The Roku App (Official) Reviews

by Penetrator22

But they’ve been pretty disappointing recently. My current issue is trying to figure out how to cancel subscriptions, and being unable to get into contact with anyone from Roku Anyone at all, is impossible. If I go to the site of what I’m subscribing to, it says I need to do it through Roku. When I go to Roku’s website, it says I need to do it through the Roku. I don’t see the option anywhere on the ruku, it’s not on the faq, their online “help” system is worthless and just puts me through circles. And their customer service line that they hide the number to (bet you can’t find it on their website) just saying to go online for help. Which isn’t helpful at all. So I’m about to just call my credit card company and file a fraud claim, I don’t know how else to get the payments to stop. Another annoying issue from about a year ago. I bought the top model of Roku since my old rule stopped being serviced. The most expensive, fastest model. Within 2 months it’s telling me I need to buy a memory card since the Roku is full, and until I do, it uninstalls apps to make room for the ones I use. All I use is 5 streaming channels. That’s literally the only apps downloaded on it besides what comes in it, which shouldn’t be a lotl. If I’m buying the most expensive, top end model of a product, I shouldn’t have to buy additional add ones to make it functional. I feel like Roku made it big and then stopped caring about quality, just on profits.

by VKStarfox

Been using TheRokuAppOfficial with my Roku TCL TV for years without a problem, but as of yesterday TheRokuAppOfficial just refuses to connect with my tv at all. It will even detect the tv but not connect with it, no matter how many times I tried. Another related issue is that I can’t seem to stream content from my mobile devices to my Roku tv anymore. Used to be able to beam whatever video I was watching on my phone straight to the tv, but now that doesn’t work either. Just like before, it detect that my Roku tv is there, but when I select it to stream from the phone, nothing happens…

This all leads me to believe that there is a clear issue across Roku’s services.

Perhaps their systems are down? My Roku tv still works fine otherwise, so I won’t give this a 1 star review, but as a wireless remote to my Roku tv, TheRokuAppOfficial has effectively been bricked and made useless. I’m hoping Roku gets a handle on this issue soon, because the current update didn’t fix the connectivity issue and I still can’t use it to operate my tv.

by KG U-Haul CSS

Biggest problem I have is that me nor my wife can connect to both of our TVs to access the remote in TheRokuAppOfficial . I am connected to WiFi and it’s full signal in the living room and in the bedroom. My wife was having troubles a month ago for about 2 1/2 weeks and then it worked for me no problem. However about 4-5 days ago I can’t connect at all. I have WiFi connected to my phone and both TVs and TheRokuAppOfficial is updated however the issue still persists. It’s a bit frustrating guess I will just go ahead an buy 2 new Roku remotes due to TheRokuAppOfficial inconsistency we have had. I will say that when it’s worked for me, it was an amazing app however its not always easy to keep track of a physical remote when you have 2 kids that love to grab it a hide it, forget where they put it or it gets lost. So that’s why TheRokuAppOfficial is always my go to to be able to quickly get the tv on without the 30 mins to all day search. Maybe others have had no issues like I’m having or maybe they have. Anyways 4 stars for the times everything worked however it pretty much useless when it refuses to connect.

by Cerealkelr

I mainly use this for when I lose my physical remote or private listening when I want to watch TV, but not wake up housemates. It seems quite frequently it has stopped connecting to my TV saying that my TV may be in “eco mode” and asks me to “wake it up.” My TV is never in “eco mode” and I’m usually in the middle of a show when this happens. The only way I’ve figured out how to get it to recognize my TV again is to completely unplug my TV for about 20 seconds and plug it back in to completely reboot it. Then it usually works, but will often disconnect during the same watching session. It’s very random, too. Sometimes I can go a whole day without this problem. Sometimes I give up and just watch stuff from my phone because I can’t get it to private listen for more than 5 minutes. I have a strong WiFi connection and my bed where I try to private listen from isn’t far from my Roku TV. I don’t think I’ve ever reviewed an app before, but this needs to be fixed. I’ve looked at reviews from a year (and longer) ago complaining of the exact same issue. PLEASE GET THIS FIXED, roku developers!

