Strava being stupid again

Like many of you I got an email from Strava the other day. Something about my data and what could be done with it. I didn’t pay much attention. But it appears that
a) it’s probably quite a big deal, and
b) it’s probably a bit of a dick move from Strava
DC Rainmaker explains: https://www.dcrainmaker.com/2024/11/stravas-changes-to-kill-off-apps.html

c) been done

Sick of the incessant Strava updates

the enshittification will continue until profits improve

Hmmm. I think I can see why that would bother some people, but I only view my Strava data on Strava, so I don’t think it affects me at all.

Strava data? Mine is nearly all Garmin data, and if Strava’s claim holds then it’s Garmin’s Ts & Cs that need to be honoured since that’s the API it was pulled from by Strava. Clowns.

Good point. It would be interesting if all the app’s that feed into Strava removed that function.

Strava data? Mine is nearly all Garmin data, and if Strava’s claim holds then it’s Garmin’s Ts & Cs that need to be honoured since that’s the API it was pulled from by Strava. Clowns.

Would you not be agreeing to the data shared to Strava, then becoming Strava data at that point. And the original data still in Garmin then being a separate copy? So you have Garmin T&Cs for one copy, and Strava T&Cs for the second copy?

*I dont actually know, I’ve just assumed we agree to that when sharing.

Just read the DC rainmaker article, this is going to wreck Veloviewer unless they can reconfigure the app to pull data straight from Garmin/wahoo/whoever definitely not an achievable ask.

To be clear, before people start bleating about ‘supporting’ Strava, this is an anticompetitive move, they’re trying to kill all the “little guys” in order to prop up their own subscription offerings…

Assuming this will make life difficult for Ian at crickles which would be a real shame.

There’s a long thread on TrainerRoad too, fine if you use their app to run your indoor sessions, but it relies on strava to upload any outdoor sessions.

Feels like there needs to be a universal file format (is that .fit or .tcx) that allows you to download from garmin, polar, whoever,  and share with the app of your choice. Strava are just the interlocutor of that data sharing at the moment, and don’t actually generate anything useful other than the socials. Any detailed fitness analytics get done by other apps.

And those app developers seem to have been part of a strava family in as much as veloviewer guy used to go to strava development days etc. So strava really messing with the community goodwill they had

Suspect that in the same way there are suddenly lots of competitors to Zwift, there will be some data aggregator competitors to strava springing up to fill this gap

I suspect that Strava didn’t really think through the outcomes of these changes very well, they clearly haven’t been communicating with developers or 3rd parties as this has come as a surprise for everyone. I wonder if the management even read what the lawyers were writing? No one reads user-agreement updates after all!

Hmmm. I think I can see why that would bother some people, but I only view my Strava data on Strava, so I don’t think it affects me at all.

Doesn’t affect me either, but it does smack of bullying the smaller apps. Maybe Garmin and Wahoo could step up their offerings to compete with Strava?

Ugh. What a stupid decision. I can’t even see how it strengthens stravas position in the market. Just means my experience with trainer road will be that much shitter since won’t be able to take my runs into account (presumably they’ll pivot to Garmin). **** (and I say that as a paid subscriber to Strava for 10+ years).

This and the dismal FatMap buyout has mostly removed any “want” I had for a subscription. Its basically just a Heat Map now as Polar Flow offers everything else and I dont use Strava socially.

Edit, Zwift, which I’m not currently using. And heatmap are the only things I use and I’m not sure if either of those need a sub.

Am I missing something, but isn’t is as simple as if a User wants their data to go to a 3rd Party then record the data using a different solution to ‘Strava’ and the 3rd Party can then use the original feed for the data?

Personally I use Garmin to record and then upload to Strava.

Commercially it’s Strava’s choice, so if unhappy move elsewhere – out of interest, how many folk who are unhappy actually subscribe?

Also, do Strava Users know that they can download all their data?  I do it at the end of every year and drop it into Excel.

I subscribe but if they persist with this idea I’ll be cancelling on the day they enforce it. I’m happy to pay for stuff I use but I’m not going to pay if I can’t then use it how I want/have been using. As above all my data comes from elsewhere.

I actually use intervals.icu for looking at the data so I’ve started looking for alternative ways to get my data from the various sources to intervals.

Suunto->intervals is supported directly.

Zwift will need to via one of the other services, wahoo probably as already have an account there.

Lezyne is the difficult one as they do not have many integrations. I could record these via suunto watch as well.

I’m not surprised by this decision from Strava.

They have developed a system whereby all fitness data is in one place (regardless of the deice used to collect it initially) and yet thousands of other companies are making a living off the back of it.

