Roav Bolt to release on Monday? ... My experience with Roav Bolt!

I ordered for store pickup at BestBuy, just received confirmation for pickup :stuck_out_tongue:

Sometimes direct orders are better than pre-orders :wink: just kidding

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Picked up the Bolt and tested it. Setup is bit tricky competed to Viva. tested it today, with iPhone. It’s still in beta for iOS, and got the expected response… There is a lot of delay between commands and output. It uses Google Assistant and not Google home, does not list on Google home as a device… This will definitely take sometime to stabilize… Will be contacting Roav support if there is any Beta App or firmware for Bolt ( there was an initial update after pairing)

Will submit detailed review in next few days

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Thank you @cshenoy ! They should have just waited a bit to get them bugs out. Releasing a product in beta is not always a good thing…

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Completely agree… hope they get all these bugs fixed,

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Day 2 of using Bolt, upset to see Anker releasing half-baked product… Roav Viva worked better and had better integration at launch than the Bolt…

Have reached out to Roav support already to check on updates.

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I still don’t know if I see the value in something like this vs just using my phone but I’m disappointed a product was released like that. Hopefully it gets sorted out soon!

Thank you for your honest review.
Please keep the community in the loop if there are any news.
Positive or negative ones.
This is the reason why those tests are so important.

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Heard from Roav Support - new firmware is being released on Apr 22 / today.

"We sincerely sorry to let you know that we are still waiting for the newest firmware upgrade from Google to fix the pairing issue. The official version will be released on April 22nd, 2019.

Once you finished the upgrade, it should work perfectly with your iPhone.

Please keep us updated on how the upgrade works. Looking forward to your reply"

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Day 5 - performed the update yesterday, there is a slight improvement (1 second) and most of the time it’s a miss when I say the command or ask questions… Frequency of successful response from Bolt is 1 out of 6 questions or commands. The lights just don’t come up saying it’s listening… Makes me look like a fool talking into Bolt…

I was pretty excited when Anker announced Google Assistant device for car… But now I am pretty upset with it. This is what happens when you give the complete hardware control to 3rd party - in this case it’s Google who manages the Bolt device.

Writing to Roav support, but I don’t have very high expectations since this is still in Beta (though Roav support mentioned it was official - when I paired it again, it showed as Beta again)

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@AnkerTechnical any word when this when the Roav Bolt Firmware will go Official / out of Beta for iOS ?

Thanks for updating us on your experience. I think this is Roav’s fault just as much as it is Google’s.

Any android users? I’ve had mine for a couple of days and it’s only picked up my voice once. It feels like I got a bad unit perhaps? Anyone else notice this? I can push the button and it will read my notifications and say the time, but it doesn’t recognize okay google/hey google. If I long press the button, it also does not chime for me to speak. It applied a firmware upgrade on first boot.

I tried to long press 12 seconds for it to “reset” but get the same result. I tried with the google assistant app installed and without it installed on my phone (samsung s6 edge+).

any ideas? or should I return?

After lot of testing / trial and errors, unpaired the Roav Bolt completely from iPhone, removed from Google Assistant (latest version 1.5.8306 ). Tried the setup fresh, paired well. Seeing improvement now, the delay has gone down to 1-2 seconds, after I complete the command, i hear the google sound “ding” and then response from Roav Bolt / Google Assistant via Bluetooth paired to my Car audio system.

So, iOS for Roav Bolt is still in Beta, but things seem to be improving :slight_smile:

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Delays are back… Lights just come up, blink and go away… sent a video to Roav support… keeping it for next 2 days and then making a call to return it for good… :pensive:

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Finally… called it a day, returned the Roav Bolt… will revisit Bolt sometime in future.

From all of this, had a positive - found the cool trick to use Siri with Google Assistant - cool trick on iPhone. Not as good as the actual experience but useable.

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Mines insainly slow also. Sometimes I sing songs to it. There usually nice sounding songs with foul language. This seems to make me happy. The problem is like 30 seconds later it comes up as listening. That usually just makes me angry again.

I too faced exact same issue, delays. Would suggest to open a case with support@goroav.com - they would provide options to overcome the issue, or most probably they will send a replacement Roav Bolt.

Do let us know how it goes.

I returned mine today. I’m more then happy with my mute anker pd car charger.

Glad you are happy, I can relate to that feeling :joy:

Did you ever open a case with Anker support?

I had a case going on with Anker Roav Support, but planned to return the thing since I was not going anywhere with Bolt plus limited time on return with BestBuy

I didnt bother only opened a request to cancel my preorder. I’m sure it will eventually work. Anker is a good company with good products overall. I rent cars weekly. Figured this was a good easy way to get voice into rental cars. Bestbuy is only 15 days on some products. Bestbuy took mine back no issues.