The app reviews for Thinkware, Blackvue and Viofo are TERRIBLE.

[ninjawarrior]

Why is that? This makes me hesitant to buy their products. The app reviews for all three are really really low. Is this true? Only the Garmin app has much better rating. This is a common complaint I’ve heard from these companies.

the app is really important because what’s the point of a good camera and 4K if I can’t download the video to my phone?

 

[Skylar132]

i have the a129 pro, from my experience the app is flawless, great connectivity and no issues streaming or downloading footage

 

[Nigel]

Many people have issues with connecting their phones and that generates enough bad reviews to overwhelm the few people that bother to give positive reviews, dashcam apps are just not the sort of app that people bother to give good reviews for, but some people are happy to complain.

People also complain about non-app issues on the app feedback,which makes the score even worse.

The VIOFO app is pretty decent these days, has been gradually improved over the years, but the score tends to lag.

 

[Nigel]

Many cameras also have too slow Wi-fi, so the apps are often not a great experience. Much better with the fast Wi-fi cameras like the VIOFO A129 Pro and A139, as with skylar’s post above.

 

[Skylar132]

the 5ghz wifi on my a129 pro is great despite the cameras other issues

 

[kamkar]

Welcome to the forum ninjawarrior.

You have probably looked at reviews pertaining to I phones. ?

I would never personally install any APP on my phone, i still do though as otherwise i would be a bad tester, but otherwise i dont really use my phone for things like that.
I am a APP delete person not installer, i would even like to delete many of the Android features if i could but i will probably have to make do with throwing out the phone when the family reason for me carrying it are no longer here.
The dashcam Apps i have used have all worked okay, but i think i also think i expect a whole lot less then the average phone junkie would.

In general, you will always hear the people complaining, the ones that are okay with what they got are not going to write that,,,, if they do then personally i would have "some" issues with people like that, CUZ getting what you expect in a transaction should be normal and not need reviews written about it.
On the other hand if people feel like complaining, they should do that.

I do have wifi problems with a dashcam right now, but it is quite unusual problems only i seem to have, so hardly worth writing a review about.

I would try to minimize the phone / camera interactions, though i realize that in these days many people do everything on the phone, maybe dont even have a PC.

 

[jokiin]

You have probably looked at reviews pertaining to I phones. ?

there are dumb users from both camps, it's not just an iPhone thing, we had some moron leave a 1 star review because the APP didn't work with his phone, he wasn't intelligent enough to realise that has camera didn't actually have wifi

 

[Skylar132]

there are dumb users from both camps, it's not just an iPhone thing, we had some moron leave a 1 star review because the APP didn't work with his phone, he wasn't intelligent enough to realise that has camera didn't actually have wifi

this is another thing that really annoys me, when people review cams and apps 1 star for really stupid reasons, seen an idiot on amazon rate the dr590 1 star because you had to buy the pmp for parking mode and another one leave a 1 star review on the nb 222 as it didnt have gps

 

[jokiin]

this is another thing that really annoys me, when people review cams and apps 1 star for really stupid reasons, seen an idiot on amazon rate the dr590 1 star because you had to buy the pmp for parking mode and another one leave a 1 star review on the nb 222 as it didnt have gps

more of a concern is these people drive, and vote, and breed

 

[Skylar132]

more of a concern is these people drive, and vote, and breed

more concerned about the people who rate 1 star as cams dont include micro sd cards even though it said nowhere in the listing it did

 

[jokiin]

[emoji23]more concerned about the people who rate 1 star as cams dont include micro sd cards even though it said nowhere in the listing it did [emoji23]

Yeah I've seen that more than once also

 

[kamkar]

there are dumb users from both camps

Thats universal indeed, but it do seem to me the apple people suffer more from technical reasons, like apple making a small IOS change and BOOM everything are out the window, and a new APP will have to be made, or users have to dig deep in their devise to find some slider they can move to get the APP working again.

I hear now that new android will be so google can roll out updates and so circumvent the phone makers, so the issue will probably be there for owners of new android phones soon.
Though on the + side of that, maybe that will mean more clean android phones now.

 

[Kremmen]

At the other end are the 5* reviews because if arrived on time or early. They are reviewing the company, not the product.

I never review anything till it's tried and tested. Much to the annoyance of an office chair manufacturer via Amazon who wanted me to review the chair the day after it arrived. It was built but not used.


As for Viofo, my A119 V3 is a 5* from me. Never had a problem in nearly 2 years.

 

[SawMaster]

more of a concern is these people drive, and vote, and breed

Absolutely. I would wholeheartedly support a movement to grant people only the basic human rights and a free education, requiring them to earn anything further completely on their own and having the latter revocable should they not use it well. IMHO it's the logical thing to do, but I fear that those intelligent enough to stand for this are already out-numbered and would fail a vote on the matter

As to phone apps we can see the effect of the above throughout. Phone users who can't figure out how to use an app. App developers who can't make them easy to use and work with all phones. And phone makers who can't make their devices work with all apps old, predictable, and from today too

If all these three entities were not allowed to do their things until they learned to do it right and consistently did so, this thread wouldn't exist The solution is to simply not allow anyone (including companies) to do anything which they are not fully competent with doing and to hold them directly and fully responsible for any errors they might make. This simple approach could in one fell swoop solve most of the world's problems but we will never see it because we're outnumbered


Phil

 

[Nigel]

As for Viofo, my A119 V3 is a 5* from me. Never had a problem in nearly 2 years.

You had better give the VIOFO app a 5* then…

…even if you have to install the app first because you never use it due to the camera not having Wi-fi !