Strava on Thursday announced a series of new features and updates at its annual event Strava Camp event, as the San Francisco-based company redoubles efforts to make its social fitness app more appealing to both free and premium subscribers – with artificial intelligence (AI) playing a central role.
One of the constant complaints from the Strava community is that users sometimes cheat to reach the high Among the best positions in the application. Leaderboards are one of Strava’s key features, designed to encourage competition by allowing users to challenge each other on pre-defined routes called “segments.” Cheating might involve something like using a motorcycle instead of a pedal bicycle to set a record, for example.
Strava already has some mechanisms in place to allow users to manually flag questionable activity on the leaderboard, and last year, the company updated its algorithms to “make leaderboards more reliable.” This included retaining activities that could have been mislabeled (e.g. users marking a run as a bike ride) or where incorrect GPS data could be at play.
Now, Strava says it will begin using more sophisticated machine learning to detect “questionable” activities when they are uploaded to the platform and automatically remove those activities. The company says it is doing this by training its algorithms on millions of historical activities to better understand what “normal” activity looks like.
Apparently this is one of Strava’s most requested features, with a quick look at its fervent online community revealing several ideas on how to deal with the so-called “digital doping” problem.
When pressed to provide more details on how this works and how exactly it differs from existing automated leaderboard health tools, the director of product Matheus Salazar it just said it’s a “step change” in the way Strava is using AI, machine learning and other technologies to “fill gaps.”
“Last year, the team implemented new logic rules into existing auto-signaling tools, and now we are leveraging newer technologies to deliver one of the most requested features from athletes,” Salazar said in a statement released to TechCrunch.
On a similar note, Strava on Thursday announced the private beta of a feature it calls “athlete intelligence,” which equates to generative AI that analyzes user data to create summaries and guidance around their performance goals. and physical conditioning. This will only be available to premium subscribers.
Strava has not confirmed whether the underlying engine is one of OpenAI’s GPT-X models or something else, but Salazar said the company is currently experimenting with different technologies before a wider rollout.
“We have several models and tools that we have analyzed and we currently apply a model that works for the beta,” Salazar said. “We continue to evaluate what will provide the best outcome for our community.”
Strava is also introducing dark mode which, according to data from Strava Community HubIt is the app’s second most desired feature in terms of number of votes.
It’s been a long time, certainly compared to other popular apps – last week, WhatsApp has reached the point of launching an even “darker” dark mode.
Still, better late than never. Strava says it will introduce dark mode “later this summer,” with the ability to keep the app permanently in dark mode or set it to match your device settings. It will be available to both premium and free users when it launches.
It’s (not strictly) a family affair
Similar to other online subscription services like Spotify, Strava is now investing in what it calls a “family plan” to attract mass signups through subscription discounts and get more people using the platform. Up to four people, including the main subscriber, can be included in a family plan.
But “family plan” is actually a misnomer here, as it need not include actual family members or even anyone living at the same address. It can be anyone who lives in the same country.
“This will create more opportunities for Strava athletes to continue to find and feel motivation, and it will make it more cost-effective as well,” Salazar said. “The great part of this new annual subscription is that you choose who is part of your family plan – it could be your friends, race team or teammates.”
Playing liberally with the definition of “family” in this context makes sense, given that families won’t consume Strava in the same way they would Netflix or Spotify. But the plan name may confuse some users in terms of who qualifies for coverage. Maybe “group subscription plan” or something along those lines might make more sense.
Either way, Strava is still a little cagey about the details, including how much this bulk discount will be (it says the percentage of savings varies by country), how someone shares their subscription, and what happens in the event that a “family” repercussion – can a member of a group easily maintain their own account and data, for example?
The new plan will begin in “select countries” this summer, starting with Australia and Canada, with a broader international rollout later in the year.
These announcements come at a turbulent time for Strava. Co-founder Michael Hovrath recently stepped down as CEO for the second time and it was replaced in January by former YouTube executive michael martin. The company also last month acquired a new Chief Technology Officer (CTO) alongside Salazar, who left Epic Games to join Strava as product director.
The news also comes a year after Strava introduced a new premium pricing structure that attracted considerable criticism due to its lack of transparency.
However, it’s clear that Strava is trying to bolster its value proposition for users by borrowing some tried-and-true tricks from the wider social media sphere. The importance of Strava’s social positioning cannot be underestimated in terms of differentiating it from other data-centric fitness tracking services like Apple Fitness or Garmin. This is why Strava launched in-app messages Last year, it aimed to promote communities that exist entirely within Strava, without having to rely on third-party messaging apps like WhatsApp to organize events and rides.
These new updates build on that, mixing free features that everyone gets with premium features for power users.
Demography
One way Strava attracts new users is by broadening its appeal to different demographics. It’s doing just that with a new feature that builds on its existing global heat maps featurewhich highlights the most popular running, riding and walking routes.
Taking it a step further, “Nighttime Heatmaps,” when they launch later this year, will specifically focus on activities that happen between sunset and sunrise, which could be helpful for those worried about going out for a walk. or run in less crowded places. areas. This, Strava hopes, will help encourage more women to start using the platform, although in reality it will appeal to anyone who wants to avoid quieter areas in the early hours of the morning.
“Studies show that women of all ages participate in sports at a much lower rate than men, and in general, despite wanting to be active, they find less time to dedicate to an active lifestyle,” Strava wrote in a blog post that accompanies the advertisements. “As the company continues its mission to motivate people to live their best active lives, building for women on the platform will ultimately serve everyone in the Strava community.”
Also, not everyone wants to share all their activity data with everyone all the time. So, Strava said it will launch a new “quick edit” feature that will allow users to more easily hide certain metrics from their workout stats, the type of activity they performed, their location, and more.
While the “quick edit” will be free, Strava says nighttime heatmaps will be a premium feature, meaning anyone who wants to see what the safest routes are after dark will have to shell out $12/month or U.S. $80/year to access it.
Strava has not confirmed how many of its 125 million members are active users or what the gender breakdown is. But the company previously reported that women are “23% less likely than men to record any type of activity before sunrise and 8% less likely to do so after sunset.”
But Salazar said certain demographics show signs of growth on the platform.
“While we don’t provide exact details about the Strava community as a whole, what we can share is that globally and in the US, our Gen Z female user demographic has experienced massive growth, reaching double what it was at this time last year,” he said.