by Fruit Squad

I lost my remote 2 - 3 days ago and I used TheRokuAppOfficial! When I first did. It was okay. The next day I realize you need to have your tv on for the next day otherwise you have to get a remote. The channels are cool though however sometimes you want to watch something and then you have stuff you don’t like. That is just my opinion. I get the thing of it needing to connect. However don’t turn off you tv ever otherwise useless app! My mom bought 5 yesterday. Yes that is right, I said 5 just in case if I lose another one. I have another spare. Sometimes the needs connecting plays for no reason. And is this just my tv but the Roku TVs disconnect the WiFi after turned off for hours. Not even a day! You need to change this. Or make a button to turn it on when not connected. Other then that. It is a good app. Not the best though. If you make TheRokuAppOfficial better. I will regret this message. But for now, this is ridiculous!

by Nicknames_r_stupid

One glaring omission from TheRokuAppOfficial is that there is no option to prevent the screen from auto-locking. That seems like such an oversight of something so essential in a remote app. Imagine you have a physical remote that sleeps and may or may not reload when you want to use it. Behold Roku app. Turning off auto-lock for the entire device just to keep the remote open is really a bad and unsafe alternative. Unfortunately with all the great features TheRokuAppOfficial provides (especially the swipe controls and keyboard) TheRokuAppOfficial becomes completely useless because eventually you will find yourself taking the path of least resistance and just reach for the physical remote. Please please add an auto-lock prevention option. IOS has this capability and from experience it’s relatively minimal effort to implement this functionality. Also Roku doesn’t seem to have an email to suggest missing features, so I’m going to be pessimistic here and assume Roku probably won’t read this and TheRokuAppOfficial will never get this option. I so hope I’m wrong because I really want to use TheRokuAppOfficial 🖖.

by Tiffany002

TheRokuAppOfficial is a great alternative to using the remote, especially if you are someone like me who looses it every 5 seconds. I have TheRokuAppOfficial on a setting to where i can turn my tv on through TheRokuAppOfficial . A lot of the times the remote is not connected so it doesn’t turn on my tv. The main reason I have TheRokuAppOfficial is to listen to the tv with my headphones. A lot of the times it gives me problems and it doesn’t always connect to my headphones or it will connect for a little while and then start glitching later. TheRokuAppOfficial has a lot of problems and its so annoying when I turn on my tv expecting to use my phone and its not connected. I don’t understand why its not connected when i have an internet connection. And also when TheRokuAppOfficial starts glitching is causes my tv to glitch and turn off. And sometimes my tv doesn’t work unless i get up and unplug it and plug it back up again. As i said before, this is a good app and is very convenient, but at the same time it can still use a lot of work in the meantime.

by Bryan.cfii

I’ve been using the Roku app for about 2 months. All of the basic functions work which is great. My issue with TheRokuAppOfficial is the Bluetooth functionality and the overalls app connection. TheRokuAppOfficial seems to work for a time, or can work longer some days, but TheRokuAppOfficial often will randomly drop signal for the headphones, lose my Roku sound bar and freeze up. I have to restart the phone, the headphones and the sound bar to get it to work again. A retry / reconnect on the sound bar never re-finds the sound bar. The aftermath of TheRokuAppOfficial freeze on the phone and it’s connection with the Bluetooth headphones is what demands a phone reboot. I love the idea of TheRokuAppOfficial and the potential. When it works, I love the functionality and option the listen and control our tv discretely as my wife is a night nurse with an opposite sleep schedule. I’d gladly do 5 stars if it wasn’t for all the disconnects resulting in hardware/software freezes.

