicle.The biggest drawback is the tethering/dependence of the VIVA on your phone, and using the phone as the go between to your vehicle -- you need to have your phone unlocked and running the VIVA app for full functionality, and well I may as well use "hey Siri" if I've got to have my phone open, right?The second hurdle which I touched on above, depends on how your vehicle handles/integrates Bluetooth audio. We have a Ford. The VIVA requires a BT connection to a phone and the phone is the go between to the vehicle. I don't see any way to link the VIVA directly to my vehicle's BT system (a 2014 Ford). Therefore, if you want to banter with Alexa you've got to give over the entire stereo/audio to the VIVA (i.e. the phone's BT audio). Bear in mind, if you use an Alexa like our family does -- it's just to ask Alexa mostly inane questions, this becomes a problem if you normally listen to the radio or other vehicle audio inputs or phone audio, or whatever in your vehicle. You can't do that and communicate with Alexa. On top of that, my Hey Siri function is more robust for streaming BT audio from my iPhone directly to the vehicle, and my vehicle's built in NAV works great, or so does getting navigation from Hey Siri.Bottom line I think is that Alexa in general is fantastic, it's great at the "hello, weather, what time do the Wild play sort of stuff.." but I'm not going to switch between audio sources to do that am I? I guess maybe, the kids seem to think so. Anyway, I think the next product should be a Dot attached directly to a cigarette lighter adapter dongle that will BT link directly to your vehicle and pull data from phone without an app.

UPDATE - 4/10/18: Final update until they fix this piece of junk. I give it ZERO stars.Today was the last straw. I have tried to like this device, really I have. ROAV sent me a replacement device because of all the troubles I was having with the last one. This one may be worse. It frequently thinks it hears the wake word when it is not said. I can scream the wake word and it never wakes up.Today was a new low. Stuck in traffic on I-4 in Orlando listen to a radio program on iHerart radio. They go to the news and the news reader says "Scott will face Senator Bill Nelson... " BOOM it wakes up. Then decides that it can't help me. The host then says "Up next ..." BOOM it wakes up. It did this no less than 7 times today. Mind you, two times I immediately said Alexa after the device went back to listening. Ignored me.The last time it woke to a false wake word it said "here are some movies you might be interested in."In addition, 3 times it lost BT communication with my phone.Oh, STILL NO SPOTIFY.Sorry, but this thing is a piece of junk. I think my 17 year old could have done a better implementation of it.I will come back to it once a week, hoping that they will fix it. I so wanted Alexa in my czr, but this certainly is not the way to do it in it's current state.UPDATE - 3/21/18: I am afraid that I must downgrade my rating yet again after this morning's fiasco.I commute most days to "Darden Center Drive" in Orlando, FL. I have been doing it for several months now, using Google Maps.This morning, I get in the car, get everything setup and say "Alexa ... drive to Darden Center Drive". Mind you, I did this exact same thing on 3/19 and 3/20. It only ignored me those days.It opens Google Maps and routes me to Center Street in Darien, CT.NOT EVEN CLOSE. I then ask Alexa again, using the same command. It routes me to Garden Drive somewhere in California.AGAIN, NOT EVEN CLOSE. I say it again, slowly and clearly. Nothing. The fourth time is a charm apparently.Now, as I am driving, I ask Alexa . I ask Alexa. I ask Alexa AGAIN. No response three tomes in a row. I wait about 30 seconds and it finally responds. I ask it to play iHeartRadio. Alexa responds "Getting the last station played on iHeart Radio, Sunny ..." Wrong. The last station played was last night and it was WFLA.I go to look in the Alexa app to see what was heard, none of these is being recorded in the app. So I have no record. Very, very bad.Driving in, there is a spot on the radio that they run on "Smart Speakers". They mention Story Time, an Alexa skill. Of course the device hears THAT Alexa every single time. Those are recorded in the Alexa app. 3 times.And the final straw was about 5 minutes later. The blue light lit up, started rotating, got the acknowledgement tone and Alexa started saying "Welcome to Alexa Prize". Then the blue light would rotate and say "Welcome to Alexa Prize".I counted 20 times it said this before I unplugged and plugged it back in to reboot it.Oh, yeah, to mute the mic you have to hold the mike button for about 5 seconds. To speak you just press. Should be the other way around, a short press for mute and a long press to activate.I cannot in good faith recommend this device. If they improve it I will come back and update but for now it is not even worth $10.UPDATE - 3/20/18: I am lowering my rating of the product to 2 stars for two reasons. 