THINKWARE CONNECTED vs R8 Companion
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
THINKWARE CONNECTED
This app connects to compatible dash cams, offering real-time vehicle monitoring and alerts. It provides features like remote live view, impact notifications with video playback, and vehicle location tracking. Users can also review driving history and update dash cam firmware remotely.
- Remote Live View
- Real-time Parking Impact Video
- Real-time Vehicle Location
- Captured Image of Most Recent Parking
- Vehicle Status Monitoring
- Driving History Review
- Remote Firmware Updates
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*This app is only compatible with THINKWARE dash cams. A smarter connected experience with 4G LTE Connectivity. THINKWARE CONNECTED, our newly updated and improved mobile app, offers a wide range of smart features. Now you can truly communicate with your vehicle in real-time seamlessly. Receive impact notifications, play videos (strong impact crash in continuous recording mode, parking impact), view captured image of most recent parking, and monitor your vehicle status and driving history on your mobile. FEATURES : ■ REMOTE LIVE VIEW Remotely view your vehicle in both Continuous Mode and Parking Mode. Click on Live View button on your smartphone app to view a real-time video of your vehicle. ■ REAL-TIME PARKING IMPACT VIDEO In parking mode, you can immediately detect an impact with the dash cam. Receive impact notification and play video of impact on your smartphone with Smart Remote feature. Upon user consent, a 20 seconds Full-HD video (10 seconds before and after the incident) is uploaded on the server. ■ REAL-TIME VEHICLE LOCATION You can check the real-time location of the vehicle in Continuous Mode and Parking Mode. ■ CAPTURED IMAGE OF MOST RECENT PARKING When your vehicle is parked, check the location of your vehicle and its surroundings. On your smartphone, you can receive a Full-HD image of your front camera including the location of your parked vehicle. ■ VEHICLE STATUS Monitor your vehicle’s status to check whether your vehicle is parked or operating on the road. Check your vehicle battery voltage and remotely turn off the dash cam when the battery voltage is low. ■ DRIVING HISTORY View your driving history including data such as date, time, distance, route and driving behavior. ■ REMOTE FIRMWARE DATA UPDATE Update your dash cam remotely to enhance your dash cam’s features, maintain optimal operation and increase stability. Conveniently upgrade your firmware and speed cam data to the latest version on your smartphone. ■ SEND EMERGENCY MESSAGE In case of emergency situations, register the contact details of your family, friend or associate. A SOS message will be transmitted to your emergency contact in the event of a strong impact crash or when the driver presses the SOS button on the dash cam to urgently request for help. ■ DOWNLOAD AND SHARE THE EVENT LOCATION AND RECORDED VIDEO You can download the impact video to your smartphone and share the video with the accident location. ■ FLEET MANAGEMENT SERVICE Connect your dash cam with fleet management for efficient vehicle operation. Supports features such as location check, route monitoring, and driving behavior analysis. ■ SERVICE EXTENSION Once you have used up the initial 5 years of service, you can continue enjoying the service by purchasing an additional plan. We provide flexible options so you can extend your use without interruption. Supported Models: U3000 / U1000 PLUS / Q1000 / Q850 / T700 ■ Basic & Premium PLANS Two new plans are available for new LTE dashcams. The Basic plan covers essential features with the option to extend the service, while the Premium plan offers advanced functions and enhanced specs with monthly or yearly plans to match your usage patterns. Supported Models: U3000PRO ※ To use this service, allow the following permissions. ▶ Required permissions - Storage: Used to download impact videos and parking images of your vehicle - Location: Used to find your location and your parking location, as well as to receive weather information - Phone: Used to identify your purchase, provide support for your purchased product, and provide emergency contact when you have an accident. Your phone number will be collected, encrypted, and securely stored on our server. * You can use this service even if you do not allow optional permissions. * Continuous background use of GPS will drain the battery faster.
R8 Companion
Enhance your radar detector experience with intelligent alerts, advanced muting, and location-based false silencing. This app optimizes your detector's performance and provides detailed real-time information for a safer drive.
