STRAVA on AndroidWear 2.0 – more interesting than you might think

The STRAVA app has already been working fine on AndroidWear v1.X (AW). Naturally the company have confirmed it will be upgraded to support the impending release of AndroidWear 2.0 where it will grace the screen of the Polar M600, New Balance RunIQ,  Asus ZenWatch 2  &3; Casio WSD F10; Fossil Q Founder/Wander/Marshall; Huawei Watch; LG G Watch R/Urbans (1st and 2nd gen); Michael Kors Access Bradshaw; Moto 360 (1st & 2nd gen); Nixon Mission; and Sony Smartwatch 3.

M600 users will already know that their Polar training app works  fine without a smartphone needing to be present. HOWEVER that’s NOT true of all existing apps. Moving forwards to AW2.0 an inherent feature of the operating system is that apps can work ‘untethered’ ie without relying on live smartphone link. At the end of the session the data can even be uploaded via the watch’s inbuilt Wi-Fi – other than the initial setup of the app there is no need for a smartphone.

So now STRAVA’s plan for global-app domination takes a further step in the right direction. As well as getting other people to make their bike computers (aka iOS and Android smartphones) STRAVA have now cunningly got lots of other people to make their wrist-based sports watches for them! aka Polar M600 et al.

That makes R&D a whole lot easier and quicker than it is for Garmin.

I’m not a STRAVA user in particular. I have an account or two and I get as disgruntled as the rest of you when my QOM/KOM on some obscure segment gets taken by a pro rider. BUT clearly it is a go-to app for very many people and with some great, market-leading and sort-of ‘unique’ functionality too.

STRAVA is still going places.