R8 Companion App Reviews

Giant speedometer. I’ve been using this app for a while it works great. I really have only one thing I would like to see changed… Please make it to where we can either disable or change that giant speedometer in the middle of the screen to something else, it’s visible from every car around me, including what could be a potential police car not running radar I would love to be able to either turn it off or switch it to something else. When an alert goes off the speedometer shrinks to the corner of the screen, which seems to be a perfect place for it. Other than that, it’s been great!

Is this really my R8???. I have been a Uniden guy since the R3. Upgraded to the R7 and loved it! Then upgraded to the R8 and loved it even more. Now that I have this app, it takes the R8 to a whole new level and it’s worth its weight in gold! If you haven’t purchased this app, you will never know what you’re missing. Total game changer and thankful for this developer for doing it right without bugs!!!

Connected finally. After I updated my r8w I tried connecting and it wouldn’t connect… Until I turned it off and then turned it back on and it connected right away.

Changes R8 setting. Once I installed and paired this app to my R8 detector, it immediately kept putting my detector into over speed limit warning of 60 mph. No matter how many times I went in to reset it and turn it off, it would immediately go back to the 60 mile an hour over the speed limit warning. The moment I killed the app and changed the setting back, it would work like it did before with no speed limit warning. However the moment I engage the app and it paired to the detector, it goes right back to changing the setting to over 60 mph speed limit warning. Therefore I have deleted the app and cannot recommend this product.

A definite must have app with R8. Definitely made the radar more user-friendly. And it quieted the radar down quite a bit.

Repetitive change log gets annoying. Okay so the app is fantastic, but the developer repeatedly spamming the update log with an irrelevant quote from one specific review for like a year now is getting insanely old. We get it, that’s what that person had to say. Put it in the description of the app itself and let it go. Update notes are for changes and fixes, not to grab attention for potential users.

Absolute Masterpiece. A Top 3 App Out of 700+ on My iPhone.. I rarely feel compelled to leave reviews, but after extensive testing and keeping over 700 apps on my device, R8 Companion stands firmly in my top three of all time. If you are serious about radar detection and own a Uniden R8, this is not just an optional accessory—it is an absolute necessity. What Angela Mcarthur has built here completely transforms the R8 platform. Out of the box, the R8 is an incredible detector, while better than most, it can be notoriously noisy with false alerts. This app fixes that flawlessly. The Advanced False Assist engine, Ghost Muting, and the incredibly intelligent, bidirectional SpotLocks function seamlessly. It gives you a quiet ride without sacrificing a single inch of long-range protection. The high-resolution proximity meter, the brand new MyRadarIQ threat assessment graphics, and the background voice announcements provide vastly superior situational awareness compared to the stock screen. The only true way to improve this app is the exact feature we need most: full Apple CarPlay integration. With the developer’s recent promise to bring a dedicated CarPlay layout to an upcoming update, my expectations are incredibly high. Bringing this level of developer dedication directly to the in-dash screen will make an already flawless experience completely unbeatable. I would have never imagined saying something like this, but, as much as I detest subscription-based apps, I would gladly pay a monthly or annual subscription fee if that’s what it took to keep this app fresh and updated! To the dev: Thank you for your relentless work, the consistent real-world data updates, and for keeping future updates free. You didn't just build a companion app; you built the definitive R8 experience. Simply phenomenal work.

Works Very Well with my R8!. I have been using this app for about 2 weeks and love it. Set my speed alert to 80 and it just works. This app had blocked out a lot of the annoying fake alerts and has made the R8 even quieter. The only issue I have had is that is does not consistently connect to the R8. I need to close the app and restart it. Other than that no other issues. Well worth the purchase!

Export log request. A fantastic, required app, if you own a Uniden R8. I am hoping the author will consider adding a way to easily export the log in .csv, so that reviewing events can be easily reviewed and saved on a pc.

Helpful App. Helpful app with a lot of features. Will help quiet your R8 with more options than the detector itself offers. Organization of functions and screen layout could be better. Would be nice to have more granular control over specific audio alerts that play over Bluetooth.

