I can’t say that I’ve ever spent much time looking at how many miles I ride per week, but apparently Strava has decided that summing that up for me is now worth $60/year. Which raises questions around where the feature strip will stop, and when they eventually hit bottom, will any free users still be there? Oh, and do they know that anyone with a Garmin can get weekly mileage on Connect, alongside a bunch of other really useful metrics?
Although, all that said, Strava is fundamentally a social platform with gamification that pretends to provide value in other places. They already stripped away the gamification (i.e. useful segment metrics) from free users, so I don’t know that taking away any of the pretend value-adds will really make a difference to the user base, since it’s still possible (at least for now) to see what your friends are doing, and give kudos (maybe that’s next?). It certainly won’t for me, because 1) I know how to use a calculator 2) Strava doesn’t exist in a vacuum, there are plenty of other options for metric summation that don’t involve a calculator.
I do think that there will be a tipping point though, where Strava devalues the platform enough that someone builds a better version of Strava, without the overhead of 180 employees doing who knows what that will turn Strava into a fitness oriented version of MySpace.
Counterpoint: Local Legends FTW!!!
What does this change from Strava mean for you if you’re still using a free account? Not much if you’re content simply tracking your workouts to see how far and fast you go. But if you’re into any extra features on the app, it looks like Strava might eventually eliminate those, too. The company seems dead-set on converting all of its users to premium accounts (after all, it’s a business, so who can blame them?), and if cutting weekly mileage or other features will help accomplish that, then the company’s higher-ups will apparently have it done.
Update 08/21/20: Looks like Strava is walking back the change?
If you’re one of these people and you were worried that you wouldn’t have those stats at your fingertips, take a breath and relax, because the feature will be returned to normal soon enough. The app’s next update (version 165) is set for release next week, and with it will come the same old tally to let you know how far you’ve run this week.
