Strava Finally Brought Route Navigation to the Apple Watch

Big news for runners with an Apple Watch: You can now follow Strava routes directly from your wrist. Route navigation on Strava-compatible watches isn't exactly new technology—it's just been inexplicably absent from Apple's platform until now. In a Reddit post from Strava's product team, the news was welcomed by runners, cyclists, and hikers who've long wondered why their Apple Watch couldn't do what Garmin and Coros devices have offered for years.

What's new with Strava's Apple Watch app

The core update here is users can now view maps directly on their Apple Watch during activities, seeing both where they're headed and how to backtrack if they take a wrong turn. For subscribers, saved Routes work hands-free and function offline, eliminating the need to pull out your phone mid-run or mid-ride to check directions.

To access routes directly on your watch, press the Route icon while selecting the Sport Type that you’ll record.  Once you’ve selected the saved route you want to follow, the activity will start recording. 

To then access the map while in the middle of recording your activity, simply swipe up on your watch face. Once on the map screen, you will be able to follow your live location and, if added, your saved route. To zoom or pan the map, tap the watch face to unlock interactive mode. If you want to turn back to your Stat screen, tap the back icon or use the watch scroll button.

Alongside route navigation, Strava added two more training features:

• Custom Laps let you mark intervals with a single tap, useful for tempo runs, hill repeats, or comparing efforts against your previous performances.

• Live Segments provide real-time feedback when you hit a tracked segment. Subscribers can see whether they're ahead or behind their personal record as it happens, while all users get live progress updates.

As always, you can also turn to route suggestions that draw from Strava's massive activity database full of actual paths that real users have tested and preferred.

The bottom line

For Apple Watch users who've grown accustomed to working around Strava's limitations, this update rocks. Less phone checking means more attention on the road, trail, or effort itself.

Maybe it's taken longer than it should have, but Apple Watch users are finally caught up. Whether that's enough to satisfy those who've already migrated to other platforms remains to be seen, but for the loyal holdouts, it's about time.

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