Big changes are coming to Strava. On Wednesday, the social media platform for athletes announced a suite of new updates for Strava subscribers designed to make exploring easier and leaderboards a little more honest.
Whether you’re a fair-weather runner or someone on the hunt for their next CR, these new features promise smarter routes, easier-to-use maps, and a fairer way to compete. The rollout will begin this June.
Smarter routes
The highlight of this update is a redesigned Routes feature. Now powered by AI and Strava’s Global Heatmap, the tool offers more intuitive, community-backed suggestions to help you run, ride, or walk like a local. Found in the app’s Maps tab, Routes now let you plan from your current location—or any custom starting point—with smarter insights.
Also coming: tappable Points of Interest (POIs). Users will soon be able to tap on cafés, washrooms, or scenic viewpoints to learn more, generate a route there, or add them to an existing route. Each POI will have user-submitted photos, elevation data, distance, and most importantly, an ETA based on your pace.
In July, Strava will add to this update with point-to-point routes. This will let Strava subscribers drop a pin and get the most efficient, activity-specific route from A to B.
Fair leaderboards
Are you tired of losing your segment records to someone driving a car? Strava is too. The app is doubling down on leaderboard integrity by expanding the reach of its AI model introduced earlier this year. The system will now automatically review top results and flag those activities logged under the wrong sport, or recorded in a vehicle. So far, Strava says 4.45 million invalid efforts have been removed, restoring segment records to the athletes who sweat to earn them.