Personally I’ve just gone back to using free Strava because I can use intervals.icu to do the fitness analysis on my cycling data for a donation of £3 a month and while I miss the Strava leaderboards a little it isn’t enough to make me pay the much higher monthly Strava fee (and the intervals.icu analysis is better IMO)

From Strava’s point of view, why should they spend all their effort gathering together the data only to allow users (including me) to pay a 3rd-party instead of paying Strava? That’s not a profitable business model and they needed to do something to try to retain more of the revenue within their own product.

Maybe there’s another step where they charge 3rd parties for access to their API though I imagine they would want to continue with their direct consumer relationship also.

I don’t think it’s an easy job for any other company to quickly replicate what Strava does and replace them. The bigger players like Garmin would somehow have to allow access to their data by their direct device competitors which would be a stumbling block I imagine.

Your point won’t make sense if it was free users being cut off but it appears to be a blanket cut off. As a subscriber I expect to be able to access my data via the API as I wish.

I think you are missing the point though @nixie – you are just part of the data feed that Strava then collects and ‘owns’…they have very little interest in what you want to do or get out of that data from a 3rd party solution. Once your data has been uploaded to Strava it is fed into their data machine and becomes part of it all. You agreed to the Strava T&Cs an again, they are changing again…(I’m not in support of this, but it is their ball, so their rules).

If you want your data in other apps, you need to find a way to get that data into those apps. If you use a Garmin, Suunto, Wahoo or Polar device, their app should have an integration to other 3rd party sites (maybe not all of them, but there may be a way to get the 3rd party apps to sync between themselves).

I use Trailforks, Strava and Intervals.icu and they all get an upload from Garmin. When I kill my Strava account, the otehr 2 will keep working as my data connection gets done from Garmin.

This Strava change isn’t going to impact me directly as I’ve nothing getting the Strava feed other than Strava.

True @nixie. I wonder if they are seeing an exodus of paid users downgrading to free and just want to stop the paid users discovering other platforms.

Personally I’ve just gone back to using free Strava because I can use intervals.icu to do the fitness analysis on my cycling data for a donation of £3 a month and while I miss the Strava leaderboards a little it isn’t enough to make me pay the much higher monthly Strava fee (and the intervals.icu analysis is better IMO)

Exactly the same here. I don’t see any benefit to the leaderboards any more either; bike ones are all contaminated by e-bikes, and the running ones are screwed by people who used bikes and the wrong activity profile.

It’s like they’re trying to out-evil Zwift.

Edit: and as an aside, it’s not Strava’s data to do as they please with, under GDPR it’s *your* data.

I get they own it once it’s in Strava but my point was they also want you to subscribe. If I can’t use the data one I’ve paid them then why would pay them. This change will mean they lose the subscription income and the data. I get one use is irrelevant in the grand scheme but I’ll not be the only one making that change.

Sadly makes my lezyne gps less useful.

From Strava’s point of view, why should they spend all their effort gathering together the data only to allow users (including me) to pay a 3rd-party instead of paying Strava? That’s not a profitable business model and they needed to do something to try to retain more of the revenue within their own product.

I’d have expected them to try to make some money from of their position as No.1 point of data collation from any device/app.  This move doesn’t appear to do that so far as I can see, to me it appears to diminish their appeal to subscribers like me.

I unsubscribed when the leaderboards had lost their value and the price went up.  Resubscribed when they bought FatMap and OS mapping was available but they had already lost me again when the OS maps went so I guess my opinion on this is irrelevant.  Garmin Connect does all I actually use but I may not always want to be tied to Garmin

Exactly – they must be working out how to further monetise the data themselves rather than letting others do it. Currently they are just taking their ball home in a huff and not letting others play with it.

Meanwhile Zwift have announced an API integration with JOIN, and they announced Xert recently too.

I subscribe but if they persist with this idea I’ll be cancelling on the day they enforce it. I’m happy to pay for stuff I use but I’m not going to pay if I can’t then use it how I want/have been using. As above all my data comes from elsewhere.

I actually use intervals.icu for looking at the data so I’ve started looking for alternative ways to get my data from the various sources to intervals.

Think you’re fine if it’s just you looking at the data on intervals? The changes impact sharing the data (eg with a coach which is commonly done on that platform), in which case it’s a problem.

Every user of an API connected app has one more reason to keep their Strava subscription. Open APIs increase footprint and stickyness. Seems a shortsighted at best, some would say greedy. Strava is making a profit now right? Piss off enough people then they will walk.

I guess their thinking is they feel they can get big value from data through analytics, ai, and all the rest of that crap. So from that perspective why should they enable someone else to do the same thing? However these terms and conditions read rather wide. It’s a clumsy way to do it, and treads on the likes of Veloviewer who are only really filling niche gaps that Strava aren’t interested in.

At the very least they need to have along talk to their comms team. Second **** up in a year?

Happy to pay for Strava (or similar) by the way, this shit costs money to make and run, probably more than most of you think. Got to pay in some way or another. Subscription is at least transparent.