1) The device does not hear very well at all. It takes multiple attempts to get it to understand you.I use the phrase "Alexa ..... Navigate to [business or address]" (which is in their documentation). I get the response "I'm sorry, I cannot find any videos relating to [whatever I asked to navigate to]. Videos???? I then say "Alexa .... Route me to [business or address]" (which is also in their documentation). Alexa spins and spins and spins, then stops. (Note, this whole time I have the app in the foreground.) It takes me several times to get it to work properly.2) I do not let any app "Always" use my location. However, they (Anker) WANT you to have that setting so they put a nag screen every single time you start the app telling you to go to settings and turn on "Always allow location". This is VERY disrespectful of the end user and makes you wonder WHY they always want to know your location. Waze did this a little while back and we blasted them so much that they changed it to allow "Only when using the app" again. Anker, I suggest stop with the nag screen. I know how I want to use MY phone. I don't need you telling to use it differently every time I start your app.#2 os the big one for me.First impressions of the Roav VIVA by Anker.Environment - iPhone 6, iOS updated; 2013 Sonata; car has BT audio, AUX-in, and USB in for audio.Alexa/Echo experience - very high, I have had an Echo since the initial shipment and in our home we have 3 Echos, 2 Dots, 2 Taps, 2 Spots, and a Show. We use Alexa for lighting, music, cooking, watching video (on the Show), and plenty of other things.I got the device 3/14, immediately went and put it in the car. I was told by another user that it immediately wanted to do an update but was not prepared for it to take so long. A good half-hour was needed. (UPDATE - Anker emailed me and said they have fixed this issue. Not sure how, I had the latest app update. It is just slow.)Connected up easy enough. I wanted to use my USB in for audio but alas Sonatas are horrible for that so I ended up using BT audio. It initially disconnected my BT from the car and I had to reconnect. Will need to monitor this to see if it happens more.After the update I tried a could of things, it worked but was just ok.Morning of 3/15 I got in car, started the Roav app and it connected up after about 30 seconds. Needs to connect faster.Told Alexa to play iHeart Radio and she did - eventually.Told Alexa to take me to and address and she opened Google Maps with the correct destination mapped out - eventually.Got on the road and tried the calling feature. I asked Alexa to call my wife. It then asked if I wanted to call [wife's name] or [wife's name]. It did not differentiate between her mobile number or work number just said the name twice. Sloppy. But it did make the call while iHeart Radio and Google Maps were running.Pros:Easy setupActually have Alexa in my carUnit fits well in the area where my power outlets areTwo extra charging portsAlso works with USB, now if the Sonata would work well with it's own USB inputCons:Update took forever. Beware of that when you first startCan be a little hard of hearing. This may be the placement of the unit but I can clearly see the unit.Takes a while for Alexa to start "listening" when you use the wake word, one time it was about 20 secondsCan take a while for Alexa to actually carry out the request.NO SPOTIFY, and it won't be done by the end of March despite some of their material saying "Coming March 2018". Sent an email and they indicated that it would not be available in March.Overall I like it, it needs a lot of work. I will update the review as I use it more.A solid 3 out of 5 for now.

***Read the update at the end for my most recent experience***I really wanted this to work, and I really wanted to like it. Instead, I have a $40 car charger and that's just about it.Setup:Setup was easy enough. I had to add an additional step for my Samsung phone, allowing the app to run in the background, but to be fair, the Viva App recognized I was using a Samsung phone (S8 Plus) and made it easy to do. I used BlueTooth to connect to my car (2016 Jeep Grand Cherokee) and that was easy as well.Functionality:Wish I could say this thing works as good as the other 7 other Alexa products I have in the house, but sadly I can't. First, I have yet to have the device actually wake up to the Alexa wake word. I have confirmed the device is connected to my phone and connected to my phone's Alexa app. It shows up in my Alexa app as well. Saying the wake word, well over 50 times, and the unit has yet to recognize it. On any of my other Alexa products, this has never been a problem.Second, when using the push button on the top of the unit, it takes about 5-8 seconds for the APP to recognize it has been pushed. This is not a dealbreaker, but what is a dealbreaker is that even when the Viva App shows it is "Listening" after pushing the button, it never does anything. It listens, then says "thinking", then does nothing. I have tried playing music from Amazon Music, tried playing my flash briefing, tried listening to ESPN radio, etc., not ONCE has any of these worked. ZERO times. Even if this did work, I was looking for a handsfree device. I do not want to look down from the road to push a button (and depending on the location of the unit, like in my case, it can be dangerous while driving 75 MPH down the highway).So basically, this is a $40 phone car charger, which I could buy for about $15.Updating the Firmware of the unit did not fix any of the issues I was having.I will probably return the unit unless something magical happens over the next couple of days and it decides to work, but I fear they have yet to iron out the bugs in the first generation unit. I will update this review if I do get it to work as I was really looking forward to getting Alexa in the car.Pros:1. Small footprint2. Easy setup3. Charges your phone4. Price of $39.99 (on sale) is a bargain if the device actually worked.Cons:1. Alexa does not work, at all. Zero, which negates any PRO above2. Delay