Strava has new leadership, and they want everyone to know that the platform is about to get a bunch of new features, starting with the much-requested Dark Mode, a family subscription plan, night heat maps, and of course It is done by AI.
Dark Mode as a concept has been around for centuries, but it's been a frequent source of frustration for Strava users on the Reddit forums. The good news for those is that Dark Mode will arrive later this summer, and users can choose between having the app permanently in Dark Mode or having it match the user's phone settings. More good news: it will be available to both subscribers and free users.
“It took a lot of investment for an app that launched in 2009 to get to a point where we could launch a dark mode,” says Matt Salazar, Strava's chief product officer. “I think one of the things I want our community to know is, hey, we've heard all of your features. We're looking forward to speeding it up and getting those features out sooner.” are committed to
As far as AI-powered features are concerned, there are quite a few. The biggest is Athlete Intelligence beta, which creates digestible summaries of your training data. According to Salazar, it uses big language models to interpret your data and “give it to you in plain English.” As such, it will give users insight into how well they performed on a particular workout, what individual stats mean in relation to overall goals, and provide some suggestions on how to improve. It will also take into account whether you are trying to prepare for a race or recovering from an injury.
“It's not a chatbot situation,” says Salazar, adding that Strava deliberately chose not to implement a chatbot. For context, Hope added a ChatGPT-powered coach to its app last year, while then-Fitbit CEO James Park introduced an AI chat for Fitbit developed by Google in October. Bot also teased. “It's more of an abstract aspect, but I think that's really where athletes are going to find value.”
Strava's AI-enabled leaderboard is also adding something called Integrity. In short, it will eliminate fraudsters by using machine learning to flag “irregular, impossible, or impossible” activities recorded on the platform. For example, it can alert you that an impossibly fast e-bike ride has been mislabeled as a regular bike ride and prompt you to correct it.
Making Struva more attractive to women is also on the agenda. On this front, the app is adding night heat maps. (Heat maps show popular routes among fitness app users.) The filter lets players see which roads, trails, and paths are well-trafficked between the hours of sunset and sunrise. This is not a perfect solution, as many female athletes, myself included, often choose to avoid running or cycling at night for safety reasons. It only tells you if a route is popular — it would be a bit more helpful if you could also see information about how bright the route is or if it's in a heavily populated area. However, the move is meant to help players. what Choose to participate in nightly activities to stay informed.
Finally, Strava is also adding a family subscription plan to make premium features more affordable. You can add up to three other people to one plan, and there's no limit to who you can add. Salazar said the company is still working on pricing, however, and it's likely that the final subscription price will vary by region. The project will be launched in a few test markets this summer, with a global rollout planned by the end of the year.