Really nice app, only one thing would make it better.. Love using this app, great interface & it gives you the ability to set many options, also quiets false alerts well. Only thing missing would be CarPlay integration where you could see alerts on your infotainment screen. Maybe they will include that in a future update.

Great work with a suggestion. Love the app! Would love to have better control over which push notifications I get… there are only certain ones I care about. Would love to see a more organized UI too. Great app functionality though!!

Extremely happy. I’ve been very happy with R8 Companion, makes my r8 much quieter. I do have 2 features I’d like to request. 1. Toggle to disable connection/disconnect notifications. 2. Option to force audio to play on phone speaker even with Bluetooth device connected

One major thing I don’t like.. So, app is fine, does what I’d expect. But, what I do hate about it is that I don’t want my speed flashing at me the whole time. I have my dash, I have my heads-up, and the changing speed on the phone is actually distracting. If there is a way to eliminate that, I can’t find it .i don’t want yet another map in front of me so, the interface main screen, can’t stand it. I like have the app open for the feedback when something is picked up but, I just don’t use it be side of the main screen. Am I missing someway to configure the speed to be off?

Works as intended. Auto mutes for you, good features, only gripe is in the car it plays the sound from the app as if it was music and not navigation.

I love the RA My Son has the R7. It does get a little longer range not saying the RA is no slacker t. I love my unit would never go back to escort. I had to escort I had to escort max 316 mark two unit RANR7 even R4 blows escort out of the water

Expert Level Settings. For $10 you can save yourself a day or a few learning and understanding RF and the environment unique to law enforcement. Even seasoned experts could learn a thing or two after running this apps settings brought ChatGPT for analysis- Chat basically called it genius. Buy it and forget it. Run the app during use and the settings change based on GPS input, state by state and even Canada.

Fantastic App!. This app takes the already stellar R8 detector to a whole new level! I’m still learning everything this app can do, but straight out of the gate it adds tremendous functionality with barely any need to learn the features, as the default settings are perfect for my needs. As you start investigating the app you will find a plethora of functionality that simply works as it should. The app is stable and connects reliably every time. I absolutely love it and actually get excited to hop in the truck with the R8 detector and R8 Companion! I know it sounds silly, but it’s true!😂

It works I haven’t mastered it yet.. It works. It’s complicated there’s a lot of instructions. I’m very satisfied but it’s like learning a mini course or from the school of life.

Phenomenal App. I’ve never written a review for an app before but this single app has forced me to change that. I had my R8 for around a year before bluetooth support for iOS was added to the radar. Since I got the app, it really is like a whole new radar. It fixed almost every single issue I had with it. At first i was skeptical about spending another $10 after I spent $700 on the device itself, but without a doubt it is worth it. Great job and great app. Please stay on top of making new updates and not forgetting about the r8 community!

Fabulous. New to the R8. It is so sensitive that it alerts almost constantly with superfluous radar alerts. The R8 Companion is a whole new level. All the annoying alerts are channeled elsewhere and the important ones receive priority. This is a must have app for your R8.

R8 Companion. Love the R8 app. Also have this app for my V1G2. Too bad they wont open up the RL360c lol. Question on Spotlocks. If Spotlocks marks a location, and there happens to be a LEO shooting K band radar hidden at that location, will I still get an alert, or is the entire location locked out? Thanks!

Fantastic App. I'm really surprised reading some of the problems people have with this app. I NEVER leave app reviews. I'm not a radar detector enthusiast. In fact I got here after getting fed up with Escort which was all I ever used all the way back to the original Passport days. When I switched to the R8, the performance was a little better than my Escort it was replacing, but not enough to make up for how chatty the R8 was out of the box. I did my research. I started making the recommended setting changes (which was a PITA doing it on the detector), then I found this app. Most apps designed to work with a product are bells and whistles to wow you a little bit more about your new toy but do nothing to improve it (think the factory Uniden App). This app not only makes the R8 the product it should have been out of the box by way of user interface and display but it SIGNIFICANTLY improves the performance of the detector while making false alerts nearly non existent. Uniden should make the developer of this app a wealthy person and buy the rights to it to include with all of their products and get rid of the app they developed. This is THAT good.