- Location-based false silencing (SpotLocks)
- Intelligent voice announcements
- Customizable heads-up display (HUD)
- Proximity meter for signal source
- Advanced false muting for K & X bands
- Remote detector settings adjustment
- Customizable audio announcements
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Now with CarPlay! The R8(w) Companion™ app leverages 6+ years of historical data in its acclaimed 'Advanced False Assist' filtering engine, detector optimizations and shared features from the Radar Companion™ series of apps. (Available separately for owners of the V1, R4, R9, & DS1 radar detectors). The filtering engine is updated on a regular basis from accumulated real world usage data for better filtering against falses, and protection against real threats. R8 Companion™ is a feature rich app, designed to give you the most out of your R8, while enhancing your driving experience along the way. It is extremely easy to get up and running. Featuring intelligent alerts and advanced muting! R8 Companion™ is the COMPLETE solution to enjoying your R8. NOTE: R8 Companion™ requires a Uniden R8 or R8w radar detector with US Version 144 (R8) or 142 (R8w) firmware (or earlier) to function correctly. R8 Companion will NOT function correctly without the appropriate firmware for each detector. Enhanced GPS location based 'false muting' via SpotLocks - All future updates to this app are free to purchasers of R8 Companion. R8 Companion's alerting and muting systems are fully optimized for the R8 platform. Intelligent voice announcements and on-screen visuals will always keep you informed and aware of the situation around you. R8 Companion full feature list: • SpotLocks - Location based false silencing has never been this good or easy. Turn on the intelligent location-based learning and let R8 Companion™ do the rest. Or you can manually 'lock' or 'unlock' locations with ease from the main alert screen. • SpotLocks works seamlessly with your R8’s built in 'auto mute memory' locations. If you create or delete a location from the app it will apply the changes to your R8 at the same time. • Option to play detector tones in app. • 'Proximity' meter - leverages the high resolution signal strength and direction information provided by the detector to show you a better representation of the signal's source. • 'K & X falses in area' meter shows you how many possible false alerts exist in the area you are travelling based on the accumulated SpotLock data™. • 'Custom Phrases' for a given threat's audio announcements. • High resolution meter for the priority alert (Not limited to the # of bars on the R8 display). • Customizable heads-up display (HUD). • HUD displays the priority alert's band, signal strength, frequency, & direction. • HUD of the secondary alerts' bands, signal strengths, frequencies, bogey counts & directions. • Mute rear K & X band signals independently. • Advanced BSM/CAS/Ka False Muting (Optimized for the R8 platform). • Ability to set the R8’s internal detector settings from within the app. No need for different apps to modify your detector settings. Do it all from the companion app. • 'Ghost' muting quiets false alerts when you are stuck traveling near a false emitting vehicle. • "Passive Mute™"- Quiets the R8 below user set speeds & during weak K & X signals. • Bogey count display showing total number of threats. • Vehicle speed (MPH or KMH) display. Speed is color coded for each alert type. • Mute status with the ability to manually mute/unmute alerts as you need. • Detailed & intelligent voice announcements of direction, band, frequency, strength, number of alerts, occurrences of mixed signals and more. • Automatic muting of Ka, K, and X bands ('Time before mute' set for each band). • 'Reduce Speed' notification for user set speed. • ‘Urgency Alerts™’ - Unmutes growing threats & announces these alerts via voice & notifications. • ‘Alert History’ - View your past alerts with detailed information about each encounter. • Compass heading. • Imperial/metric units. • Detailed trip summary at the end of your ride including duration, distance, alerts, muting stats, battery, and more. • iPhone & Apple Watch notifications of direction, band, & frequency. • Help system. Speed limit data © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL)
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is review sentiment: R8 Companion at 83% against THINKWARE CONNECTED's 15%. R8 Companion also leads on rating (4.8 vs 2.4) and ratings volume (1.5K vs 5). THINKWARE CONNECTED's advantage is price (Free vs $9.99). On update cadence, ads, in-app purchases and device support there is nothing between them.
Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS
THINKWARE CONNECTED is free to download; R8 Companion costs $9.99 up front. THINKWARE CONNECTED sells 10 one-off in-app purchases and R8 Companion sells 4 one-off in-app purchases. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
R8 Companion holds the better App Store score, 4.8 against 2.4. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: R8 Companion has 1.5K ratings behind it against 5, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 15% of THINKWARE CONNECTED's written reviews are positive against 83% of R8 Companion's.
THINKWARE CONNECTED ships an update fortnightly, R8 Companion every 2 weeks. The most recent releases landed on September 23, 2026 and September 25, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | THINKWARE CONNECTED | R8 Companion |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free — better | $9.99 |
| Rating | 2.4 (5 ratings) | 4.8 (1.5K ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 15.1% of reviews | 82.7% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 5 | 1.5K — better |
| Update frequency | Fortnightly | Every 2 weeks — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases — better | Paid |
| Best chart rank | — | #13 — better |
| Devices | iPhone | iPhone, iPod — better |
| Requires iOS | 17.0 | 13.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 115 MB | 16 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | THINKWARE SYSTEMS CORPORATION | Angela Mcarthur |
Customer experience
THINKWARE CONNECTED
R8 Companion
User reviews
THINKWARE CONNECTED
From 5 App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 👍 Works well (when connected)
- 👍 Live streaming capability
- 👍 GPS mapping of locations
- 👍 Regular updates and fixes (mentioned once)
- 👍 Real-time footage for incidents
Room to improve
- ❌ Extremely difficult to connect
- ❌ App is buggy and unreliable
- ❌ Registration process is a nightmare
- ❌ Poor user interface and instructions
- ❌ Frequent disconnections
R8 Companion
From 1.5K App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 🚀 Great functionality
- 👍 Customizable settings
- 👍 Responsive developer
- 👍 Helps quiet the R8
- 👍 Useful features
Room to improve
- 🐛 Bluetooth disconnection issues
- 🔊 Audio volume issues
- 🔧 Needs better UI organization
- 🔧 Lacks granular audio control
Bugs and requests
THINKWARE CONNECTED
Reported bugs
13 issues- App does not connect
- Barcode scanning is blurry or doesn't work
- Serial number entry fails
- Cannot register device
- App disconnects after a few minutes
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- Cannot connect to car hotspot
- Server-side errors during account creation
- App disconnects after 5 seconds
- Login issues (won't let user in)
- Camera not accessible even when connected to WiFi
- Live view metered but not sending footage
- Camera doesn't auto-connect to home network
- App crashes or shows error messages
Requested features
8 requests- Add dark mode
- Request live view
- Show battery percentage
- Add radar health check
- Improve app connectivity
Show 3 moreShow fewer
- Make app more intuitive
- Provide comprehensive tutorials
- Reconcile and optimize app mess
R8 Companion
Reported bugs
2 issues- Bluetooth disconnection on mute button press
- Automatic speed limit setting changes
Requested features
6 requests- Option to control push notifications
- Wireless/Bluetooth firmware updates for R8
- CarPlay support
- Background app functionality
- Home screen widget
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- Speed camera alerts
In-app purchases
THINKWARE CONNECTED
- LTE BASIC (1 Month)$3.49
- LTE PREMIUM (1 Month)$6.90
- LTE EXTENDED (1 Month)$6.90
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- Wi-Fi EXTENDED (1 Month)$6.90
- LTE PREMIUM (1 Month)$8.90
- LTE BASIC (1 Year)$34.99
- LTE PREMIUM (1 Year)$69.00
- LTE EXTENDED (1 Year)$69.00
- Wi-Fi EXTENDED (1 Year)$69.00
- LTE PREMIUM (1 Year)$89.00
R8 Companion
- Snacks - Contribution$1.99
- Drinks - Contribution$3.99
- Lunch - Contribution$6.99
Show 1 moreShow fewer
- Super Fan - Contribution$9.99
Questions
Is THINKWARE CONNECTED free?
Is R8 Companion free?
Which has better reviews, THINKWARE CONNECTED or R8 Companion?
Do THINKWARE CONNECTED or R8 Companion have ads?
Which is updated more often, THINKWARE CONNECTED or R8 Companion?
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