in App recognizing the physical button on the unit was pushed/activated5.25.18 Update:Not sure exactly how or why, but this product now works everytime I use it. Besides the original Firmware update I did when I first installed it, nothing changed with the unit or the environment it was being used in. After a few frustrating days, the unit just started working. Over the last few weeks, it has been flawless. There have been a few firmware updates during the time it was working and this may have contributed to it continuing to work but it did just magically start to work after my original difficulties.I really enjoy having Alexa now in my vehicle as it is truly a no-look voice system. I get in my car start it up and Alexa is available to me. I use it with Bluetooth in my vehicle. I also had to take a trip and rent a car. I brought along an audio cable and used it this way in the rental and again, no issues.I also want to mention the support I received from Anker. They reached out to me, because of my original review. They were very supportive, knowledgeable and very willing to work with me. I found this to be a breath of fresh air. They offered to replace my unit, offered me a discount on any other Anker product, which I missed out on due to me being away on business, and were overall very willing to make sure I was a happy, satisfied customer.Overall, this is a great little device that I can recommend if you want Alexa in your vehicle that also doubles as a charger. If not for the initial couple days of frustration, this would get an even higher rating and recommendation.

What an awesome product. A 2 port fast charger is a great thing all on it's own. Throw Alexa into the mix for $50? This thing is a no brainer. Linking with Bluetooth to your phone is a snap. The app works perfectly. Device powers up and links very quickly with zero issues.From there you need to link your phone to your car by Bluetooth or through the Aux jack. Older cars with earlier implementations of Bluetooth or older phones might have issues because older versions of Bluetooth don't support multiple simultaneous connections but my 2017 Hyundai Sante Fe with the Tech package and my Note 8 had no issues at all. Your experience will likely depend on the hardware you have to go with the VIVA but I can tell you with the right car and phone this thing works perfectly.Alexa can do all the stuff you would expect. Flash briefings, answer questions, weather, time, place calls, pandora, Amazon music and all the rest. It works flawlessly. You do have to say "Alexa <PAUSE> what's the weather..." The pause needs to be more pronounced than for the home Echo units. And possibly you need to talk a bit louder than at home depending on the insulation in your car and road noise. Otherwise it's exactly like having a Echo dot in your car. With one difference - the device has no speaker.And that's where you might run into an issue. It stumped me and also tech support so I gave this thing a 1 star review and was about to return it. Then somebody at Anker wrote a comment and solved my issue. Customer support from Anker is really good.Here's my issue: Using the VIVA while you are using an FM Radio. I'll just go into a bit of detail here. When your phone pairs to your car it will give you three categories - Call Audio, Media Audio and Contact Access. Usually you give your car access to all 3. The VIVA uses the Media Audio. A Bluetooth telephone call will use Call Audio. Now think about that a moment.If your car is playing Bluetooth media (ie streaming Pandora) you will have no issues. You say "Alexa..." and she shuts off Pandora and chats with you. Everything works as expected.But what if you are playing your FM Radio? Your Bluetooth Call audio will still pass through to the car no problem and you think all is well. But your VIVA won't work at all. It's audio will be going through Bluetooth Media and your car will be playing FM audio so your VIVA won't work. It will seem like the VIVA is broken or gone stupid.There are three work-arounds - none are perfect solutions for everyone.1) Use your car dash button to change between FM Radio and Bluetooth Media before you talk to the VIVA. Which defeats the purpose of a hands free device. Not a fan of this idea but it's all Anker tier 1 support could think of.2) Use Android Auto. If your car happens to have Android Auto you are all set. Android Auto and the VIVA work perfectly together. The only issue is you need to use a data cable from your phone to your car to make Android Auto work. Newer versions of Android Auto may work without a cable but not yet. This is something to be aware of if you want a hands free zero hassle experience. I figured this one out on my own.3) Final option - Disable the Bluetooth Media option on the bluetooth connection to your car (the car pairing not the VIVA pairing). This forces the VIVA to use your cell phone speaker for Alexa audio out put. Which works perfectly for regular Alexa functions BUT it means no more music streaming from your phone to your car - the bluetooth media is fully disabled. Worse, you can't use Alexa to play Pandora on your cell phone speaker - the VIVA just says "connect to your car's bluetooth to stream music". So you give up Pandora and music streaming entirely with this option.I don't stream music from my phone to my car so it's no issue for me at all and thus the 5 star review. But if you use music streaming AND also want to use FM radio (or satellite XM radio or CD or whatever) you probably won't love this device.

