Strava Expands Mapping Tools with Night and Weekly Heatmaps

Strava has expanded the mapping tools of its platform with the addition of Night and Weekly Heatmaps, allowing subscribers to make informed decisions related to their routes and adapt their activities as the seasons change.

Night Heatmaps are beneficial for subscribers who are completing their activities in the late evening or early morning hours. This heatmap shows heat from activities recorded from sunset to sunrise, helping athletes find the most popular areas for outdoor activities during this timeframe, while the Weekly Heatmap shows recent heat from the last seven days, helping users stay informed about which trails and roads are currently active, particularly during seasonal transitions when conditions may be affected by weather.

“Our global community powers our heatmaps, and now we’ve made it easier for our community members to build routes with confidence, regardless of the season or time of day,” said Matt Salazar, Strava’s Chief Product Officer. We are continually improving our mapping technology to make human-powered movement easier for all skill levels. We are continually improving our mapping technology to make human-powered movement easier for all skill levels,” said Matt Salazar, Strava’s Chief Product Officer.

Strava powers four different heatmap experiences (Night, Weekly, Global and Personal).

• Night (new): Discover the most frequented areas between sunset and sunrise, for evening or early morning users.
• Weekly (new): Stay updated with the latest data from the past seven days, for adjusting plans around seasonal changes or unexpected route closures.
• Global (existing): The global heatmap allows users to see what areas are most popular around the world based on community activity uploads.
• Personal (existing): A one-of-a-kind illustration showing the record of everywhere a subscriber has logged a GPS activity. This heatmap is private and only available to the user themself.

The Global Heatmap is available to all Strava users, while the remaining three are for subscribers.

Strava’s public heatmaps utilize de-identified and aggregated data from public activities where activity visibility is set to “Everyone”. Activities with the privacy setting (“Only You” or “Followers”) are excluded from Strava public heatmaps automatically.

To access Night or Weekly Heatmaps on the Strava app or web, subscribers click on the Maps tab and select their desired heatmap. To further customize, subscribers can filter the heatmap by activity type or view multiple heatmaps at once.

In addition to the new heatmaps, Strava subscribers can also leverage other planning tools such as Suggested Routes, Route Planning with photos, Customized Waypoints and Offline Routes.

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