Strava announces surface types and personal heat maps have now been added to mobile app

Strava has announced it has released personal heat maps and surface type maps to the mobile app.

The new features went live on Thursday, October 7 and can now be used world-wide by Strava users. These new features can be used by the paid subscribers and free app users.

With the surface type map, this is a new feature that will likely be welcome on mobile as Strava release their new 'Stat Map' that showcases trail and gravel adventures, with the latest addition letting you record all types of terrain that you cover during your rides.

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All riders need to do to use this feature is to go to activity detail, edit and then choose map. You have the app version 223 or greater to use this.

This will be a popular feature, especially as gravel cycling continues to grow in this boom that part of the sport has seen over the last five years. This also includes the new UCI gravel World Cup series and World Championships which will take place in 2022.

The personal heat map feature may not be new for regular users on desktop, but it is for the mobile side of things with it finally being added to the list of features on the mobile app.

You can look at you personal heat map and see every single ride you have been on over the time you've used Strava.

As you can see from the screenshot, roads you've ridden on more have a thicker line compared to ones you've ridden once or twice.

You can also select the colour your regular routes will show.  

Along with the terrain tracking feature on Strava, you will be able to see every single segment in your local area and study them to see if you'd be able to target any of them for yourself.

To use this feature users need to, go to Maps in the app, go onto map layers icon. Users should then tap on the heatmaps and it can be edited from there.