Roav Viva with Car Mount, by Anker, Alexa-Enabled 2-Port USB Car Charger for in-Car Navigation, Hands-Free Calling and Music Streaming

Major problem with this unit...When the unit is playing it could not pick up your voice for another command. You must turn down the radio, give it your command, then turn the radio back up. Very, very frustrating! Went back to the regular Amazon Auto unit.

I got this product as a way to replace Android Auto for accessing features on my phone while driving. My car does not support Android Auto on the display, but I can interact with it by saying the "Ok Google" command. When I do this, my car will pause the music (Radio/CD/Aux), turn down the AC to reduce noise, and will allow me to interact with the Google assistant through the car. However, getting google assistant to activate can be difficult when there is alot of background noise, or low phone reception. My hope was that this Alexa accessory would be an improvement.Overall, it looks nice and has a dedicated microphone with noise reduction that makes it better at catching the activation word than the Google assistant, which uses the microphone on my phone. (A button for activation would be a nice improvement though)Unfortunately, this product is the only voice assistant that I've used which does not support HFP. This is despite it being in the specifications on the website. It can only be used when the car is set to auxiliary, which means if you are using the radio, listening to a CD, or have the radio turned off, you will not be able to hear Alexa. The requirement to manually switch the car radio to auxiliary mode each time I use the assistant is frustrating and impractical. Especially while driving.In addition, Spotify is not supported yet, and I was unable to get voice text messaging to work which was the main purpose I bought this device.There is no guarantee that all of this will be fixed/supported anytime soon so I don't recommend buying this product until it is.

Unit is well made and works relativelly well. I own a couple of Amazon Echo Autos and wanted to try the Viva as it oferred a cleaner installation, no hanging cables plus the addition of two USB chargers in an attractive device. One drawback is the Viva is not a native Alexa device. It requires the use of it's own application to connect to Alexa, but once installed, the app becomes transparent as it activates automatically upon the phone detecting the unit. At that point it responds just like any other Echo device. I do recommend it for those looking for a better looking and functional alternative to the Echo Auto.

App crashes after 3.4.0 update.The Roav Viva worked before the latest 3.4.0 update a couple weeks ago. Now it’s nothing but a phone charger. Since my return window has closed that’s what I’m stuck with. The email in the app doesn’t work, and chat support in the app is worthless. I found a working email on the website, but it took me two emails to get them to comprehend their latest update made the device unusable.

I am reluctant to give this a bad review because it does what it says, but I found it was mostly useless.If you have a phone with voice control, you can do almost everything using the Alexa App on your phone. Notably, you cannot use this device without your phone anyhow, so it almost seems redundant.A big issue for me was that the device requires a bluetooth connection for audio. If you connect your phone to your car audio (for phone use), many cars require the phone to be selected as a device before you can hear the audio. This means you cannot listen to satellite radio (on your car's tuner) and have the Roav Alexa device audio. YMMV.It was clearly well made, but did little that I needed in my car. I returned it.

I have found it to be somewhat temperamental. Sometimes it works and sometimes it takes some attention. I have a Bose system in my truck, so the sound is as good as the speakers in your car. Streaming music unlimited is a nice touch with Alexa for your car. It is well worth the money, however the magnetic mount requires you to stick it on a flat metal or glass surface to work. Cars and trucks generally don't have a suitable place to permanently adhere this mount. The pairing of these two items is to make the sale more attractive, but in my opinion, the VIVA is quality, the mount is junk.

This used to be a great system; no wires hanging from some smiley-faced cassette. But now the app just crashes. I've uninstalled and reinstalled the app so many times I can't count, but it's always the same. Open the app and it crashes.

I have successfully installed this in my BMW 2006 325i. I added a Belkin 3.5mm Audio + Charge Rockstar, iPhone Aux Adapter/iPhone Charging Adapter because while the car has Bluetooth for phones, it doesn't have it for audio, and I also wanted to keep my phone charged. So far, so good. I'm successfully using this with my iPhone and learning about more about Alexa. ROAV support ( looking at you, Ashley!) has been great, and I can't ask for more. Except.... Please add OverDrive compatability! That would make my day as I listen to audiobooks a lot. And I'd up my rating to five Stars.