Strava has announced a host of new updates that allow users to change the appearance of their maps and data.
The first update will allow users to change the colour of an activity’s GPS line via a menu to reflect a particular metric, as well as hide biometric data, and change the map to show support for Black Lives Matter and Pride.
Further updates will let users hide and alter the visibility of maps and completed activities, giving more control over how others view your feed.
The updates follow on from recent changes Strava made to mapping on its web and mobile apps to enrich user experience, including combining its segments and routing tools into one function and updating its global heatmap to include 3D projections.
Edit Activity update
Live from 6pm (BST) today, the 'Edit Activity' update includes functionality to change the GPS line on uploaded activities to reflect metric data, including heart rate, speed, elevation, gradient and temperature.
The activity's polyline will be displayed as a colour gradient based on the chosen data. The colours corresponding to different Stat Maps work in the following ways:
- Pace or speed map: Higher speed or pace will be a darker blue
- Heart rate map: Higher heart rate will be a darker red
- Elevation map: Lower absolute elevation will be black and higher elevation will be yellow
- Gradient map: Descents will be green and inclines red
- Power map: Higher power will be darker purple. This map won’t be available for estimated power.
- Time map: Longer elapsed time will be a darker red.
This is similar to Strava’s previous StatMap update that rolled out in October 2020. This relied on users adding a hashtag to the activity title to colour their activity, but this update appears to let users change the map type via a menu rather than a particular hashtag.
The ‘Personalised Stat Maps’ will only be available to Premium users, but maps for Black Lives Matter and Pride will be available to all users via the menu.
The Black Lives Matter map has a black GPS line and black heart at the start of the ride, and was previously available if you put a black heart emoji or hashtags such as #justice in your ride title.
This map first appeared in May 2020 to show support for equality and justice following the murder of George Floyd and the ensuing Black Lives Matter protests.
Strava first enabled the rainbow Pride map feature to let users show support for the LGBT community during Pride month in 2019, the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall uprising – a series of demonstrations by members of the LGBT community against a police raid of the Stonewall Inn in Greenwich Village, New York, which acted as a haven for the city’s LGBT community.
All Strava users will be able to change the GPS line on the map to seasonal events too, with Strava giving the example of Thanksgiving – a custom map that first appeared in 2019.
The Edit Activity update isn’t just to do with line choice, though. Any Strava user will be able to hide recorded app data. Previously, users were just able to hide heart rate but now they will be able to hide calories, pace and power.
All users will also be able to write private notes on an activity that will only be seen by the uploading athlete, keeping personal reflections and insights separate from their public feed.
Edit Map Visibility update
Going live from next week on 18 August 2021, the Edit Map Visibility update expands on what Strava previously called Privacy Zones.
Privacy Zones enabled users to hide up to 1 mile of the start and end of an activity from a set location. Users will still be able to do this but the new update will allow them to do this from any location as well.
The new update also lets users hide the map on their activity entirely.
Anyone using the app will be able to set these functions up as a default setting to apply to all activities, or you can apply them to individual activities.
While these functions will change the appearance of your maps and activities to other Strava users, you will still be able to see any hidden sections or entire maps when looking at your own activities.