by BlueTurdsInWinter

Theoretically, a brilliant app.
The reality of it is that TheRokuAppOfficial in the year+ that I’ve been using it has upgraded many times, each time seeming to get more and more glitchy...and not really adding anything of great positive change to TheRokuAppOfficial . I’m at the point now where about half the time neither ios device I use is able to connect to my Roku tv and almost always at least one is unable to connect. Yes. I know about unplugging the tv for a few minutes to reset it but it’s rather annoying when I’ve just prepared a meal and I’m sitting down to watch something and have to wait an extra 5 minutes while my food gets cold for the connection to reset. So here’s the message I’d send to the developers:

TheRokuAppOfficial , while the other features are cool, is designed to be A REMOTE. If it can’t even be used as a remote then YOU ARE FAILING AS DEVELOPERS OF TheRokuAppOfficial. Forget the extra nonsense until you take care of these bugs preventing us from connecting the remotes to our roku tvs. Thank you.

by O.Redd

I used to love TheRokuAppOfficial. I mainly used it for the Private listening feature. I would use it all the time with Jabra wireless earbuds to watch movies and would have no problem. However, within the last month , when I connect to watch tv via Private Listening … the sound cuts out. It screeches and drops connectivity. I can’t go five minutes without the sound dropping and when I touch the Private Listening headphone icon to switch it back to tv sound …nothing happens. I tried it with a pair of Bose wireless earbuds and it does the same thing. No problem with the Bluetooth because I can listen to music on my phone via either pair of earbuds with no connectivity issues at all.
App will show an error “Your Roku is not online proceed without connection ?” … while I’m literally watching the tv. No streaming issues. I finally tried a pair of wired earbuds …and it worked with no problem. Major issues with Private listening when connected to Bluetooth headphones. Please Fix !

by Z. Brown

Hello, have something to report, Roku channel crashes on the streaming stick after a few minutes of a movie, do not believe me, launch some thing and then wait a few minutes, your Channel will just stop working, and go all the way back to the menu where he would select your channel, it is very annoying, I hope this can be fixed in the next update on the streaming stick and, the following work just fine, main site, Apple app. These are solid, but the TV side needs to be tweaked just a little. I remember being able to watch a full movie on the thing, please fix it when you can thank you very much. Any update, I figured out something, this is all fine if you connect it all into the TV, but if you put it into the power stick I mean the plug, it goes back and does that thing I described. So I think this just might be my fault. :-) Anyway, sorry for wasting your time. Frown

by Annabelle 😱

There’s one thing that must be said about Roku, and that’s that I feel like TheRokuAppOfficial was made because they knew that their remotes would die very quickly. By that I mean, 6 months into having my tv, the batteries inside the remote actually corroded and ate away the battery contacts inside. I cleaned the inside and replaced the batteries only for it to happen again 4 months later. I was using Kirkland signature batteries the second time. After the third time of cleaning out the remote I noticed certain buttons stopped working consistently, and eventually I had to switch to using TheRokuAppOfficial .

TheRokuAppOfficial itself is very useful though, I can do more on it that I could with the original remote. I love that I can just open TheRokuAppOfficial on my phone and not worry about looking for the remote that fell behind my bed in my sleep again. However I have one complaint about TheRokuAppOfficial itself, it doesn’t have a widget. I would absolutely love if I could put a widget on my home screen with 3 buttons, power on most recently used tv, open the remote buttons, and volume up + down. If this feature was added, I would gladly change my review to 5 stars.

by Jacee D

I used to use TheRokuAppOfficial literally every day because the remote was so useful! My roku tv at home is so finicky. It has a sweet spot that is hard to find and I have a shaky hand so it is also hard to keep consistent. But when I found TheRokuAppOfficial it was a game changer. You don’t even have to aim the remote with TheRokuAppOfficial. Private listening is also very useful. I like to have my tv loud, so late at night when I don’t want to disturb my parents watching tv, I can just turn on private listening and listen through my headphones.

