Bivy – Messaging & Navigation

Tony Godshall ★★★
"So much data wanted. Birthdate? What, you planning to scam me bro? Deleted"
Version: 3.0.64

Douglas Flint ★★★
"The tracking is buggy. Out of six tracks that I have attempted, only three have succeeded. The app has crashed a number of times which interrupted the track. Part of the problem is the continual notifications that the Internet is not available. Duh! Where did they think we were going to use the app? Downtown?"
Version: 4.2.05

Ming Slogar ★★★
"The Bivy Stick is a genius device which avoids the oftentimes clunky interface of other satellite communicators by moving all of this functionality to your phone via the Bivy app. The Bivy app, however, is not quite as genius. Here are a few issues I ran into when using this on a 7-day backpacking trip with Bivy Stick Orange: 1) Incoming messages don`t update reliably unless there`s an outgoing request (message, weather). The ``updated now/0 minutes ago`` indicator is garbage -- I would still get a message from hours prior the minute an outgoing message sent. Luckily I paid for unlimited credits, so I`d just refresh the weather every so often to check messages. 2) Outgoing messages don`t send reliably (most notably one asking my partner to pick me up from a trailhead -- two hours later without a response/my partner ever appearing I finally realized that the message must never have gone through -- and, indeed, it didn`t, even though the app indicated that the message had been sent). This seems to be most prevalent if the message includes GPS coordinates. I`ve got Bivy Stick Blue on preorder and hopefully the check-in button works more reliably than the app`s messaging -- otherwise perhaps the underlying issue is that the device itself is unreliable. 3) Tracking on the app drains phone battery quite dramatically. I think I went through 80% of my battery in 4 hours with tracking enabled. 4) Switching to another app while tracking is running crashes the Bivy app, and consequently crashes tracking. Do you really expect me to have the app open and in the foreground continuously? 5) Leaving the app open drains phone battery quite dramatically, even if not tracking and if running in the background. I had to force quit the app when I wasn`t actively sending/expecting a message to get a day`s use out of my phone. 6) Downloading offline maps is a PITA. Just let me select a huge area and download the whole thing, don`t force me to use the clunky area selector interface to download 100 MB chunks -- I have 100 GB free on my device, after all. All in all, I`m glad I had this device + app when I was in the backcountry, but god damn, it`d be so much more worth the money if the app was actually engineered and tested by software developers worth their salt. (Edit: apologies for the wall of text; Google apparently doesn`t like my whitespace formatting and keeps removing it.)"
Version: 3.0.65

Jordan Pio ★★★
"Works decently with my Bivystick. Could use some improvements. Wish that it displayed more clearly the battery status of my Bivystick (current charge percentage, whether it is being charged when plugged in, etc.). I also wish it would display more clearly the satellite connection status. It`s often difficult to tell whether or not it has a good signal. Lastly, the messaging section feels pretty clunky. I often have to back out of a conversation to actually see that I`ve gotten a response."
Version: 3.0.65