I'll start by saying we have 6 echos in our house, so we're pretty familiar with how an Alexa *should* work.I'd been looking forward to this device since I heard about it, and waited until a few reviews came in before ordering. Based on my experience vs. some of the initial reviews I saw, I'm guessing there were a lot of free or discounted for review units sent out to folks, but who knows maybe I just got a bad unit (more on this later).I was really looking forward to having Alexa on the road, for adding quick todos to my lists, controlling some of our home automation before we got home, and a little music from time to time.While all of these activities are possible with Viva, they are so annoying to perform, I finally unplugged the device.Pros:1. Easy setup2. Much smaller than I expected it to be, which is niceCons:1. The device works about 10-15% of the time with the "Alexa" wake word. Most of the time it just ignores you. While I expected it to be a little worse in a mobile environment than at home, it's unusable. Even with a parked car, and the audio turned way down, it's hit or miss as to whether Viva will hear you. The device does have a "wake" button, but feeling around for that while I'm driving is a pain, and not what I thought I was buying.2. The App integration seems off- I assumed the app could just be left running in the background on my phone, and this works some of the time, but other times the app needs to be active (for the same command) to work. I wasn't able to figure out the rhyme or reason to this, but having to pull the app up and leaving it running the whole time every time I get in the car is a pain. If I could actually wake the device when I wanted, maybe the app part would be tolerable, but instead it is just another annoyance compounding with Viva. (FWIW, I'm using an iPhone X)3. Support? - This is one of those companies that starts sending you emails after you purchase their item from Amazon. Usually, I don't mind this since the mails offer tips and instructions, or offer help. I finally responded to one of several mails ("if you need help respond to this mail"), and described my issues, and asked if I maybe had a bad unit, or if they had any suggestions. This was last week, and I haven't heard from them at all.4. Bluetooth integration - this one is a bit of a nit, but I'm putting it here because I couldn't find the answer to this anywhere before I ordered mine. Obviously if you are listening to music from Viva, you need your car set to bluetooth audio mode in your car. But other times I might just want to hear the response from Alexa and leave my audio set to radio or satellite. Even though most navigation apps can handle this (sending the audio through the always active bluetooth phone channel), Viva app does not. The car must be in bluetooth audio mode for you to hear any responses at all - so if you are listening to audio from any other provider, you must switch your car over to BT audio mode, just to hear the weather or even the "OK" that Alexa has heard your command.5. Viva **Loves** audiobooks and podcasts! After giving up on this thing, and kind of trying to forget about it, I took a several hour roadtrip where I finished an audio book, and then listened to podcasts. The Viva finally woke up constantly (every 3-6 minutes) from the speaking, even though nothing in the audio sounded like "Alexa". I was bored and driving, and kind of amused by the constant "Sorry, I don't understand" so I left Viva plugged in to se how bad it really was. The record was 14 minutes, but in general it was every 3-6 mins for it to inaccurately respond to a non-wake word. I finally unplugged it. While we're used to our home Alexas waking up from time to time incorrectly, it's usually kind of funny since it only happens once a week or so, but every 3-6 mins is not funny at all.I'm hoping this unit may get better over time (with a firmware update) - but for now, it's in the glovebox.

Firstly I'd like to start by saying that this is an amazing product and a great idea. Now while this product still has room for improvement in order to be perfect, it's already miles ahead of competitor products like the  Garmin Speak with Amazon Alexa  and while I have not tried the Garmin Speak, I'll tell you why I picked the ROAV VIVA instead. The Garmin Speak is a tiny but bulky looking HUD meant to offer directions as well as Alexa capabilities all for around $150 USD. I'd like to argue that the ROAV VIVA does everything the Garmin Speak does except for including a HUD all while looking more attractive and costing a third the price. The VIVA is a car charger which means it's simply meant to sit in the cigarette lighter outlet, no need for ugly wires which you'll have to carefully place and attach to your car and no mounting the device to your windshield where it may someday come crashing down while you're driving. Not to mention, unlike the Garmin Speak, because this is a car charger, you can actually charge and power devices from its two USB ports which are made using tech from ANKER who are notorious for their great cables and power banks. The ROAV VIVA is capable of giving you full Alexa capabilities (Though some like Spotify are still being worked on) which means it can give you directions using Waze, Google maps, or even the iOS maps app. So while it doesn't have a tiny HUD displaying lanes/turns, you can still have the VIVA direct you to your destination. Though by far the biggest advantage that this device has is its price point, $50, a third of the cost of the Garmin Speak and only $20 more than an Echo Dot.I think tech like this will be a serious advantage to those with cars either made before these options were available built into the cars or people who simply don't want to overpay for expensive package features. Imagine you're buying a car but in order to get voice command capabilities, you would have to shell out another $800 for some entertainment package, why do that when you could purchase something like the ROAV VIVA for $50 which will be regularly updated and offers great support.The