R8 Companion
Screenshots
Description
The R8 Companion™ app leverages 5+ 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 141 (R8) or 137 (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 of each alert. • Tips/Help system. Speed limit data © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL)
What's New
Now works with CarPlay!! "Feels like a new detector!", -e This is what people are saying after using the Radar Companion™ apps - See what all the fuss is about, try it for yourself! This new version is a major overhaul in alert presentation and navigation experience in preparation for future CarPlay integration. New for version 1.35: • Misc bug fixes and optimizations. Other recent big updates: • New alert banner "SignalScope" Shows signal strength over time of the current priority alert. • Option to hide "Active" banner from free drive dashboard. • Full navigation functionality. • New alert screen (portrait & landscape views). *Option to view classic or new alert screen with a tap of a button. • Ability to turn on/off posted speed limit (US, CA, AU, NZ). • New alert screen banners showing detailed alert, false assist, POI, MyRadarIQ, over speed warnings and other detailed detector status information. • Set detector mode from new alert screen. • Alternate Route selection with highway, and toll avoidance. • Navigation screen shows arrival time, distance & trip time remaining. • 'Show traffic' option while navigating. • 'Recent trip' quick selection. • Nearby points of interest selection. • Quickly switch back from navigation screen to classic alert details screen. • “Free Drive” (map / no map) alert screen when not in navigation mode. • Free Drive without map display option (battery saver). • MyRadarIQ™ - Threat assessment intelligent system for the radar companion series of apps. A new meter, visible at the top of the main alert screen, will show a graphical representation of the probability of a police presence (Ka or Laser) in the direction of your travel. Using your personal alert data, whenever a high probability exists for an encounter ahead, you will know about it well in advance of facing the actual threat. The meter will go from yellow (low threat), to orange (medium threat), to red (high threat) and flash aa a voice announcement occurs. The meter will also flash red when a Ka or Laser alert is actively being received to help draw attention to the alert. Probabilities are calculated down to the day of the week you are traveling, increasing the accuracy on any given day. • Posted speed limit displayed on main alert screen (Currently supported markets: US, CA, AU, NZ). • Customizable low speed muting based on the speed limit. • SpotLock engine version 03012026 - latest historical data. • Advanced false assist engine version 03012026 - latest 5+ years of historical data. • Accessibility option to flash the screen on alert. If you liked R8 Companion before this release, you are going to LOVE it after! Modify the most popular settings on your R8 radar detector right from the app! See the list below for a complete list of the settings you can modify (more settings coming in future updates). Spread the word, it is only going to get better. If you have an idea / suggestion you would like included in a future update, please visit https://crackedpixel.com/contact-us to let us know. Thanks! Noteworthy info: • Supports R8 & R8w detectors. • Firmware update notifications via main alert screen. • New and improved SpotLock 2.0 and Advanced False Assist 3.0. Both data driven systems are updated regularly using 5+ years of historical data. This takes your detector to a whole new level of quietness and safety against real threats. • Option to have the radar detector's alert tones play through the app. The setting is found in the 'Audio Settings' of R8 Companion. Speed limit data © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL) ***TIP: Setting the main volume for the detector to 0 on the main alert screen and enabling the detector alert tones, will eliminate the brief audio "blips" you would normally hear when a mute command is first sent to the detector. Only potential threats will then trigger audio through your speaker or audio system providing an extremely quiet ride.
Details
- Developer
- Angela Mcarthur
- Main Category
- Utilities
- Version
- 1.35.2
- Version Release
- 2026-07-10
- Initial Release
- 2023-08-18
- Size
- 15 MB
- Age Rating
- 4+
- Price
- USD 9.99
- Languages
- EN
- Bundle ID
- com.crackedpixel.R8Companion
- Version Rating
- ★ 4.82 (1,395)
- First Seen
- 2026-05-28
Metadata updated 2026-07-19
Rank History
Free · Max 90 days · Top 5 categories shown (Y-axis: rank, lower is better)
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Free Rankings
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Paid Rankings
Competitive Benchmark — Utilities Top 10
What it takes to beat this app — comparison with the category's top apps. The orange row is the current app.
| # | App | Price | Rating | Ratings | Langs | Last Update |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Shadowrocket | USD 2.99 | ★ 4.48 | 12,076 | 7 | 2026-07-07 |
| 2 | FORScan Lite - for Ford, Mazda | USD 6.99 | ★ 3.02 | 192 | 7 | 2026-05-09 |
| 3 | Wipr 2 | USD 4.99 | ★ 4.69 | 1,225 | 1 | 2026-07-07 |
| 4 | Goblin Tools | USD 2.99 | ★ 4.77 | 2,951 | 1 | 2023-06-23 |
| 5 | Necrophonic | USD 9.99 | ★ 3.75 | 532 | 1 | 2022-06-19 |
| 6 | Noir - Dark Mode for Safari | USD 2.99 | ★ 4.56 | 1,339 | 2 | 2026-06-29 |
| 7 | Stash - Rule Based Proxy | USD 5.99 | ★ 4.36 | 1,196 | 9 | 2026-07-16 |
| 8 | Necrometer | USD 9.99 | ★ 2.75 | 265 | 1 | 2024-11-02 |
| 9 | IONIQ 5 Companion | USD 12.99 | ★ 4.74 | 47 | 9 | 2026-07-09 |
| 10 | Just Press Record | USD 6.99 | ★ 4.25 | 1,519 | 13 | 2026-05-05 |
| 14 | R8 Companion | USD 9.99 | ★ 4.82 | 1,395 | 1 | 2026-07-10 |
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User Reviews
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!
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.
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
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.
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.
so helpful if you know what to do but very user friendly would recommend
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.
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.
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.
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!
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.
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
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