Strava and the Fallacy of Quick Edit

Two days ago Strava came out with their “Quick edit” feature that is actually nothing new. They claim that it will simplify renaming activities to get more likes but that’s not what the “simple edit” is about. It’s about renaming activities to train AI.

Some apps will call a run Morges Run, or Nyon Cycle or Gruyère walk but Strava, until now has called runs “morning, afternoon, evening or other. Finding old runs, with strava is very hard, if you want to find by location, distance or sport. This is despite them feeding their AI models since May.

They use language like “This TOS is for your privacy” and “for your good” and we have to blindly accept, without any choice in the matter. Due to this change I deleted the app from my phone and revoked all the sharing options that had been active between strava and other apps.

There was a time when I was a paying customer of Strava’s. I paid until they got VC funding. I usually stop being a client of sites that get VC funding because that’s when we go from being valued clients to cash cows. That’s when we go from funding a site and service we use to being pawns for the VC funders.The latest change isn’t about us. It’s about making the model more interesting for data farming. They disguise it as caring for privacy when the opposite is true.

During the pandemic, when I was walking around local loops I lost all interest in Strava. Strava went from being a self-sustaining project to being a VC funded project. It went from being about 60 CHF per year to 80 CHF per year and useful features that were free were paywalled. In so doing they raised the barrier to entry, but they also lowered the usefulness of the site.

Garmin Connect is free, once you have a watch. Apple Fitness is “free” with the watch. Nike Run is free, Sportstracker is 30 CHF per year, Adidas run is I don’t know how expensive. Suunto is free, with a Suunto device, but plays nicely with SportsTracker.

And Finally

I think it’s a shame that Strava is in such a dominant position at the moment because Komoot, AllTrails and Garmin Connect, to name a few are interesting too. If privacy controls on other apps were better then I would share my workouts publicly but hide the start and end points when from home, an office or other. I think Strava has lost its way and we should diversify app use.