device itself comes in nice clean packaging and feels rather well built. If you thought this device would be some cheaply made piece of plastic, you will definitely be surprised as the quality is excellent.Now, unfortunately, this product does have some areas that it needs major improvement upon, mainly the app. The app has moments when it really shines and then it also has moments when it absolutely falls flat on its face. Using the app to set up and manage the ROAV VIVA is awesome and incredibly easy to use. They even have a built-in support chat feature which is easy to find and use should any issues arise. The biggest drawback of the VIVA is that you have to have to app open and for most features, the phone must be unlocked too in order to do anything related to audio or controlling music. This is a huge inconvenience and gets incredibly annoying when you ask Alexa to do something and are met with "Something else is using the audio on this device, please return to the ROAV VIVA App to continue..." (Paraphrasing). If this was fixed and I could interact with the VIVA without having to go through all that, I would have absolutely no issues with the VIVA and I'd be recommending it to everyone. Another issue with I occasionally run into from time to time is the app will sometimes speak up/turn on even when my phone is locked and I'm nowhere near my car and start welcoming me as though I were about to drive off. That can be extremely annoying especially if you're busy or can't be disturbed but I expect that should be an easy fix for them and hopefully, it'll be corrected soon.Overall, I love the product and can't wait to see what becomes of it as new features are supported and updates come out. It's definitely worth the money and I'll be recommending it a lot.

Update: This afternoon i retried the product and it appears things have synced better after being restarted. Apparently the App is working in the background after all but your car may be assuming you have your audio paused and you won't hear Alexa. I noticed something was off. When i opened the app though the car would resume track in my bluetooth audio. I would recommend if you had my issues to actually first thing when you get into the car is start music and then you're going to hear Alexa and there won't be an issue with not hearing her. So you can actually be out of the Roav App and it will start automatically in the car when you start your engine which is nice.All my concerns were addressed now and i look forward to Spotify support. I was even able to call Renata this time around without an issue. Maybe things weren't totaly synced so its best to walk away and restart sometimes.My previous experience on first setup/trial:The setup process is simple, if it fails to update firmware you can retry and it will hold your progress which is great. This kind of misses the mark though and here is why.-What i have- Iphone 8 Plus, Mercedes c300-2014, Bluetooth Audio (Though they said it doesn't fit, it fit my car's ports so idk why they say that on website. Worst case go buy a cigarette lighter extender if your serious about using this!)In order to use Alexa as of 3-1-2018. the Roav App must be open first for Alexa to work. So you get in the car turn it on and you have to actually touch your phone, unlock phone, open Roav app then you can tell Alexa to go to any address (if you say it out like ex- 555 route 22 west nj). She will then open up either Waze or Google Maps. I use Waze. So i have a couple "Favorites" like my Fiance's parents house. I said Alexa get me directions to Renata's House. Response is i don't know that one/request. If i do Alexa get me directions to nearest starbucks, then it works no problem. so point 1 it won't do your favorites but it WILL do Home & Work Favorites. This product though isn't really saving me much from just unlocking phone and tapping waze then clicking a favorite but this part is fine and you're going to be ok with that.There is no Spotify support right now but i know that will change soon? However if you say play a song or play a song by Drake or song name it will default to amazon music and not Apple music or spotify or any other music app (Radio apps either, though they show support for these apps on the website). Alexa can NOT Play, Pause or increase volume even if you are currently playing a song you physically selected in one of your music apps.So i was listening to a song in spotify in my car and i go hey Alexa. There is no response because i don't have the Roav App open so you basically have to have either the GPS app open or Roav open to give commands otherwise what you say isn't heard. Ex i can't ask what's the weather today while i have my email app open.Other major problem making this not a hands free thing- My fiance's name is Renata. I said Alexa call Renata, I also tried call fiance and changed her contact name, maybe wife would work? (I had to have the Roav App open also just to be able to call which includes me again unlocking the phone when driving and opening the app) Literally the only person i was able to call was Mom. Who i love but did not want to talk to! if i could give Alexa commands without the app being open on my screen that would work. That however may be a limitation by apple so we use Siri. As of right now the only time i can just say Alexa and use her is if i have Waze or Roav App open and the phone unlocked. But even then i have to touch the phone to allow it to give Waze the instruction to go to where i told it to go.It's a great concept but at a 50 dollar price point, it isn't ready for market. What we really need is a reflection of the capabilities of the Echo Dot in youre home. I need to be able to walk into the car, turn it on and go hey alexa get me directions, call my wife, what's the weather and boom. Its extra steps to get in the car, unlock phone, open roav app, tell alexa youre very limited command, waze opens, click confirm to use waze, then go to your destination. I look forward to updates on this product and i WILL Keep it and give updates on my experience for you guys.

