[exabrial]

Hilarious.

Strava literally only exists because of Garmin [and Apple, others] data. They offer no value, contribute nothing, and pretty much just monetize the fact that Apple and Garmin haven't shared data directly between their platforms. They only exist, because they exist, and their userbase has "chosen" them as the social standard.

And lets be honest, they suck for anything that isn't cycling. Garmin and Apple recognize that the vast majority the users are casual hybrid athletes.

As such, doing anything to jeopardize their position as the "neutral ground" in the non-data-sharing war between Garmin and Apple is pretty stupid. And besides, vibe-coding a Strava replacement would take like all of 7 days.

[Lio]

The funniest bit is Strava suing Garmin for breaking its patent for heat-maps when, as Ray points out, Garmin had heat-maps 6 months before Strava filed for their patent.

[exabrial]

Agree, and it's not like Strava invented the heat-map visualization anyway, tons of prior art.

Garmin needs to hire some good anti-Patent troll lawyers and go full NewEgg on them: full scorched earth policy.

[grvdrm]

I don’t care much for social features but they were more compelling when I first used the app and the user base was smaller.

The user base now is using Strava as the standard platform for data. Someone else pointed this out too. It is the place I look/visit to see nearly all of my physical activities in one spot. Works across different brands/devices/etc.

Garmin’s platform isn’t much more appealing as an end user. Apple’s makes me insane. Strava just kind of works even though I can’t stand the constant mobile push/CTA to pay.

I don’t and won’t.

[mvdtnz]

> Strava literally only exists because of Garmin [and Apple, others] data.

Largely true.

> They offer no value, contribute nothing, and pretty much just monetize the fact that Apple and Garmin haven't shared data directly between their platforms.

Massively overstated. Strava adds a ton of value for serious users.

[Beretta_Vexee]

Strava is a social network, and its user base is its added value.

If I want training data, I'd be better off with TrainingPeak or Intervals.icu.

Strava has been stagnating in terms of features for athletes for years. They are just starting to roll out a report on hours spent per week in different power or heart rate zones, for example.

The latest features are either designed for posting stories on Instagram or are gimmicks like AI that interprets the results of a workout in natural language and gets it wrong half the time without ever saying anything interesting.

Strava's second function is to serve as a data hub when using multiple devices from different brands.This point is also relatively overlooked, and duplicate synchronisations and incorrect reports are quite common.

Meanwhile, Strava focuses solely on segments and rankings. They are extremely aggressive with anything that could resemble a ranking or one of their paid features. Even when it's a small personal project that doesn't generate a penny.

[exabrial]

That Kudos button :)