Great app. I don’t use this app a lot, but the app make it easier for me to adjust my setting on my R8. Look forward to see when get could fully optimized for CarPlay where I could see map and setting on my infotainment

A great companion. This app connects effortlessly, provides a lot of information, and controls the detector when you want to make a quick change to the settings. Thank you developers for adding speed limit to the screen. It's a work in progress but adds to the value!

Outstanding App! But…. Hopefully the app will let us update the R8 from the App directly. Like check to see if there has been an update from Uniden, and download the update to the iPhone, then upload the update into the R8. That would be the cherry on the cake. Hey, one can hope. 🙏😎

Additional Features Equestrian. I’m in the process of upgrading my detector from an R7 to the R8. Main reason is I own several Mac computers and it is a real hassle to upgrade firmware. For this reason I was looking at the Escort 360c because it has automatic downloads, apparently via the iPhone to the web. A real good upgrade to your software would be to add the ability to download Uniden upgrade via wireless or BTB. I’d be willing to pay more for your app. In the meantime, I decided to spend more money tp buy a cheap PC which I probably won’t use for at least a year. An affition to an auto download to your app. Would have saved me $$. Re: BT, does the R8 show up on iPhone BT? Don’t see anything listed on iPhone.

Inadvertent purchase. Trying to send a message to Angela. I inadvertently purchased the R8 app and should have purchased the R4 which I also did. I just received the Uniden R4W and inadvertently selected and purchased the R8 app. I quickly realized I should have purchased the R4 app. I am very happy with the R4 app, which I am keeping. I deleted the R8 app and requested a refund for the R8 app through Apple. Thank for your help in advance. I will review the R4 app through there.

Paid for a useless (to me) app. I currently have the uniden R8 and I purchased this app in hopes of connecting it through Bluetooth. Well since I got the app, it has never connected to my R8 and I assume it’s a problem with my uniden R8 but I just felt like this app was not necessary for me to purchase. This was probably the most useless app I have purchased and the R8 works perfectly fine without it. But with that being said, I will never know the benefits of this app because it never connected, and yes, I red my owners manual and it still won’t connect. Must be my R8, I don’t know, but it works fine without the app so I assume I’m not missing out. I just wish it wasn’t whatever I paid for it.

Great app… when it works. I recently started using this app and it’s great, however, there have been many times recently where I have to turn Bluetooth on and off on my Uniden R8 for it to actually connect again. (EDIT: Deleted other r/tach app from Uniden off my phone and issue is still occurring every week or so randomly. Never had issue with that app. Connection still dropping randomly with R8 Companion app. No other apps connecting to detector.)

Fixes the R8. I've used this now for over a year and I'd be lying if I said this wasn't worth the money. I always have this app open in the background on my phone and it makes the detector far more bearable than without. the best feature this offers besides the improved Spotlock auto-lockout system is the auto-mute settings with options to select how long the signal warning sounds play based on strength and frequency. i basically cant run the detector without this apps functions running alongside it. I only wish there was a firmware version of it as it would be nice to have the features onboard the unit, seeing as Uniden doesn't seem to prioritize functional updates lately.

Inaccurate GPS Speedometer. I like the app but the GOA speedometer is not accurate. When the speedometer on the vehicle reads 40 MPH and the GPS speedometer on the R8W reads 40 MPH the R8 Companion app says 45 MPH. When the speedometer on the vehicle and R8W both read 80 MPH the R8 Companion app reads 90 MPH. I have looked through the settings for a way to correct this but there does not appear to be a setting for this. I have no idea why this is happening.

