Strava could also be the preferred health app on the planet, with 135 million customers and counting, 51 million logged actions per week, and 1 million communal golf equipment. However its new Athlete Intelligence reveals Strava is not resting on its laurels, and it desires you to know that its AI is not “simply an LLM,” even in case you would possibly assume that.
On Wednesday, I watched cheerful Strava workers have fun the opening of their new San Francisco HQ after a short speech from San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie. He known as Strava the “tip of the spear” to persuade folks that “San Francisco is open for enterprise” and “the best metropolis on the planet.”
Strava’s multi-floor workplace focuses extra on celebrating the world of health if something. I toured the workplace with CEO Mike Martin and Chief of Workers Shelby Rhodes, who confirmed me assembly rooms named after internationally beloved segments like Central Park or Alpe d’Huez. I additionally noticed a stay Strava Photograph Map that highlights pictures that their AI labels as “lovely” from world wide, in addition to workers’ bibs from their favourite races.
However my favourite exhibit centered on SF: a stay, chronological map of the town that confirmed the stay flyover progress of native Strava customers’ exercise that day. It is an unimaginable impact, and I informed the Strava execs that they need to significantly take into account upgrading its weekly warmth maps to let customers see the day gone by’s exercise, no less than within the massive cities. They haven’t any plans for it, however hopefully, I planted the seed for it to occur.
Add within the library of working books and wall artwork displaying individuals’s GPS-made artwork, and it was nerd heaven for a runner like me. However as a lot as I loved the tour, my major goal was to take a seat down with CPO Matt Salazar and CTO Rob Terrell to dive into Athlete Intelligence — and determine the place Strava goes subsequent.
Unsurprisingly, they could not say an excessive amount of that is new about their “future roadmap,” however I nonetheless obtained a way of the place Strava Athlete Intelligence might go subsequent.
Athlete Intelligence has room to develop
Athlete Intelligence simply left beta, and Strava claims “80+% of customers say that Athlete Intelligence may be very useful” based mostly on in-app suggestions. I actually have observed a particular enchancment within the accuracy of the info, however I requested Salazar and Terrell what their imaginative and prescient of Athlete Intelligence is and the way it advantages customers.
Terrell defined that “it was essential to me that Strava do one thing that was way more vital” than the “low-effort” LLMs on the market that spit out imprecise solutions and may solely give generalized recommendation from Google.
Even when “from the surface, it appears prefer it’s simply an LLM,” their aim was to “actually synthesize the granular information that we’ve got concerning the customers’ exercise and do deeper evaluation with machine studying to know the context of that information.”
Salazar, in flip, famous that “not all persons are on the identical expertise stage to interpret coronary heart charge zones or their tempo.” Their AI makes this information “a lot easier and simpler to know” for rookies who may not perceive the affect of anaerobic exercise or who do not need to verify again at previous actions to see how their tempo has modified.
Strava’s AI primarily focuses on runs, hikes, walks, and biking. I requested about their plans to increase to different actions, and Salazar defined that at the same time as they “ensure that it covers every part,” finally, they need to guarantee first that “once we put out one thing, it is a adequate high quality,” and that different sports activities would possibly want extra inner testing earlier than it is “totally baked.”
I then famous that Athlete Intelligence may be very responsive quite than proactive: It tells you ways you probably did after the actual fact however does not essentially advocate a coaching plan or goal tempo for future runs as you get on Garmin watches. Will that change?
Salazar mentioned that they are not particularly searching for “the following AI factor we are able to do,” however quite “how can we assist customers obtain their objectives?” Up till now, that is been by way of incentives like problem badges, month-to-month aim targets, and kudos from associates. However AI is one “specific device that we’re taking a look at” that would come into play subsequent.
Terrell agreed that Strava “traditionally has been a backward-looking product” that largely leaves planning in customers’ fingers and that whereas they’re “not saying any merchandise” on this entrance at the moment, they’re “excited about…being forward-looking.”
Even with none specifics, a extra proactive type of Athlete Intelligence would make it extra helpful for rookies and critical athletes, so take into account me hopeful that this evolution comes subsequent.