But with the latest update they added a 17+ rating. Which is super annoying. My mom has a restriction on my phone to where I can’t download 17+ apps. So thanks Apple. Now I have to have an app that is super bobo and doesn’t even have private listening. And btw, TheRokuAppOfficial doesn’t have ads. LITERALLY EVERY OTHER APP ON TheRokuAppOfficial STORE THAT IS A ROKU REMOTE HAS ADS. So not only is it super bobo, has no private listening, IT ALSO HAS ADS. Apple make TheRokuAppOfficial 12+ or whatever it was before again!!!

by SnapchatGetUrHeadInTheGame

***edit*** I went into the settings to switch my Roku and I saw the option to switch it back to how I liked it, and here I accidentally selected ‘swipe’ mode instead of ‘traditional’ mode weeks ago without realizing :/ I’m a clown :/ I’m sorry roku I love you, baby

GET THE NEW VERSION OF THIS OUT OF HERE!!!! Why do you have to swipe your finger to scroll up, down, and across???? When you’re trying to find something to watch or know what show you want it literally takes fifty years to get to it because of how much fingering swiping you have to do. I want the one where you just have to press the button. Every time I try to swipe it it accidentally presses the buttons instead and I have to hit the back button a million times just to find what show I want. This is the dumbest thing I have ever seen. How do I switch back? Again, this is the dumbest update I have witnessed in my entire life.

by Joedejong.mister Horror?

Best app for someone that is visually impaired because I can browse the channels and I can also use voice search so I love that idea and I have no issues whatsoever? I love the contact here on the Roku channel but I would love to see more genres added I am a huge horror movie fan so maybe add some movies and more channels for free here on the Roku channel I love the 70s horror grind house exploitation films but I love other shows and movies here I would love to see more documentaries and I would love to see some shock Demetris and Mondo flicks! And I’m also a fan of underground horror movies I would also love to have that added to here on the Roku channel so I would say keep adding more contact and keep going and also maybe add some movies and TV shows that can be narrated for people with visual impairments! I have a love for horror movies and classic movies too such as a Turner Classics but I also love Shakira mantras and I would love to see more news channels added here on the Roku channel so keep updating and keep adding more channels and keep growing

by JANIYA OLIVER😍😍

Good morning here is my review TheRokuAppOfficial is literally the best when my sister can’t find Our remote to our TV I say calm down because there’s no need to panic because I have TheRokuAppOfficial right here on my iPhone and almost like everybody in my family does and will use it like a lot and can’t find a remote the only reason why I did A review was because I want to help support TheRokuAppOfficial because because I really enjoy paying for movies and watching them even more they have Netflix ,sling hulu,vudu, and more and here is some advice when you go to sleep at night time are you Gotta do is press the pause button and when you wake up in the morning it’s showing pictures of the new movies that’s about to come out like for example big Brother Doctor Who she’s Gotta have it or more or more classic movies so I hope you like it I tried my best my very best have the very best day goodbye...😀😄😁

by Lexi_Pink00

So we have a Roku tv in our living room, that it seems my parents can’t physically turn off before heading to bed. So every time I wake up to go use the bathroom I can see it’s still on form the hallway leading to the living room. So instead of walking; half asleep into the living room with only a shirt and undergarments on I can now just use TheRokuAppOfficial and turn the TV off form way in the back of the house.

It also has a great use! If it’s way to loud I can also use my phone and turn the volume down without them knowing. They can still hear it; they just seem to like it loud. I wouldn’t mind it but seeing as I can hear it at the other end of the house, it needs to be turned down. It also has a great feature to where I can hook headphones up to my phone and hear privately form the TV without disturbing others. It’s a great app for a great TV.

by Mystiquekitty

I was very excited when I found out Roku made an app for the iPhone. My remote is often knocked over by the cats and lands under my wheelchair which makes it hard to find. Or when I misplace the remote which is why I wrote this review since I couldn’t find it and the rate screen popped up. Lol

I find it especially simple to use and though I only have one Roku still hooked up it always finds the right one. I’ve had my Roku for several years and was wondering if TheRokuAppOfficial would work. TheRokuAppOfficial works just fine on my iPhone 5. Plus it looks exactly like my remote the one without the channel buttons. If it is possible to change the skins I do not know I haven’t searched it out.

