There\u2019s new leadership at Strava<\/a>, and they want everyone to know the platform is about to get a bunch of new features, starting with the highly requested dark mode, a family subscription plan, night heatmaps, and, of course, AI.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Dark mode as a concept has been around for ages, but it\u2019s been a recurring source<\/a> of<\/a> consternation<\/a> for Strava users on Reddit forums. For those folks, the good news is dark mode will arrive later this summer, and users can choose between permanently keeping the app in dark mode or matching a user\u2019s phone settings. More good news: it\u2019ll be available for both subscribers and free users.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cThere\u2019s been a lot of investment that had to go in for an app that launched in 2009 to be able to get to a place where we could launch dark mode,\u201d says Matt Salazar, Strava\u2019s chief product officer. \u201cI think one of the things I\u2019d want our community to know is, hey, we heard you on all your feature desires. We\u2019re committed to accelerating the pace of that and getting those features out sooner.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n As for AI-enabled features, there are quite a few. The big one is the Athlete Intelligence Beta, which creates digestible summaries of your training data. According to Salazar, it uses large language models to interpret your data and \u201cgive it to you in plain English.\u201d As in, it\u2019ll give users insights into how well they did on a particular workout, parsing what individual stats mean in relation to overall goals, and providing some suggestions on how to get better. It\u2019ll also take into consideration whether you\u2019re trying to prepare for a race or recover from an injury. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cIt\u2019s not a chatbot situation,\u201d Salazar says, noting that Strava made a deliberate choice not to implement a chatbot. For context, Whoop added a ChatGPT-powered coach<\/a> to its app last year, while then-Fitbit CEO James Park also teased an AI chatbot for Fitbit<\/a> at Made by Google in October. \u201cIt\u2019s more of a summary aspect, but I think that\u2019s really where athletes are going to find value.\u201d <\/p>\n<\/div>\n Strava\u2019s also adding something called AI-enabled Leaderboard Integrity. In a nutshell, it\u2019ll weed out the cheaters by using machine learning to flag \u201cirregular, improbable, or impossible\u201d activities recorded on the platform. For instance, it might alert you that an impossibly fast e-bike ride has been mislabeled as a regular bike ride and nudge you to correct it.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Making Strava more appealing to women is also on the agenda. On that front, the app is adding night heatmaps. (Heatmaps show popular routes among a fitness app\u2019s users.) The filter lets athletes see which roads, trails, and paths are well-trafficked between the hours of sunset and sunrise. It\u2019s not a perfect solution, as many female athletes, myself included, often choose to avoid running or cycling at night for safety reasons. This only tells you if a route is popular \u2014 it\u2019d be slightly more helpful if you could also see information on how well-lit that route is or if it\u2019s in a highly populated area. <\/strong>However, the move is aimed at helping athletes who do<\/em> choose to partake in nighttime activities to be more informed. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n Lastly, Strava is also adding a family subscription plan so that premium features can be more affordable. You can add up to three other people on a plan, and there are no restrictions as to who you can add. Salazar said the company is still working out pricing, however, and there\u2019s a chance that the final subscription price will vary depending on region. The plan will launch in a few test markets this summer, with a planned global rollout by the end of the year.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n