New features aim to make night time exercising safer for women by showing night-only heatmaps
(Image credit: Strava)
Today global exercise platform Strava has announced a host of new features that will roll out in the coming months, aimed at making leaderboards fairer, night-time exercise safer, and the cost of the platform cheaper for families.
Precise dates on when these new features will roll out have not been provided, but it is expected that there will be a regular cadence of updates in the coming months.
The key features are as follows, complemented by a rollout of dark mode in the app, following the trend of many apps in recent years:
New AI features aim to improve training, route planning, and leaderboard integrity. (Image credit: Strava)
AI updates
The ever-rising tide of artificial intelligence is finally lapping at the shore of exercise stats. Machine learning trained on what is, we presume, the entire Strava activity dataset will automatically flag questionable activities, aiming to maintain leaderboard integrity. No longer, it is hoped, will your hard-won QOM/KOM be taken by someone driving home with their bike computer still on.
In further AI news, for subscribers only an ‘AI Beta’ will use your activity data and, combined with your goals, offer workout guidance to help users maximise their potential. It is also hinted that it is going to include data from wearable tech to get a complete fitness picture.
Again for subscribers only, the route planning feature will get an AI boost, with ‘Generative Routes’. This appears to take the activity data from the whole Strava dataset - presumably the heatmap portion of it primarily - and use it to recommend AI-generated routes based on your preferred distance, terrain, and elevation.
Night heatmaps aim to make exercising after sunset safer. (Image credit: Strava)
Safety updates
In an effort to make night-time exercising safer, Strava will soon bring out night-only heatmaps, allowing users to see which routes are well-trodden/ridden between the hours of sunset and sunrise. This feature is subscriber-only though.
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For all users a ‘Quick Edit’ feature will be added, allowing the start time, map visibility, privacy settings and other settings to be hidden more quickly.
Weekly heatmaps
Subscribers will also have access to weekly heatmaps, to compliment the night heatmaps and the overall heatmap feature. Here, users will be able to see what has been ridden/run over the previous seven days, to better allow tracking of changing conditions.
Verified segments
All users will soon be introduced to ‘Verified Segments’. These, in much the same way as verified athletes, or particularly famous Twitter users, will be flagged with an official identifying badge. There is no information as yet on what will identify a segment as one that would be singled out for verified status, but it appears that it would filter out the chaff, leaving only the most sought-after segments visible, better-allowing users to target their efforts and sift through their post-ride achievements.
A family plan will also be available soon to you and three other users in your 'fitness family'. (Image credit: Strava)
Family plan
Family plans will be available in selected countries and will offer a discount for three other people. It seems these don’t have to be actual family members, nor does there appear to be any stipulation that they live under the same roof, just that they are part of your ‘fitness family’. The percentage discount has also not been disclosed as yet, and will apparently vary by country.
Strava X Bumble
In perhaps the most surprising move, Strava has announced that it will be teaming up with the dating app Bumble for the launch of a ‘summer event series’. Beyond that there are no details, so we will leave it to you to speculate on QOM/KOM-based dating filters and opening lines based on VO2 max…
Will joined the Cyclingnews team as a reviews writer in 2022, having previously written for Cyclist, BikeRadar and Advntr. He’s tried his hand at most cycling disciplines, from the standard mix of road, gravel, and mountain bike, to the more unusual like bike polo and tracklocross. He’s made his own bike frames, covered tech news from the biggest races on the planet, and published countless premium galleries thanks to his excellent photographic eye. Also, given he doesn’t ever ride indoors he’s become a real expert on foul-weather riding gear. His collection of bikes is a real smorgasbord, with everything from vintage-style steel tourers through to superlight flat bar hill climb machines.
