Customer Ratings & Reviews

Works as it said it would and does the job very well

Cool little device, and it offers an element of safety for my 17 year old son. As a relatively new driver, this was the perfect option as soon as I saw it available. Knowing he can easily access safety, traffic, driving information through his car speakers is great. And while it does not really offer a great deal new compared to our current set-up, since the the connection to phone is wireless, it is one less chord in the way and one less "physical connection" to potentially distract from driving. Set up was easy. He had it going in a matter of a couple minutes. The internal microphones are a step-up from the existing phone speakers and do a good job at cancelling background noise and accurately picking up human voice. This is a great little unit to offer modern upgrade to older cars. Perfect for our situation. Yes, I would reccoend it to a friend, especially when it can offer a defined safety upgrade. Disclaimer: This product was provided free, or at reduced cost, for the purpose of reviewing the product. Nevertheless, the above review, be it positive, negative, or anywhere in-between, is a 100% honest review, and the price paid played absolutely no part in my review.

Clunky setup, didn’t work first few times. Found out it’s still in Beta? Does not integrate with iOS, only lousy google assistant. Can’t pair Bluetooth with car, so phone must waste Bluetooth energy.

It is an expensive car charger that has built in Google Assistant

Was very excited to try this out as I use Google minis and home in the house. Unfortunately, this didn't work at all. At best it would start playing music which would stop after 10 seconds. Went to the Alexa auto and it works prefect. I may try the jbl link drive once it comes out.

The person I was speaking with could just about hear me

I have nothing good or bad to say. I cannot recommend it.

Went to get in my car after a few days of not using it and I get no lights no sound, nothing. Tried both plugins, and another Bluetooth adapter my wife uses still works so I know it's not my car. Trying to get a hold of Anker to see what can be done, will update later.

Great idea if you spend a lot of time in an older car but don't leave it plugged in when not driving. After 2 days of being parked with this device plugged into my cigarette lighter, my battery was totally drained. The benefits are not worth the risk.

One of the reasons why I went after testing this particular device is because my Honda -- a 2012 vehicle that is "older" but is arguably quite the "newer" car anyway -- is no longer able to natively sync with my iPhone Xs Max's Bluetooth. Enter the Anker Roav Bolt car charger. Out of the box, the device was exceptionally simple to set up (especially given the relative complexities of having a Google Assistant device -- it has to be able to understand you enough to carry out basic commands, and all that while working with a smart device and vehicle). It was a multi-step process to set up that can be boiled down to three main steps -- plug the Bolt into a car charger, download the Google Assistant app, and have the iPhone (in this case) connect to the Bolt. More specifically, here's the process. Plug the Bolt into a car charger. Then, I had to download the Google Assistant app as I'm not really natively tied into Google's products to that degree. Then, I decided to use the included 3.5" auxiliary wiring to directly connect the Bolt to my car's AUX connection in the armrest. Then, I went into Google Assistant and relatively easy found where the Bolt could be set up. In the set up process, while it did fail the first time to update the Bolt's firmware, simply trying again reset the process and the device was updated. Also, having a couple of USB ports helps with simultaneously charging my device. That was it -- I was now connected via Bluetooth from my phone to the Bolt, and the Bolt was directly connected to my car via the AUX input source. All in all, phone calls and other typical Google Assistant requests were crisp and clear, and Google made it plainly known if I requested something it didn't understand. Operationally, as far as I can tell, the Bolt uses your phone to handle the complexities of receiving commands, though I could be somewhat wrong on that; I'm simply ignorant of how Google Assistant-infused devices are designed to work. Either way, this is an overall welcome addition to my car. There are, however, some reasonable caveats that come with including such a device as a go-between in your vehicle, and they're "reasonable" in that for those of us who don't have the latest tech in vehicles, the setup is certainly not going to be as seamless as when everything's already integrated. First, I do have to have the Google Assistant app running on my phone (it can be backgrounded) in order to be able to use the Bolt in my car. In fact, the first time I tried to quit out of the app while still connected to the Bolt, it warned via pop-up message that I'd be breaking the connection if I quit. Second, I do have to have the car audio set to AUX any time I wish to hear anything from the Bolt. Again, this is to be expected, and if I'm performing any activities on my phone, this isn't at all annoying, because I'd need sound to be coming from somewhere if I'm going to use this tech anyway! The benefit to integrated Bluetooth is that most such audio systems automatically turn on when triggered. As mentioned, overall this is a great addition for folks who are in my situation where perhaps your car is a bit older than capable of keeping up with some tech updates and you still want to have hands-free capabilities either out of convenience or, in my case, it's State law :)

Awful!! Doesn't do as it says. Mic is AWFUL!! Lost the receipt, so I threw it in the garbage!! Put the $50 towards a newer model phone that will do the same thing ,but actually work!!