Great app. Helps me get the most out of my R8 and very easy to use. I've been using for awhile now and while I enjoy a quiet ride, I haven't missed any real alerts. Appreciate that it has audio through carplay. Fingers crossed you'll be able to have a carplay app some day. I've read your response to this previously. Just adding my vote. And I would also pay an in app fee for it to help offset your dev costs.

Awesome but one thing. Really great job with the app. Much needed for my R8. I initially installed on an older iPhone 6 and it worked but it kept blinking and cutting connection to the radar. I then installed on an iPhone 11 and issues were resolved. I have this app running on my spare phone and I run Waze on my primary phone. Love it! Thank you for creating this app.

Awesome Uniden R8 App !!!!!!!!!!. Finally someone Made a App for iso users to use with there Uniden R8 Thank you soooooooo much the App is awesome and a love it …. I’m sure you’ll be adding new features and stuff as time goes on . It was super easy to hook up to the Uniden R8 . Whoever made this, you are a genius !!!!! You took the uniden R8 to a whole Nother level. Wish I could give you 100 star review.

Better than bad, it’s good. Works great and makes the detector even quieter. Setup was a breeze and so far it has connected to the detector every time without issue. It takes a few minutes to understand the capabilities added by the app. I like the trip overviews when the detector disconnects. I’m not sure if there’s a way to bring a trip summary back up however. There’s a detection log but there’s info in the summary popup not in the log (distance, time, spotlocks added, etc). Interface is a bit clunky/unrefined but the functionality is excellent.

Audio needs help tuning. Overall the app is great but I noticed that while my phone is Bluetooth connected to the car, and I go ahead and mute a false alert, the music would soften a bit and stay soften after the app reads aloud that I muted the alert. I like that I can hear the alerts while I’m listening to my music but would like the volume to resume back after the audio alert finishes talking

Must have.. I’m really enjoying this app so far. It does seem like it is a must have app that will make life simpler to configure the R8. One question I have is can this app handle multiple installations of the R8? We have two vehicles with an R8 in each vehicle.

Upgrades an already amazing radar!. The uniden R8 was already powerful enough but thanks to this app, it makes its use seamless for the average user. I am a noob to radars so I needed an app that made my life easier to understand alerts and set the advanced settings up for me. This is THE app to get. The only thing I would ask is that they one day expand beyond the apple App Store for other devices. Highly recommended 👍🏼

If you wan a very quiet r8 this is it. When you first get a radar detector it can be very painful to get all of your mute memories in with the app I can confidently say it has been a breeze. Went from a noisy r7 to a silent r8 game changer.

R8 radar detector. I'm really impressed with the radar pretty nice decent little radar. nice app as well giving the details of each way and really helpful that i can make changes and adjustments just from my phone really easy to hook up connection as well highly recommend

New User - First Time Start. The repetitive “guide” alerts when first using the app are extremely excessive and annoying - even for a noob. I didn’t realize I would be spending $9.99 to get bombarded with such notices. I pay nothing for Uniden’s app and I do not get guide alerts! Constructive feedback: Things like this are better placed elsewhere within the app, perhaps under Settings > App guidance.

Great Start. Great start to this app. Really enjoying the ride. Makes everything more quiet and make the R8 feel like a new detector! I can’t wait to have some live activity’s and time sensitive notifications built in, so this can run in the background.

Best app on the market. I bought an R8 after owning a R3 for 3+years and I love my R3. After seeing the reviews on the 8 I decided to try it out. Noticed it was very chatty at first but after adjusting some settings it was much better. I found this app looking for Uniden items in the App Store. Noticed it was not free so originally was very hesitant to purchase this app. Best decision I ever made. I drive 4 hours a day round trip and it’s mostly highway I am on. I do speed enough to get pulled over 10 to 15 mph over. My R3 has saved me many times but was chatty. This new R8 with this app is silent the whole way home now. Friday night on the way home a highway patrol car was going in the opposite direction and I was getting a KA warning so I decided to slow down. About 2 miles for driving I passed him and was doing 5 over. Highly recommend this app. The price point is definitely worth it if you want a silent ride and ease of use.

