The hosts dive into the latest Strava quirks and new features, sharing user frustrations with routing and community interaction. They discuss the controversial removal of FatMap, affecting user experience, and explore fresh options like AI functionalities. Concerns about intrusive notifications arise as they navigate changes to activity feeds. The conversation shifts to enhancing leaderboard integrity with auto-flagging, promising a more authentic user experience. Lastly, they reflect on the evolution of cycling tech and its compatibility challenges.
Strava's recent routing issues have frustrated users, leading many to seek alternative platforms like Komoot for reliable route planning.
The transition of Strava's community hub to read-only mode has limited user feedback, exacerbating concerns over unresolved platform issues.
While Strava introduced new features like quick edits and AI insights, user sentiment remains largely negative due to mixed experiences and navigation disruptions.
Deep dives
Strava's Recent Changes and New Features
Strava introduced significant changes and new features this year, including a new CEO and popular additions like dark mode and enhanced privacy options. However, recent developments have raised concerns, especially around the route creation feature, which has become unreliable for many users. Issues include strange routing suggestions that often lead to incorrect paths, causing frustration among cyclists who depend on the platform for route planning. In addition to route creation problems, users have noted that manual route adjustments now often end up suggesting illogical detours.
Challenges Encountered with Route Creation
Users have reported various difficulties when trying to create routes on Strava, including frustrating experiences where the platform offers nonsensical routing options. One user detailed an incident where attempts to create a simple hiking route resulted in overly complicated paths that made no practical sense, leading to confusion and annoyance. Another individual experienced similar issues when creating routes for cycling trips, encountering bizarre suggestions that stretched routes significantly longer than necessary due to inaccurate road connections. These problems have led some users to abandon Strava for other platforms like Komoot for more reliable routing.
Strava's Community Hub and Feedback Issues
Strava's community hub has transitioned to a read-only mode, limiting users' ability to share feedback or report issues, further exacerbating the frustration surrounding ongoing problems. Initially designed to foster discussion and support among users, the forum's new restrictions prevent the resolution of bugs and concerns, silencing complaints in the process. The company has suggested that this change is temporary as they upgrade the platform, but there is significant skepticism about when or if the feedback channels will return. Many users feel that the closure of such a critical communication channel limits their ability to engage with Strava and express concerns.
Inauthentic Content Measures and Platform Restrictions
In efforts to combat inauthentic content and spam on the platform, Strava has restricted the ability to share links within posts, eliminating a significant feature for users looking to build community and share routes. This change, which even initially affected Strava links, places limitations on clubs trying to share details about events and rides, creating frustration among community members. Although the intention behind this move may be to reduce spam, many users feel that it negatively impacts the social functionality of the platform. Overall, the tinkering with essential features has led to a sense of dissatisfaction among Strava users.
New Features and Ongoing Enhancements
Strava has rolled out new features like a quick edit option for activity uploads, which is intended to streamline the user experience. However, while some users appreciate this new flexibility, others find that it disrupts their typical navigation of the app, particularly those who frequently upload multiple activities. The introduction of AI features has also had mixed reviews, with many users feeling that the generated insights are often inaccurate or unhelpful for tracking fitness progress. While enhancements like leaderboard clean-up and the promise of verified segments show some potential for improvement, overall user sentiment about recent changes has been largely critical.