I read one reviewer mention it often can’t find their connection that has happened only once I just restarted TheRokuAppOfficial and it was fine. This is one of my most useful and helpful apps I have on my phone!

by Best Tv And Everything Is Good

I love TheRokuAppOfficial because I don’t have to move when I wake up lookin for my control I just grab my phone and there is my control then I find it when I’m awake and I love not having to move out of my bed it’s like having your tv on your phone and don’t start me on that I can watch my. MY tv in my phone I just feel like my tv is in my pocket or in my purse at any time I need it and I feel important for having my tv in my pocket/purse. I just love the quality no hacking no lagging no need of standing up in the mornings anymore and I love how I just can do whatever in TheRokuAppOfficial involving my tv and don’t start me on the tv the tv is the best quality ever EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER Athens best one EVER I don’t know what can be best than this it just needs to not stop being itself don’t change anything to that tv or ima return all the TVs I bought of you because their perfect just like they are that’s my review 5⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️rating ever EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER there that’s my best review.

by Superheroesdad

Version 8.1.0.6 has caused TheRokuAppOfficial to crash when clicking on the device select screen. This may be due to my phone also being enrolled in the iPhone beta updates. Both updates ( iOS and app) happened at around the same time. I have since removed the phone from being enrolled in beta and reverted iOS to its non beta version. However the crash still exists. I have followed normal troubleshooting of removing and installing TheRokuAppOfficial , rebooting, etc. This has given me the opportunity to check out the other Roku apps. While those other apps are at least able to let me hobble along and use the system, I hate that they have ads. I stand by that TheRokuAppOfficial is the better of all the other apps. I just hope that this crash is a known issue and will get fixed in the next version.

Update: I have updated to 8.1.1 and the issue has been resolved. I can finally get rid of the horrible competition. Thank you.

by Mepoq

I am extremely disappointed in TheRokuAppOfficial. When I first downloaded it and used it a couple of times, it seemed to work well. After that it took longer and longer for it to initialize. Obviously this is the worst thing you could have since you want to use it WHEN you want to use it.

Now, it will NOT connect at all. My devices, iPad and iPhone will clearly show the Roku devices so it’s not a matter of the devices not being available. I’ve checked my signal several times and it shows it is STRONG. I even recommended it to a friend after the first couple uses and I am embarrassed that I did.

You can still view stuff from the gallery item at the bottom, but I got it for the Remote feature. It just won’t connect. I did try some trouble shooting, but this is just NOT well designed and is garbage, as an app, as far as I’m concerned. Both my Roku devices work well, but this Roku app is pure crap. And after looking at a couple other alternatives shown in Apple App Store, they seem to have some major drawbacks, which I don’t want.

by Cindy Shopper

Why bother to have a mobile app that you can’t use unless you connect with a fixed wireless? I tried to go into update my payment information for my new credit card. I can’t accomplish this because it will not connect and less it has Wi-Fi. We only use fixed secure Wi-Fi because of data security issues. I certainly don’t want to break this rule in order to go on TheRokuAppOfficial to update my credit card information. This is a stupid design that they need to fix. Most of us have unlimited data and are not concerned about whether we have Wi-Fi. Also if I were using TheRokuAppOfficial on a road trip with my kids I would want them to be able to look on their iPad whether or not we had access to reliable Wi-Fi. Stupid stupid stupid design. Any app to sign her that is this out of touch with the purpose of its application needs to be replaced. Roku needs to fix this or I suspect it’s going to be replaced with the mini market alternatives that have now developed including Apple Watch doesn’t have this problem.