MUST HAVE. I just bought my r8 and I know nothing about radar detectors, this app knocks down your false alerts by probably 80 percent it’s a must have if your tired of getting false alerts, plus there’s a bunch of cool and useful settings much easier than using the detector.

Awesome App. Makes the R8 just that much better. Would love to see a CarPlay function so I could display the data from the phone on the headunit!

It turns my music down on Alerts. I have the volume of the app to 0 and whenever the radar picks something up it’s turns my music volume down on my car to about 20% and than it goes back up to 100% volume to what I had my music playing so the problem isn’t the voice app speaking it’s just I have it muted and it still turns my music down as if where speaking which it’s not it’s just annoying if you have a fix let me know I’ll change it to 5 stars

Great App and worth the money.. Feature request: my r8 always has power through mirror tap. Don't have accessories tap in this location unfortunately. Therefore, I have the r8 to auto shutdown after 1hour to conserve car battery. While I'm home during this 1 hour, the r8 app keeps connecting and disconnecting. Any possibility to avoid this?

Worth the purchase. The R8 is a good detector, but way too ‘busy’ with alerts on weak signals. This app filters the junk out and mostly only alerts on the real signals. Really improves situational awareness. One star off due to an audio glitch with CarPlay (sometimes music stays muted after an alert, workaround is to select ‘test audio’ in the app, then the music will resume)

Bluetooth Connectivity. I sent a massage to app support and never received a response, so I will post the issue I’m having here. Looks like app support is responding here. My Bluetooth only randomly connects to the app. Maybe around 20% of the time. Rest of the time I have to open the app to connect to the device via Bluetooth which is annoying. The app used to connect seamlessly in the background prior to the last update.

Did you know that you can earn 25 USD from our site just by registering? Get $25 for free by joining Payoneer!

Imagine you at your best. All the time. Picture yourself at your sharpest and most productive. Your most alert and focused. Your most lucid, creative and confident. At work. At play. In every area of your life. Add Mind Lab Pro® v4.0 to your daily routine and uncap your true potential. Buy Now!

R8 Companion. Makes my R8 feel like a brand new detector. Love the voice alerts over the sound system in my vehicle. I enjoy listening to music at higher volumes so I don’t always hear my detector. Also makes it super easy to change settings and every single setting has an information tab so you know exactly what it does. Spot lock gets smarter and smarter every time you drive and the app has blocked out every weak K band alert since I got it. Awesome app and I’m sure it’ll only get better. Totally worth the price

Great addition for the R8. This is a must have app for R8 users. Makes your ride much more soothing by helping quiet down all those extra K signals.

Adsterra is the most preferred ad network for those looking for an alternative to AdSense. Adsterra is the ideal choice for new sites with low daily traffic. In order to advertise on the site in Adsterra, like other ad networks, a certain traffic limit, domain age, etc. is required. There are no strict rules. Sign up!

Solid app. Super solid app! Works great.

Updates make this better. Support this dev as this is a great app for those radar geek and novice alike. Even novices will get a better and smarter radar detector adding value to their investment.

IPhone Mini Optimization. Please optimize the apps display for iPhone 12 & 13 Mini

Please fix Bluetooth. This app is FANTASTIC! The difference between using the app and just the detector standalone is night and day. This app is a must have for any R8 user.

A Must Have. If you own a Uniden R8 radar this app is a must have!! When paired, the app compliments the radar perfectly.

ZERO false alarm!. At least for me 😁

Make sure detector twice is good. Stop so annoying faults

Uniden R8 Detector. I love it. It works very good. Plus it looks futuristic.

Very responsive. Developer is very responsive to my questions and suggestions. Much appreciated. App is terrific! Makes Uniden's R8 far more useable. Great! I use a dedicated iPhone SE 2020 just for R8 Companion. Still waiting for option to turn off details at end of trip. I never use it and I have to dismiss it every time.

Love it!. User friendly. Love i can set to the priority bands in my area and when i travel. Keep it up.