Strava is aware of you are mad about race distances
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Probably the most passionate response I obtained from Terrell, Salazar, and even the CEO was after I jokingly talked about the time I did not get credit score for a half-marathon PR as a result of my watch did not measure the complete 13.1 miles. Apparently, a whole lot of customers need Strava to “repair” this and are not in any respect amused about it.
I incessantly take a look at the GPS accuracy of smartwatches and understand how fallible they are often. However loads of Strava customers do not realize that — as Terrell put it — the app is “restricted by the accuracy of units that customers are utilizing” and that they need to be “as correct as potential” quite than “fudge” the info.
Strava itself mentioned in its Yr in Evaluate 2024 that 72% of Strava actions come from customers’ telephones, which are not essentially as optimized as smartwatches in terms of GPS accuracy.
Customers can trim actions in the event that they neglect to pause earlier than driving house, however letting customers add distance to a run is a slippery slope. Sure, generally GPS inaccuracies provide the improper information, however generally, it is the course itself that is brief. Strava’s staff desires to be “reality tellers…when people try to check themselves towards one another, particularly at a professional stage,” Salazar defined.
“Once we first joined, Matt and I had been like, ‘Let’s simply repair it. That is simple!’ After which we dug into it, and it is like, oh yeah, there’s nothing—,” Terrell mentioned, with Salazar leaping in with, “there’s a whole lot of steps, yeah.”
“We perceive the person ache right here, and we’re searching for methods to unravel it, however there’s not a straightforward reply,” Terrell concluded.
Strava might provide help to ‘have fun’ your race triumphs higher
I additionally requested if Strava would ever think about using its section leaderboards to create official race leaderboards on Strava. They themselves mentioned that greater than half of runners at main marathons like NYC, Boston, and London logged their races on Strava final 12 months, so what if runners might see how they ranked amongst Strava customers and evaluate their race instances towards earlier years?
Salazar answered very rigorously that they “cannot converse in direction of future roadmap, however…all I can say is that that use case is essential for us, and it is very a lot current in our minds. So I am fascinated by how we can assist customers have fun that second; we all know it is a second they need to have fun.”
Whereas this is not precisely a affirmation, it does make me optimistic that Strava is perhaps engaged on race leaderboards that make it simpler to attach with fellow racers you met. Labeling races and grouping instances would possibly make it simpler for Athlete Intelligence to charge your effort in comparison with others in your age group and gender, which might be enlightening!
The place Strava goes subsequent
Simply in 2024, Strava added Athlete Intelligence, weekly and night time heatmaps, a darkish mode, and nearer integrations with Oura and Apple Health Plus. To date this 12 months, they’ve improved leaderboard integrity, made it simpler to share your exercise flyovers to brag on social media, and simply this week added 3D FATMAP terrain information designed for winter sports activities athletes to see gradients, elements, and even the close by hazard areas for avalanches.
Strava did not have every other future information to share but, apart from telling me about FATMAP the day earlier than its reveal. However I did get Strava’s execs to trace at “future stuff that we should not discuss,” of their phrases.
Once I requested if Athlete Intelligence — which presently appears to focus in your final 30 days of actions for relative effort — would ever take a look at older information or have in mind objectives like “coaching for a marathon,” Terrell circled again to his preliminary level:
“We’re not simply stuffing a immediate into an LLM; we’re constructing customized fashions that can enable us to do completely different ranges of attention-grabbing evaluation. And what we are able to feed into the LLM will probably be way more particular to the customers, type of their lifelong health journey. So the LLM goes to have the ability to converse to a wider array of elements of your energetic life.”
Salazar jumped in to agree that they are all the time asking “how can we develop extra sophistication in what insights we can provide the customers,” and that Athlete Intelligence “just isn’t carried out by any means.” They’re going to proceed to develop and smarten up the characteristic, making it extra helpful for a wider vary of athletes.
It’s going to be fascinating to see how Strava’s AI efforts evaluate towards a hypothetical Gemini Coach in Fitbit or the Samsung Well being Coach coming to Put on OS 6. For the time being, Strava has a head begin on Android watches and does not intend to decelerate.