I already use the Garmin feed into intervals.icu and I’ve emailed Ian at VeloViewer to see if he has considered that as an option too. If not, I’ll not be renewing my VV subscription next month as there will literally be nothing to see on it.

Ian has sent an update out today saying he’s in discussion with Strava though, so I await the outcome of that.

Given that Garmin don’t charge for Connect, I can’t see them opening it up to other hardware suppliers (though there are ways to get other data into Connect with a bit of FIT File editing.)

@Garry_Lager watch the DCR video. He says that all data aggregation and analysis is affected.

Seen a comment from Strava that these changes will affect less than 0.1% of the apps that are connected to the platfror.

If this is true then maybe it’s just been communicated (very very) badly.

Doesn’t directly address all the 3rd party apps, but TrainingPeaks getting their response out nice and early……tho not sure this works both ways with TrainerRoad as doesn’t import activity from TP

Strava are going to have to make a better response. Saw the strava response that eckinspain mentions, but DC rainmaker reckons that they aren’t being transparent enough in what that response actually means

Hey @Strava when did Elon Musk buy you? https://t.co/lEBuZ3nOd9

— Mr Sparkle (@darwendashers) November 20, 2024

I purely use Strava to accumulate my data from a number of sources, I use a Wahoo turbo trainer and bike computer and a Garmin watch for running and swimming, so it has been handy for that, seemingly reading the DC Rainmaker article, Strava and Garmin are too dependent on each other, but Wahoo, Fitbit etc, may not play nicely after the updates?

I’m not renewing as the route export function is clunky with Wahoo devices, back to RidewithGPS as it is a better experience for my needs.

Happy to pay for Strava (or similar) by the way, this shit costs money to make and run, probably more than most of you think. Got to pay in some way or another. Subscription is at least transparent.

Yea, but subscription fatigue is a thing.

How many app subs does a cyclists “need” theses days?

Zwift

Strava

Training Peaks  / SYSTM / Trainerrroad other workout / plan / coaching creator

Komoot  / RidewithGPS

Chuck in a magazine sub and club membership and you’re looking at the cost of a mid-range bike each year!

Feels like the industry needs some more mergers.

To me it sounds like Strava are asserting sole commercial rights to the user data that is on their site even wherever it is, if it is also on strava you lose your rights to ownership of that data, while trying to not directly say what they are doing.

I am going to close my account, to be honest I rarely log on these days, they have always ignored the user base and recent years have fully joined up to the social media internet shitification protocols. I don’t want any stupid restriction placed on my data that prevents me from using it for my benefit however I feel fit to do so, these as rules look to make strava the owner of my data so I am out.

I’m not a huge user of the actual fitness functionality of Strava, Garmin is far better for that.

But whilst i don’t “live for the Kudos”, it has been good being part of clubs on there, such as messaging and giving kudos to a group of fellow diabetics on there, none of us have met in real life, but comment on each others posts etc to spur each other on. That would be one thing i missed.

I does seem like they are shooting themselves in the foot really, are they not monetising this data they collect? And how many of their subscribers actually use Strava itself to gather the data, they make no turbo trainers, watches, bike computers etc? I realise that you can use the app on phone or some watches, but I bet a lot more than 70% is gathered by third party applications?

And giving a kicking to a company like Velo Viewer, a company that is now a prerequisite in every cycling DS team car, doesn’t look good?

For me, as a current Strava paid up user their decision does not currently make sense.

I pay Strava not just for the in-Strava benefits but also because of the connected benefits.

Loosing those means a big loss to any benefit in using Strava, for me and clearly many more. On top of that I am really miffed at loosing fatmap. For me that is a far bigger issue and I am minded to cancel my subscription

And giving a kicking to a company like Velo Viewer, a company that is now a prerequisite in every cycling DS team car, doesn’t look good?

Well, if only the original user is allowed to see their own data, that just went out the (sticky-bottle) window.

I remember when all this was just Avocet 30s.

I stopped subscribing when the subscription more than doubled last year(?) and I honestly couldn’t see the VFM in it anymore. (Ring subs went the same way…).

I haven’t missed any of the paid-for elements since.

It looks like they’ve worsened their offering by this move and paying for it makes even less sense now….are they in trouble?

are they in trouble?

I don’t think so, IMO they are just looking at ways to monetize their users data in the future, and other companies who are more agile and innovative are better at it than strava, so they want to put up barriers to them using the same data. To me my data is mine not theirs, I share it with them and others so they can do innovative things to aid everyone’s active lives. Now they are saying if I upload it to them it is theirs and no one else can use that data for anything.

But they’re now giving you really valuable AI insights into your performance now.

Looks like you crushed your roll out of an ill thought out policy. Whilst your subscriber numbers are lower than your recent levels you’re mentions in social media are higher than normal.