Español Strava announces today more features for premium users, and finally with something that many users have been asking for a long time. Starting today, it is now possible to organize competitions directly from within the Strava app itself with the feature called "Group Challenges".
In addition, there are also new features for the maps on Strava. The segments become more important and we have different options to show them looking for the most popular ones, those where we are close to the KOM or those you have not visited yet.
But let's take it one step at a time.
Group Challenges on Strava
I'll start with Group Challenges. It is without a doubt the most interesting option that has been added to Strava in recent years, something that had become a historical demand.
Let's remember that Strava is a social network for athletes. It is the "Facebook" of sport. You show what training or outing you have done, and in turn you can see the activities of your friends. But what happens... most of us athletes are competitive by nature.
If your friend has done a climb in 10 minutes, you have to do it in 9:59. He'll be itching to do it in 9:58 so that tomorrow you can work your liver out and lower your time to 9:57. And when you're already feeling the sweetness of triumph, your brother-in-law will come along and do it in 7:30. That's life and that's Strava.
Aren't the KOMs your struggle? Until now we had the monthly challenges open to everyone. You can sign up and once completed compare your results globally or with the people you are following. But in the end these are closed challenges that you sign up for out of inertia and with the only goal of getting the medal to add to the collection. And if it is from a brand, a discount or participate in a raffle.
What is being announced today? Now, in addition to those challenges created by Strava or other companies, users can also podemos create a challenge and invite up to 24 of your friends. In other words, it is a closed event, with an achievable goal for the members of the challenge and a way to encourage that competitiveness that we all carry inside.
Anyone can create a challenge, but to poder invite someone you need to follow each other. There are three competition formats available:
- Total ActivityYou select a certain time frame and the winner will be the one who records the longest distance, the longest training time or the highest accumulated elevation gain, for example, you create a weekend challenge with the goal of the highest accumulated elevation gain. The one who accumulates more positive meters in running or hiking activities will be the winner.
- Faster effortWe set a distance to be covered and the classification will be determined simply by the time taken to complete it... Would you like to organize a 40km time trial? Just propose the challenge, then everyone will be free to find the best place to do it.
- Longer activityPrize to the one who makes the longest distance in a training session. Surely you have some "envenenao" in the group that is marked more than 300km.
This new feature is available to all users, both users of the free version and paid subscribers. However, users of the free version will only podran participate in a maximum of 3 group challenges, to poder test the feature, and thereafter it will be necessary to pay the subscription if you want to add a fourth challenge. Paid users have unlimited challenges.
Maps tab in Strava
On the other hand, the map tab receives changes to give more importance to the segments. Until now, when we searched on the map, the different segments were displayed according to the filters we applied: running or cycling, flat or uphill, etc.
Custom segment suggestions are added in the new version. Here podrue search for segments through 6 different categories:
- Visit the most popular placesThe most popular segments in the area, those where most Strava users pass through.
- Discover new places: segments in your area that you haven't visited yet. Maybe there is a KOM or QOM waiting for you...
- Beat your recordsIn each segment you have a personal record. Through this option 1TP10You will find those in which 1TP10You could improve your time and, therefore, your position in the general classification.
- Climbs to the top of the leaderboard: segments in which you are close to the top 10. Here you can have a KOM/QOM if you put a little bit of effort into it.
- Go out to trainpoder nearby places where you can do interval or series training. It is certainly a very interesting option, especially if you are going to train somewhere that is not your usual area.
- Become a legend: segments in which you are not far away from becoming a Local Legend.
These are two new interesting features. And finally something that, as I had raised a long time ago, worth thinking about if we are interested in paying the subscription. This is the way forward, adding interesting features to the platform instead of reducing the possibilities already available to all users.
That's what they did when reduced the possibilities with respect to the segments and that angered many users of the platform. Taking away something you've always had, no matter how much you didn't pay for it, is never a good option.
Today shows that this is not the way. It's not that they're going to return full segments to free users, but adding features specifically for paid users may drive a large number of users to subscribe to the platform, especially those who use Strava as a motivation to compete against friends and family rather than as a social network.
I hope Strava has learned their lesson and this is the way to go from now on, thanks for reading!