Sucks 12-19-25. It’s terrible, for some reason whenever I open the app all of my audio starts to skip in my car, but it only does this whenever I open this app In addition to that, I feel like there should be more customization and different parameters. The Voice on this thing sucks also. 😂 If they need made minor tweaks, this app could be really good. Allow our users to communicate and tag locations similar to waze

Absolutely the BEST. This app works flawlessly, now that you added car play it’s a must have for every owner of a R8 or R8w Thank you for having the best app out there! My drive just got a lot better

Won’t connect to my R8. I bought this app hoping it would work with my R8 but it won’t connect. I updated the firmware and still won’t connect. I double checked the firmware and it’s up to date I have tried 6 times still nothing. My R 8 works perfectly fine. Looks like I wasted $10.00

Works great. Best app for an R8. Really nice to change in the fly.

Absolutely the best app for the R8. Can’t drive without this app.

Great. So far so good I wish it had a option of speed camera alerts

Great App for the R8. I am enjoying using R8 Companion. I would highly recommend R8 Companion for all Uniden R8 owners.

On point!. Very easy to use is definitely a winner

Need portrait mode.. It is a very good app, i hope in the next update, the developer should include the portrait mode since i like to use it with my Tesla. That is why i gave it 4 stars.

Love it if you never upgrade phones. Should really make it where u can back up and restore on another phone upgraded phone and realized that feature is useless in said case

Almost perfect. Great app. 5 stars if worked with CarPlay.

Garbage. Direction or speed go haywire. Go south it will display every direction. Works for half a minute. I phone Promax 14

amazing app only needs a retouch. you can’t see ur logs without being connected to it or on other than that amazing app and features.

R8w. Fire

Awesome. Game changer for sure. Love it already

Great but needs custom frequency filter. My 2026 CT5 constantly falses at Ka 35.100 one bar strength , probably from the entertainment system. Lowering Ka sensitivity to 80% doesn’t help. Need a low strength Ka frequency filter without merely blocking off an entire Ka segment.

Notifications. Great app but I’m absolutely obliterated with notifications whenever I’m near my car and the connection goes in and out.

Incredible. At every opportunity, I recommend this app to anyone that can benefit from it. It has been a miracle on my somewhat noisy R8W and has made the auto-lockout function much better. It would be foolish not to have this, and add R/Tach app while you are at it, and you will have the perfect setup. As a bonus, and I just saw this today, apparently CarPlay was added. Thank you for all tour hard work, and smart work, in getting this created and continually making it even better through updates. I never drive without my radar detector, and I never drive without R8 Companion.

Instant boner. Takes the uniden R8 to the next level! If anyone is second guessing to get this or not to. It’s straight fire hot hot hot! Get it you must!

Game Changer. Many of the reviews of the R8 mention the lack of app. Well here it is. Huge differences and for me pushes the R8 to the top!

MPH on App. MPH on app is inaccurate. Shows half of actual speed and what’s displayed on radar detector.

Best Radar App For My R8w. Amazing as simple never buggy and works in the backgrounds. Filters so much false signals!

ez. so helpful if you know what to do but very user friendly would recommend

Recent update includes speed limit display and error. A recent update decided to include a speed limit display which there is no option to turn off. Just plain annoying. Plus the word limit reverts to “SVRBK” for some reason.

Fantastic App. This is an absolutely amazing app. If you’re thinking of getting it, I highly recommend you do

Amazing App & R8 Tool. This app is simply amazing. This is a perfect tool to complement the R8. The app seems to be updated pretty regularly and it’s amazing how it works. Great app Angela keep up the awesome work, please!

Developer is not charging enough!. This app is great. I can’t recommend it more highly.

ADD APPLE CARPLAY. add apple carplay and fix music lowering delay

good but.... i like the voice notifications. One problem though is that I am listening to Spotify on Carplay and after a voice notification the music volume will be 3 steps lower! close the app and the volume is back to normal. Don't think i will continue with the apo for that reason.