by Mom24monsters

I haven’t found many issues with the iPhone app, but nobody, including me, has all day to read or in my case, write my entire review about what’s wrong with the Watch app. It’s so much easier to write what does work, and that’s kind of pathetic. Everything should work with voiceover, meaning this is an accessibility issue. Your TV talks, but you fail to understand how well accessibility needs to work on your apps. All I can say is, everything on page 2 of TheRokuAppOfficial works, but nothing else does. I can switch from page to page, but heaven forbid I should touch the page chooser, because it ends up going back to page one, which is beyond frustrating! When I’m trying to do something on page 2, then I go too far and get to the page chooser, it goes back to page 1. That should not happen! When there are four pages, and only a quarter of them work with voiceover, you have a problem. Accessibility should be one of the first things you should check before releasing an app.

by PiperRylie

I original had my real remote for my Roku TV and it worked perfectly but then it stopped working. I discovered that they had a Roku App ( TheRokuAppOfficial) and it’s helped a whole bunch because you can just about control the TV from any direction or angle of my bed. It’s a great tool since I still to this day haven’t gotten another remote but I have one concern..When I turn on my TV I open the Roku App and it says that Roku Is Powered Off when I am staring at my POWERED ON television and it’s saying Roku Is Powered Off and then it constantly says Not Connected when I am connected to WiFi and I’m connected to the Internet. So please answer my questions due to 1:Why does it say Roku Is Powered Off and won’t let my remote work? And 2: Why does it always say “Not Connected” when I’m connected to every plug, WiFi password, and internet connection in my house?
I really hope you read this feedback because I really would like answers

Thank You-❤️❤️❤️

by Merlintoo

So far, this is the easiest, most reliable, user friendly remote app I have used. I tap on the icon, TheRokuAppOfficial opens up, and it works perfectly for my needs. As I am getting on a bit age wise,(physically, mentally I think I’m still 25 sometimes, not always advantageous), I have found using TheRokuAppOfficial on my iPhone 7S easier than the remote itself, because everything is right there on the screen to see, only larger, and only takes a light touch. I have found this to be a very useful, pleasantly reliable and user friendly app. Anyone who happens to have arthritis as I do I believe would find TheRokuAppOfficial very helpful, and find a bit of relief from the occasional difficulty and frustration of not being able to hold that tiny remote, as opposed to the relative ease of holding the iPhone with an easy to see and easy to use interface.

by Themusicman08

I am a visually impaired user of this application. I noticed that on the remote control, where the arrows and the OK button and anything else are concerned. Voiceover just announces the word, button. So we have to label the buttons ourselves in order to find out what they are. I would like to see Roku improve this application and have VoiceOver support over all, TheRokuAppOfficial is great to have if you don’t want to use the physical remote. I would also like to see voice recognition put into this for those who have limited mobility. This would also be great if we could use this over our cellular data. Especially for those who have unlimited data. And auto lock feature in the previous reviewer‘s comment I second. But I understand why it’s not here since an iPhone battery can be drained very quickly.

by Robrebob

I never really write reviews but TheRokuAppOfficial so totally rocks I think I need to let others know.

So many apps out there are really nothing more than crap but this Roku app met all expectations and more.

All I really wanted was for my phone to act as a remote. I downloaded the free app and launched itturned it and immediately a screen popped up which had already searched for Roku debices registered to me. I was asked which device I wanted to use. I selected my living room device and immediately my phone turned into a remote fir that Roku box. I could choose other screens and see what was available to watch on premium channels, what was available on my channels, and a search button. If I only wanted a remote I wasn’t bothered with anything else. Simple.

But the biggest surprise was, if I didn’t want to bother anyone else I could actually tap a key and every channel on my Roku was routed to my headset. This cyber key when tapped would immediately pair my Roku box with my Bluetooth headset. I could then walk around, turn up my headset, and chill, not having to worry about neighbors or anyone in my home who was asleep or didn’t want to be bothered.

I’m sure there are other features, all of which you can ignore if you only want a remote. Kudos to the maker of TheRokuAppOfficial.