One of my favorite things about using an Apple Watch to track my workouts is the range of apps you have available to do it. The native Workout app has improved a lot in recent years and is the easiest option, but the best Apple Watch apps still offer some unique and helpful features to track your tracking.
The Strava app is one of the most popular options and it just got a major overhaul that seems perfectly timed for the imminent launch of the Apple Watch Series 11 and Apple Watch Ultra 3, which are expected to be announced at the ‘Awe Dropping’ Apple Event on September 9.
One of the big new features on the Strava app is Live Segments, which allows you to race against others and yourself over popular routes. Segments are a major part of the fun of using Strava, and now they’re easier to engage with than ever using the Apple Watch app.
How to use Live Segments
If you open up the map page in the Strava app you’ll see sections of roads and trails colored orange. These are segments created by other users that highlight popular or interesting routes, and every time someone runs or cycles along the segment their time is logged on a leaderboard (this is only for public activities, so if you set yours to private or ‘followers only’, it won’t show up).
Many people like to compete to log the fastest overall time on these segments, or just beat their personal best on them, and with the new Strava Apple Watch app you can get alerts for nearby segments and then track your progress through them in real-time so you can see how you’re getting on compared to your best time on the segment.
While you don’t want to always be competing with yourself and others during workouts, having a segment pop up automatically during a long session might be the perfect pick-me-up to motivate you at times.
What else is new in the Strava app?
Aside from the addition of Live Segments, the Strava app also got a user interface refresh to make it easier to see your stats at a glance, and Strava also says the syncing process to the Strava app has been improved.
Compared to the native Workout app or other great Apple Watch apps like WorkOutDoors, the Strava app is pretty basic in the stats it shows and the amount of customization available.
However, it’s worth adding to your watch purely for Live Segments I’d say, a feature you might enjoy using every one now and again. This is a key strength of the Apple Watch for me, you can use different apps each day to suit your needs, and all of the data gets collated within the Health app.
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