The Roav Bolt is a Bluetooth device that allows you to use your phone in your car hands free via voice commands. It is easy to setup and connect with your phone. The Roav's microphones work pretty well, capable of listening to the user with music playing or windows down with no issue. In order to use the car's speakers with the Roav Bolt, the car will need an auxiliary input. For older cars this may be an issue, as my 05 Camry does not have this input. For newer cars, BT is pretty standard and you can connect your phone directly with the stereo system. Since you can use the Google assistant with your phone already, the Roav Bolt becomes redundant for BT enabled vehicles. Overall, the product works wells and I would recommend it for vehicles that have an aux in for their stereo that doesn't have BT built-in.

When my car was new, the fact that it had voice commands (activated by a button on the steering wheel) to use the navigation system and built in Bluetooth support for hands free calling was seen as the pinnacle of luxury. Ten years on, and it hasn't aged well. Yes, the voice commands work... if you're willing to learn the precise sequence of keywords necessary to coax it through each step. And the Bluetooth connection works great... so long as all you want to do is use it for phone calls as opposed to music. A few years ago I remember going on line and looking to see if there was any way to bring these features a bit more up to date, and discovering that unless I was willing to rip out half the dashboard to install a new head unit (leaving a gaping hole in the facing in the process) I was out of luck. I remember thinking at the time how ridiculous this was - that surely someone should be able to come up with a better way to graft newer tech into older cars. Well, it took a few years, but they got there eventually. With this charger and a decent smartphone, you've got everything you need to bring your older car into the modern era at a bargain. No messing with replacement head units that clearly don't fit in the dash, no splicing new hardware into the wiring harness, and pretty much no compromises necessary. Setup really is as simple as plugging the unit into a 12v outlet and, if you have one, running the included wire to the aux-in jack. From there you can connect to the device with your phone and be walked through customization and setup in about two minutes. Once that's done, you can talk to it like any google home device. In my testing I never had any issues with responsiveness or accuracy, which is particularly impressive when you consider that it not only has to deal with engine noise, but in my case was also located inside the closed central console of my car. The features you get should be familiar to anyone who's used Android Auto - notifications and messages can be read out to you, you can dictate replies, and remotely control your phone entirely with voice commands. There are a few caveats though. To start, the system won't do much without a phone present to pass audio on to Google's servers, where the actual voice recognition takes place. Next, if you don't have a 12 volt adapter right next to your aux-in jack you pretty much need to either make an awkward wiring run or go without wireless music streaming - one of the best features of the device. And finally, you really need to watch the volume on your aux in. When I first plugged it in at the volume I usually need to use for a phone or MP3 player it produced so much static and other interference that I almost gave up. Once I turned it down to a more sensible level, this abated completely. All in all, this is an extremely polished device for a first generation product. I'd highly recommend it to anyone with an older car looking for an affordable way to get full hands-free controls.

Was disappointed that I couldn't use it for my car because I don't have an aux cord built in. It would have been to cool to be hands free while driving.

Did not like it. It was not easy to use. It does not like well. Is is very clunky and not easy to integrate into my car or audio system.

It connected to my car the first time. Then disconnected from bluetooth, and won't reconnect. I would definitely return it if I could. I wouldn't recommend it.

This was a waste of my money. This is nonsense waste of time. I should return it but can’t find the time to do so.

Got for my daughter for navigation and we quickly found out her phone had to be out. Returned as I don't wish her obsessive to be out.

I was a bit skeptical about this device, but I purchased it anyway. It arrived quickly however, it did not work.

This did not work!!! I tried in in 3 different cars with 2 different phone. The Bluetooth did not connect or reconize anything.