ACR Bivy Stick Review

Bivy Stick is a next-generation product with affordable and flexible purchase and subscription options. Bivy Stick originally responded to the growing demand for satellite communicators with impressive speed. To offer a second-round, mature product with significant and multiple upgrades is impressive and appreciated. Everything we didn't like about the original has been addressed with the latest version. It isn't perfect yet (no product is quite there, though the potential exists), but it is much better than the previous version and offers excellent value for the right user.

Performance Comparison

SOS/Emergency Message

When you have an emergency in the wilderness, no matter your experience or other preparedness, you will want someone to know about it. It is ideal if you can communicate nuanced information about your emergency situation directly to emergency services and savvy personnel. With a functional smartphone and the Bivy Stick, you can do all of this. Even without your smartphone, you can hit the “y'all come” button directly on the device. The SOS service of the Bivy Stick is as good as anything on the market.

Bivy Stick tells us that they send your SOS message via Iridium satellite signal to Global Rescue, Inc for rescue dispatch. We best know Global Rescue as the provider of rescue and travel insurance. That they have expanded to dispatch service is logical, but this is the first we've known of them doing this for a satellite messenger. In the past, all private sector entities used a competing service. Recently a few satellite messengers have branched out from that original service. Global Rescue has a long history of being involved with wilderness rescue, so we trust that the service they offer is solid.

You can activate this emergency messaging from the tethered phone app or from the device itself. If you perform the communications using the phone app, you can participate in two-way text messaging with the emergency services through Global Rescue. This is fast becoming the wilderness risk management “standard” among professionals and thoughtful recreationists.

Non-Emergency Messaging

Wilderness travel doesn't just complicate emergency communications. More and more, we and our loved ones at home are expecting and craving two-way communications while we are beyond a cell signal. Lament or celebrate this as you may, but it is a current reality. With the expanding technological possibilities, so increases the expectations. The Bivy Stick enables different degrees of contact.

Through the device alone, even if your tethered smartphone should be lost, dead, or intentionally left at home, you can send a simple “I'm OK” message. This goes a long way. You cannot elaborate in any way, nor can you view responses or conduct more nuanced correspondence without a phone and the associated app. When you and the app are all set up, you can use the Bivy Stick to text much as you would at home, emojis and all. Pictures and other correspondence requiring data signal (emojis are coded as text, behind the scenes) do not work with the Bivy Stick or any of the tested devices in our review.

We wish you could correspond, in and out of cell, satellite, and WiFi signal, with one unbroken text chain in the Bivy app (or that your phone's native text app or a third-party app like “WhatsApp” could collate a conversation conducted with one person through both cell signal and satellite signal). This may seem basic and like an unnecessary luxury, but real-world usage verifies the value of unbroken communications. Think of international travel, long expeditions, or thru-hiking. All of these involve varying degrees of connectivity. Other products do it, and it seems as though the Bivy app could be readily configured to allow this. We predict that all satellite communications will eventually allow some version of uninterrupted text conversation.

Signal Coverage

Bivy Stick contracts with Iridium for satellite communications. The Iridium network covers the entire world within the limitations of any satellite communication network. Satellite communications are inherently compromised by steep and confined terrain, buildings, and thick tree cover. No device or network is immune to this. Your expectations of satellite coverage and promptness must be aligned. No satellite communications cover every inch of Earth, and none work as quickly as your cell phone in 4g coverage.

Of the available options, the Iridium network employed by Bivy Stick is as good as it gets. It truly works worldwide (we've used other devices on the Iridium Network all over. We haven't yet used the Bivy Stick all over — no one is currently going “all over,” right?)

Ease of Use

Setting up and using the Bivy Stick isn't much more complicated than other compact electronics. You have to deal with the subscription, app download, and Bluetooth connectivity. In use, you have to make sure your phone and the device are connected and that everything stays charged.

We had two initial complaints about ease of use with the Bivy Stick. First, it charges with USB-C. We know that this is becoming standard, but so many of our outdoor electronics are still on Micro-USB. Headlamp, external batteries, phones, Steri-Pen, etc., all use Micro-USB. The Bivy Stick requires we carry another cord. The short, fabric-reinforced cord they include is nice and serviceable, but it is still one more thing to deal with. Next, and likely more importantly, we wish there were even more on-device options. The current version is far better than the previous, but it isn't as good as other options on the market. You can send SOS and “check-in” messages from the device alone, but we wish you could view and compose customized messages from the device, even if it required some sort of slow text entry.

After our initial testing of the Bivy Stick (and after the first publishing of this review), we kept using the product and service. Long-term reliability matters to you and to us. We don't let up on our testing. With the Bivy Stick, we found that it began to fail. It would turn itself off while in use. Tracking would stop, and all app messaging would discontinue. We could always turn it back on and conduct at least a little bit of correspondence before losing it again, but this is undesirable at best. Unacceptable, really. We contacted Bivy customer service and received a prompt response and service. They replaced the device, and we have had a great reduction in that issue since then. We will keep testing this second device and report back if anything changes. Bivy customer service assured us that the failure we experienced is rare. They said, “We've only seen a couple of cases of it, and the problem was related just to that device, not all devices.”

Another ease of use matter that has come up with longer-term use involves the two-way message threads. Once they are a certain length (roughly 20 messages, total), they stop automatically scrolling to the most recent messages — you then have to scroll to the most recent in and out messages manually. You can delete the thread's contents to mitigate this, but that seems clumsy at best.

All Bluetooth/app-enabled devices and services can come disconnected. This could happen with the Bivy Stick, theoretically. In that case, you cannot reconnect the device while in the field. If that happens (or if you lose/break your phone), you have very limited functionality on the Bivy Stick. As compared to other options we have tested, the Bivy Stick seems less likely to lose connection between the device and app, but the consequences are greater because you can't view or compose messages without your phone.

Portability

Bivy Stick calls this the “smallest, most simple satellite communication device in the world.” It is indeed very small, but we're sitting here comparing the options directly. Their marketing claim about size isn't true in weight, volume, or maximum length. The shape, thinness, and robust “feel” do enhance portability. All the functions they cram in there are much appreciated. But their marketing claims are hyperbolic.

After “calling out” the exaggerated claims, we have to acknowledge that this is indeed a very compact piece of equipment, especially considering all it does. Further, you can carry it in multiple ways; it is configured for a string/clip carry or for a tripod/action camera style mount. As compared to its closest competitors, it is thinner. Despite “splitting hairs,” for most purposes, the Bivy Stick is basically the same size and weight as all the other compact options we have reviewed.

Should You Buy the ACR BivyStick?

This is a good budget option, especially if you will use it infrequently. The current flexible subscription model employed by ACR/Bivy is great for activating and discontinuing service. Other products/services don't make it so simple to turn your device on and off.

What Other Personal Locator Beacons Should You Consider?