There is change afoot in the world of cycling apps. We’ve recently seen major players change how their apps work with an eye on expanding their functionality and becoming a one-stop shop for your training needs.
Not least, Zwift. On Friday, the indoor training giant announced a host of updates to its Companion app, which are set to make the platform far more than a log of turbo trainer sessions.
Previously, the app worked like a remote control for Zwift, enabling you to message other Zwifters and adjust the resistance of your trainer, among other things. It also meant you could plan rides and analyse your workouts.
But that’s set to change this summer, with the Companion app receiving a “significant update” that will combine your indoor and outdoor rides into one space. To do this, Zwift says the app will ingest your Wahoo or Garmin data.
With this holistic look at your training, the Companion app will also enable you to set weekly goals and track your fitness progress within the ecosystem for the first time. These goals can be set using the following metrics: Time, Distance, Calories, Stress Points, or Kilojoules.
All a bit familiar?
This is all reminiscent of that other cycling tech giant, Strava. With a Strava subscription, you can see your training from the great indoors and outdoors in one place, set goals, analyse your training and gain access to a range of performance metrics, such as heart rate analysis and relative effort.
There is another sign Zwift is coming for Strava with its new TrainingScore feature.
Zwift says its TrainingScore “reflects your long-term cycling fitness by averaging your recent training load over time, combining both workout volume and intensity into a single, easy-to-understand daily number.”
This sounds a lot like Strava’s Fitness Score, which is a single number Strava presents to subscribers based on heart rate or power meter data. This personalised number can be used to analyse your training or act as a benchmark for your fitness over time.
But Zwift’s latest update doesn’t just have Strava in its sights. It also seems to be taking aim at Garmin, with the release of a TrainingStatus update which mirrors Garmin’s feature of the same name.
Garmin’s Training Status feature gives you an overview of your longer-term training, prompting you with a range of status, from peaking (you’re in ideal form) down to detraining (your fitness level is decreasing).
Zwift’s TrainingStatus does a similar thing. Comparing long-term fitness with short-term fatigue, it can indicate five levels of training:
- Ready: ready to start or return to Training
- Fresh: active and ready for a challenge
- Productive: consistently training and recovering well
- Overreaching: training heavily but in need of more recovery. Rest weeks are essential for recovery and peak performance.
- Detraining: loss of fitness due to reduced training
AI shakeups
It’s not just Zwift that’s been shaking things up, though. Last year, Strava released its Athlete Intelligence tool, which uses generative AI to analyse your activities and provide written summaries of your workout.
This followed Whoop’s AI feature. Powered by ChatGPT-4, the Whoop Coach answers your health and fitness questions to turn the health-tracking app into a “powerful new coaching experience” that “goes beyond surface-level insights”.
Garmin has also shaken up its Connect app, introducing its first-ever paid subscription last month. Called Connect+, the new subscription plan is said to provide users with a range of new personalised health and fitness insights, while keeping existing features free. And yep, you guessed it: Connect+ also uses AI to provide personalised prompts.
In the indoor training space, we’ve also seen Rouvy buy FulGaz and make some big changes and develop features that bring it more in line with Zwift, although Zwift’s new updates may keep Rouvy chasing for some time.
But what this all boils down to is Zwift’s latest updates make it an even more compelling option, especially when we’re all paying closer attention to our purse strings.
Zwift costs £17.99 / $19.99 per month, while Strava costs £8.99 / $11.99 and Connect+ costs £6.99 / $6.99. Combining the training features you can expect from the likes of Strava and Garmin and a whole indoor training platform seems like a hard proposition to beat – even if Zwift hasn’t jumped on the AI bandwagon, yet.
