Garmin segments do pop up as you approach them....biggest issue I've found so far is recreating them...I'm not sure the GPS points are the same as they are on Strava and it allows you to jump between each point that is recorded - useful to have recording as every second and not smart.
Not a massive issue really for me as I'm just creating them for my own reference, but if Garmin Connect grows and people start adding segments I hope Garmin will flag when a segment already exists and will prevent the multiples of very similar route as found on Strava.
biggest issue I've found so far is recreating them...I'm not sure the GPS points are the same as they are on Strava
for my personal use I'm not too worried, I just liked seeing how my time compared to my previous best once I'd passed the end of a segment.
if Garmin Connect grows
Can't see it happening unless Strava manage to completely destroy themselves and even then I'd hope Trailforks were more likely to fill the gap
I'd hope Trailforks were more likely to fill the gap
That's definitely never going to happen. Garmin Connect is probably the only serious contender to Strava, because multi-sport. Even if it was just cycling, trailforks wouldn't get a look-in, it'd be komoot or rwgps.
Even if it was just cycling, trailforks wouldn't get a look-in
It was a rather optimistic comment on my part but Trailforks are trying to be multi activity and are at least not tied to any device manufacturer. But really, if it took off I’m sure Outside would start the ‘enshitification’
Can't see it happening unless Strava manage to completely destroy themselves…
Well if the previously reported estimate is true a large (more than half?) chunk of “Strava’s” data comes from Garmin devices, Garmin’s products are ubiquitous and their customers mostly use connect for uploading by default.
I don’t believe most people are “curating” their activity history on both connect and strava, I know I just upload to connect and let it push the data on to strava, I only edit and share information via Strava because most of my friends that do cycling and other sports use it and it’s SM functionality was what differentiated Strava earlier on. Garmin could buy out strava, gradually turn connect orange and merge the two apps and ther would be some whinging but so long as they kept calling it ‘strava’ it would carry on.
Trying to compete might work, but it’s never going
To yield the same market share, and they’ll never manage to steal acquire the data of non-Garmin users, buy strava out and they get a bonus ~40% more yummy exploitable user data…
…and even then I'd hope Trailforks were more likely to fill the gap
Really? that buggy sack of crap is barely any use to it’s own target audience (things may have improved since I last tried it TBF). They may not be perfect but Strava and Garmin’s mapping and routing features are relatively good and cover multiple types of activities.
These days the expected features include a social media feed, mapping, heatmaps, rout finders, data analysis, etc. very few other apps offer all of that, and any that do probably rely access to Strava APK access.
One way out of it would surely be for Garmin to open up the operating system of their devices. Just build an OS that does the bare minimum of connecting to ant+ / BT devices, collates data then allows 'apps' to operate on the device using that data. You could then download an app that worked for your type of riding:
Komoot - leisure / audax / whatever
Trailforks - Rad dudes
Strava - cycling clubs and stravasholes.
e.g if I was heading out on a 300km audax or bikiepacking adventure I could open the komoot app and the route would be there, the routing would all be done by komoot, etc, etc. If I was heading out on a roadie clubrun then I'd open Strava and it would sync the route from the clubs page, and because everyone else was using the same 'app' the live tracking would actually work. N0o one i know actually uses garmin group ride because there is no integration with strava which seems to be where group rides are now advertised and the routes published.
If they actually did that and it worked I might even contemplate paying the 'premium' subscription to the apps I wanted. But the current setup is just infuriating enough to make me resent paying any of them.
N0o one i know actually uses garmin group ride because there is no integration with strava which seems to be where group rides are now advertised and the routes published.
FWIW we're using Spond for club rides. It does invites, registrations, attachments, photos, calendar and so on. Then it's up to folk which of the other platforms they want to record with/upload to. We certainly have folk who don't use/don't want to use either Strava or Connect.
One way out of it would surely be for Garmin to open up the operating system of their devices...
Isn’t that the point of connect IQ?
there’s third party apps and data fields galore available to download on there.
Don't you just set up the Strava/Connect integration and star the route on Strava?
You can, but Garmin (and I assume wahoo) will for example overlay all the other people who've joined the group ride on the map so you can see if people are a no-show or just around the corner, if they've been dropped and taken a wrong turn, stopped with a mechanical etc.
FWIW we're using Spond for club rides. It does invites, registrations, attachments, photos, calendar and so on.
Yea, that's basically how we as a club use strava, there's a handful of members that don't but I suspect at this stage we'd have more eye rolling with yet another app than staying put.