The Roav VIVA is even better than anything I could have expected. There is almost nothing to the "set up" except downloading the app (iPhone 7) - everything else happens almost automatically. Mind you, I'm using the Roav VIVA on my 2003 GMC Yukon. That means there's no bluetooth or aux plug. I had connected my iPhone 7 to an FM Transmitter (with aux) ....and voila! That's it. Anker must have updated and/or corrected just about every "concerns/complaints/downsides" described here because I did not experience any problems or even the "delays" described here. Despite my complex connection, the Roav VIVA (Alexa?) is responsive and immediately reacts to my requests - from directions (to the "nearest Starbucks" to even my favorite winery one hour away) to playing the songs I want. I have a Sirius/XM radio but this beat it hands down giving me "news" or playing the songs I want. With radio or Sirius, you're forced to listen to the music your station is playing but Alexa will play the artist you like or the music I want when I want it ... AND, if you change your mind, you tell Alexa "next" (of the shuffle) or ask for something "faster/slower/newer/older". You can even ask Alexa on more details on any headline/s you hear. You cannot do that with your radio or Sirius. What's more, I was able to have the "Google Map" AND the "Alexa" features both working by using the Google Map feature to select a location then opening the Roav VIVA app to get the Alexa feature ... and both worked perfectly during my almost two hour drive through the hills/country. (one caution - because Alexa is "voice based", you might have to repeat your request if it overlaps Google Direction instruction/s). YES, I would LOVE for Roav VIVA to be able to handle texts also - to read the texts or send one, but it's "cell phone based" so I understand it's limited by what your phone call do. Bottomline? GET THIS - I'd rate this Double 5X Stars!!! I am looking forward to trying this during my trip to Texas and Mexico (let's see if Roav VIVA will "habla") and will "update" you next month.UPDATE: I've had Roav VIVA for a week now and if this will be the first "Alexa" unit (like it was for me) then you're in for a surprise. More than news, music and weather when you want them, but Alexa can also connect with my SiriusXM. What's more, you can customize the news (sources such as "local news" or "business" sources such as Wall Street, CNBC, etc). I'm also able to create "To-Do" lists as well as "shopping" or other customized lists and you can even ask Alexa to add items to your "calendar". Having Roav VIVA in your car is like having your own personal assistant to help you get organized and stay informed.UPDATE #2: YES - Roav VIVA works in Mexico also (2015 RAV4 with bluetooth) ...but, of course, make sure your cell phone has the proper "roaming" and "Mexico" call plans. The "weather" function works well knowing where you are, but the "map" feature/s doesn't (nearest gas station or Wal-Mart etc), but that's because Amazon hasn't added Mexico to Alexa yet. Having had Roav VIVA unit for several weeks, I there are few things buyers should know (...and maybe some "one star" ratings of above should have);1) Works best if your screen is unlocked ("auto-lock" display setting on "never")2) You might need to change radio band/media (vs "radio") for Roav VIVA functions to come through the radio...even if "bluetooth" is connected to your radio. It's not like your cell phone "calls" function that happen automatically.3) You should download the "Alexa" app to get full advantage of Alexa - from adding the "skills" you want Alexa to have or to select the "sources" for the various things you want Alexa to seek.4) Because Roav VIVA drains the battery, have the cell phone connected using one of its USB outlets.5) Finally - buy one of the "AC to DC Power Socket Adapter" so you can do all the "software updates" at home. Getting one would also make Roav VIVA more useful (if you don't have one of the Amazon Echo units at home.

