Strava just announced a series of updates at their annual Camp Strava event, where they’re showcasing a ton of new stuff. This year’s event marks the first time that new CEO, Michael Martin, has taken the helm, having started back in January – and he seems keen to say, “There’s a new sheriff in town.” And I’ll give them credit, their little 82 second teaser video is insanely well done – it’s easy to see their CEO sitting there reading mean social media comments… and agreeing with them!
Overall, there will be a number of things, some more specific – and some a little more vague. Here’s the quick hit list, and then I’ll go into the nuances in a bit more detail below:
– Add a new family plan for up to four family members or friends in a group (unless pricing is TBD)
– Added “Dark Mode” mobile app
– Added night heatmaps to show which routes are better/safer for night training
– Added new quick edit feature for editing training details
– Added new “Athlete Intelligence” feedback, similar to basic coaching feedback on activities
– Added AI-Enabled Leaderboard Integrity to detect unlikely uploads
All of these things are due to a revamped development process within the company that uses an “updated design system,” according to Strava, an initiative that is instrumental in increasing the pace of product innovation at the company.
Strava’s new CEO, Michael Martin, continues:
“We are focused on two fundamental shifts to accelerate the way we deliver value to 125 million people worldwide – building for women and leveraging artificial intelligence – which will enable new community and partner-driven experiences across the board Platform will enable.”
Of course, as always, it depends on the evidence. Virtually none of what was announced today is actually available today, it will all be available sometime between “this summer” and “later this year.” So let’s dive a little deeper.
The new parts in detail:
The company announced these updates both via press release and at an on-stage event. Neither goes particularly deep into the technical details, but some pieces are clearer than others. Let’s start with the most financially interesting thing: family plans.
Family plan:
The new family plan allows up to four people to join together under a single paid membership, which offers all the same rights/features as an individual membership. Plus, you don’t have to live at the same address. Strava specifically states that it can be any four people as long as they are in the same country (and are not already members). In other words, you could find three other ride partners and split the cost between them.
Strava has already published a detailed FAQ page about this, which covers a number of questions – apart from the most important question: How much does it cost? The company says details are still being finalized and rollout will begin in select countries this summer.
The family plan is only offered as an annual subscription. If you are already a subscriber, you can cancel your current subscription and then join a family group. There are no data/functions/etc. lost.
This could be super interesting – and I think it will be very appealing to many…well…families. But many other friends of mine don’t bother with paid subscriptions to Strava because they don’t use the features often enough. This could push them over the edge. Or vice versa: It could lead to a bunch of really smart cyclists/runners just getting together and splitting the bill. It all depends on the final cost.
Dark mode:
That’s easy. Strava says this summer they will introduce the much-requested “Dark Mode” feature in the mobile apps, which will automatically use your device’s general light/dark mode settings. Here’s a nice picture of it that they included:
See, that was easy?
Night heat maps:
Next, the company is adding nighttime heatmaps that tell you which routes are better at night, especially between sunset and sunrise. The company placed this in the “Build for them” category. “Build for Many” is a series of initiatives that, while aimed at women, are also applicable/useful for many others.
The night heatmaps are described as follows:
Night heatmaps only show activity between sunset and sunrise – so athletes can get an idea of which roads, paths and paths are busy after hours. Because nighttime heatmaps filter for off-hours routes, it can be a helpful tool for female athletes who train before sunrise and after sunset.
This would also be super useful and honestly really cool to see the data – for both driving and running. Once you live in a particular place long enough, you tend to have your favorite nighttime routes. But I would be interested to know which routes that I never visit at night are actually quite well attended. Should be super interesting
New quick edit feature:
This next feature is a bit unclear, at least for now. It’s titled “Quick Changes” and I’ll let Strava explain it again:
“It’s important for active women to have control over what is shared with the Strava community that cheers them on – such as what time a run is logged.” Quick Edit makes it easier to make the most common changes – like activity names and privacy settings, so you can hide your start time, map or other workout stats.”
My guess here is that this makes things a little easier to do with a tap rather than wading through a bunch of menus for some of these features. Of course we have to wait and see.
Athlete Intelligence:
Next, there are a whole host of coach-like features that look at your activity and then provide feedback/thoughts on it, as well as look at trends and other areas. Here are some screenshots the company released:
In it, you can see the system above, which the company says is not at all an AI chatbot like you see on Whoop or other platforms, but instead asks specific questions (“What is your focus this week?”). and then follows with concrete answers. You can ask it to “Say more” and show more details. You can see how it incorporates existing data that Strava shows today, presumably in a more visible way than stats buried deep in pages you might never visit.
Of course, having something AI-powered is very trendy among technology companies. I appreciate that Strava doesn’t just add another useless AI-powered chatbot that constantly gives you bad training tips, but instead seems to lower expectations and reach.
AI Leaderboard Integrity:
Last but not least, Strava has announced a new AI-Enabled Leaderboard Integrity system that will attempt to find more mistagged e-bike rides and air flights:
“The first of these updates, AI-powered Leaderboard Integrity, will leverage machine learning to automatically flag irregular, unlikely or impossible activity recorded on the platform. Trained through millions of activities, this feature empowers everyone on Strava to play fairly and have more fun.”
It will be interesting to see how this continues. I hope this is an initiative that has been on hold for a while but somehow keeps getting delayed. After all, users have been begging for this stuff for about a decade, so it’s not clear to me what suddenly changed. Well, except for the new CEO. Which may be the only reason this is finally happening. Here’s to hoping!
With that said, this seems like a very solid start to things that people actually want. Since we’re wondering: Can we finally group the triathlon data into a single cohesive activity instead of splitting it into five activities? I mean, I was just asking for a friend.
Thanks and thanks for reading!
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