I have a Subaru Forrester (2016) - it has Bluetooth but no CarPlay. I am currently using an iPhone 7 with iOS11. TLDR version: this is a decent product if you like Alexa, but there are some limitations.Setup: this was pretty easy. I plugged it into my car, download the app to your phone, follow the instructions on the screen. I even had an update to the Viva that I applied during the setup.You need their app running to pair with and use the Roav. I wish the app could run in the background. This might be a limitation of iOS - but it is one of my biggest dings against this device. Still, as long as the app is running, it works ok.My second gripe (which could change in time): there is currently no way to read or send a text message. I can do this with Siri and it can be handy. Possible this could change in the future? I hope it does get added.On to the good stuff: It works well playing Amazon Music. I had it play music from the 80's and a few specific artists. Audio quality was good and it worked well. Sometimes I have noticed a delay when a song is being downloaded - suspect this the cell network and possibly where I was driving out. Not unexpected and honestly not a big deal.I've had music stop playing on me a few times. I had it playing good ol' 80's music, but at the end of the third or 4th song, the music stopped and no new song came in. I had to ask Alexa to play music again. I'm not sure what caused this? I've only had the device for a few days so will see if it is more common.The microphone could be a bit better. I've had to raise my voice to get Alexa to hear me (even with the music off). I was driving in the rain, so possible the white noise from the rain is a factor? I was hoping for a more sensitive speaker.Charger: no surprises, it works like you'd expect.Light: I was worried it was going to be too bright. The app lets you adjust the brightness. After driving around last night in the rain, I did not find the glow distracting.Navigation: the app lets you pick Google Maps, Waze, or Built-in (Apple Maps in my case). Nice! I've used it a few times and it is good, although really it is launching the app and it is doing the heavy lifting. What is a let down - you can't have your navigation app and streaming music at the same time. Apparently only one app can be using Bluetooth? Not sure if this applies to Android as well. I like to listen to music with GPS running - in most cases, GPS is not talking much on a long trip.Summary: I think the price is decent and this solution is good. I'd buy it again. I do hope they can make a few improvements and possibly add a few additional features (like the ability to read/send text messages).

I liked this in my first car so I bought a second one for the second car. Unfortunately for an unknown reason, it looks for the last car it was connected to and you have to manually switch cars in the app which sometimes requires re-pairing the device. So if you only have one car it should connect fairly seamlessly and the experience should be decent. For me, since it is such a hassle to convert to the second vehicle I just don't use it in the second vehicle. Too bad, but Siri is getting better every day and I'm using that more often lately. The format of a simple charger plug vs running wires like you have to do for Amazon Auto is a much more convenient and useful design.

UPDATE-----------------------I have changed my review from 1 to 4 stars. This is due largely in part to firmware updates and app updates that have fixed most of the issues I was originally experiencing. Roav VIVA now connects 100% of the time. The delay between saying "Alexa" and issuing a command still exists, which is why I only gave this 4 stars. I've gotten used to the voice volume but would still prefer the volume of music playing to be lower.The issue with GPS directions / queries being wrong was actually an app setting. Even though I had location services turned on, there was a separate setting in the Roav VIVA app that needed to be enabled.I've also been using the charger regularly and it works as good as any standalone high-power charger.It's worth noting that Anker staff reached out to discuss my issues. In those exchanges I mentioned the lack of promised Spotify support. They offered to enroll me in a beta program to try a version of the app that supports Spotify.ORIGINAL-----------------------I really want to love the Roav VIVA but I can’t. It’s buggy and the bugs make it impossible to rely on and frustrating to use. It’s not ready for prime time.As a note, I’m on the latest firmware at the time of writing this review—version 3.2.7.The good:When it connects to your phone and actually hears you say “Alexa”, it answers typical questions as expected.It can control smart home devices from the car.The bad:It almost NEVER connects to my iPhone 7 Plus automatically. I have to open the Roav VIVA app and manually connect every time I get in my car. I have background app refresh enabled so this is not the issue. The Bluetooth pairing list shows that it is paired. It’s an auto-connect bug of some kind.GPS directions are always wrong. Ask how far away something is and it says 360+ miles and 6.5 hours away...even if the location is a few miles away. When you ask it to get directions to something, it doesn’t read the destination back to you. The the location passed to the map app is NOT the one you asked for. It seems to randomly pick a place nearby. I have location services for the Roav VIVA app set to always on.The Alexa voice prompts are too low to hear without turning up the car stereo volume. This is especially true if you’re playing music and trying to use it. I have a 2012 Toyota Camry and it is not on the list of incompatible vehicles so it’s not a compatibility issue.You cannot say “Alexa <command>” like you do with a household Echo device. You have to say “Alexa” and then wait for the prompt before giving the command. The prompt volume is so low it’s hard to hear if you have music playing.I’m hesitant to return the device because I have used it in my car for several days now. I figured I’d adjust to the bugs and find it useful. Unfortunately that’s not the case...and it’s basically nothing more than a phone charger at this point :-(

Pairing to my phone went easy and the whole process took about 5 minutes.There is no pairing it to the car as my phone is paired to my car to play music over bluetooth. This device only pairs to your phone. I also have the option to play music through a USB connection between my car and my phone. An alternative that I don't use is to use an aux cable from the phone to the car. There are only charging ports on the Roav viva. There are no ports for audio connections. I have this working with my Iphone X with 11.2.5 software and as Alexa, the only caveat is that I have to speak a little louder than normal as my 12 volt port is low in the car. Over Bluetooth, there is a little bit of a delay when Alexa responds but when I have it connected to the Ipod wire of my car, the delay disappears. It communicates through the wire instead of bluetooth in that case. As far as playing music from amazon, it works well but forces you to tap on the app to allow it to play music. It tells you that another app has control of media playback and to tap the roav app to give it control. This seems like a standard thing as the Garmin speak does the same thing when it goes to play music. Alexa does everything that it does in the home for me. Light control, music games, general questions answered etc. all work well. This adds the ability to navigate using your phone.One benefit to this over the Garmin is that it lets you make calls to your contacts. Once you allow it access to your contacts, you can just call out alexa and tell it to call whoever by name. This is faster than the built in voice control in my car. I have not tried the text messaging side of it yet.One other thing I like is that it allows you to choose which map app it will open for navigation. The choices are Waze, Google Maps and the native app which for me is Apple maps. There is no GPS in the roav viva so all it really does is open a map app on your phone and give that app the info you requested. The good part about it is it takes spoken addresses and as long as your home and work addresses are saved in your maps, you can just tell it to navigate to those places as well.For now, I do not use the charging part of it because I don't like wires running through the car where this connects so from that point I wish there was a way to mount it to the glass like the Garmin speak. That way it could be hardwired and I could bring it closer so it could hear me a little better. I would also like the option to turn the blue light off completely or make the light white to indicate its powered instead of blue. The light can be dimmed but the differences between the levels are hardly noticeable. I do like the light as it accents at night, but it kind of takes away from visually knowing when alexa is responding.You can hear the response beep over the USB or Bluetooth or Aux cable but the visual would be nice to see a little better.Overall, I like the device and having alexa in the car. I have siri but my car has a weird way of working with siri that makes it awkward to use.

If you are not a Ford (Microsoft) Sync 4.6 victim, scroll down to MORE GOOD NEWS,I will get to the Roav VIVA in a bit, but first I need to tell you why I bought it. I upgraded my Ford Taurus' stereo system from Sync 2.2 to Sync 4.6. What a mistake! It totally killed the Siri functionality on my phone, and most important to me, my hands free feature. And what is worse is that Ford and those knuckleheads at Microsoft have done nothing to fix it. I can receive calls hands free, but I cannot make them without manually going thru the motions. I can't give Siri any commands whatsoever. So what's the point?Enter the Roav Viva, an Alexa-Enabled 2-Port USB Car Charger. I took a $50 gamble, and so far it is working out. It isn't perfect, but it is a darn good work-around.First, download the Roav Viva app for your iPhone. And make sure you have iOS 11.4 installed. Insert the Roav Viva in your cigarette lighter port. Follow the prompts and the app will pair with your Sync 4.6 radio. Next, prompt your Sync's "Bluetooth Audio" command. Check the Bluetooth settings to ensure both Sync and Roav Viva are connected. You are now ready.In order to make Sync and your Roav Viva work hassle-free when making an outgoing call, put your radio on AUXILIARY mode and prompt "Alexa" to "Call John Smith, mobile." Then watch as Alexa becomes your new Siri. That extra step of switching to AUXILIARY mode would previously have been very annoying, but at least I have true hands free calling again. For navigation, you have a choice of your phone's built in maps, Google Maps, or Waze. I have Google Calendar as my default (thru Alexa) and I like that I can ask, "Alexa, what's on my calendar?" as I am driving to work.When you return to your vehicle, your iPhone and the Roav Viva unit auto-connect (just don't forget to activate "Bluetooth Audio" on Sync).WARNING: If you have a Viper alarm installed, pull the Roav Viva if the alarm will be activated when you leave. The alarm will be madder than a wet hen and keep chirping. Not sure why. It could be the signal the Roav transmits that the Viper perimeter sensor may not like. Not a big deal to me. I take the Roav with me.MORE GOOD NEWS.If you work in an office full of comedians like I do, and don't like being pranked... You know. Stuff like telling your Echo Dot to order pizza or an Uber, set your smart thermostat at home to extreme cold or hot, or set up bogus work related appointments on your Google Calendar, problem solved.When you exit your car, take your Roav Viva with you. Buy a KUNCAN 5V USB A Male to 12V Car Cigarette Lighter Socket, and plug it into any USB power source. Insert your Roav Viva into the socket. You now have Alexa at the office, and it only works when you and your HOTSPOT enabled phone are in close proximity (just don't leave your phone at your desk). Your phone also becomes the speaker for your Roav Viva, and you will know when those clowns are pranking you.Sweet, huh? Anker, Kuncan and Amazon, you are welcome for my discovery of new uses for your technologies. Amazon, you have my address on file. Just send my royalty checks there :)