Strava’s New Route-Building Features Are Great

Why Route-Building Matters More Than People Admit

A good route can turn “I guess I’ll exercise” into “okay, that was actually a solid day.” A bad route can turn
the same workout into a logistical scavenger hunt: no sidewalk, surprise dead-end, trail closed, or a climb so
steep your calves file a formal complaint.

Strava’s updates focus on two big truths:

• Most of us want confidencethat the route is runnable/rideable, not theoretical.
• Most of us want controlso the route matches our goals, not a random algorithm’s mood.

Strava has always had a strong “follow the crowd” advantage through its Heatmap data. What’s changed is how
quickly you can turn that community intelligence into a route you actually want to doespecially on mobile.

The Big Upgrade: Smarter Routes Built Around the Global Heatmap

The headline improvement is Strava’s newer routes experience that leans into AI-powered suggestions guided by
the Global Heatmap. In plain English: Strava can help you “run, ride, or walk like locals” by generating
routes based on where people actually gorather than where a generic mapping layer says you could go.

What that looks like in real life

Imagine you’re traveling. You want a 45-minute run that’s not all stoplights, not sketchy, and ideally loops
back to where you started (because nobody wants to finish a workout and then negotiate with public transit in
sweaty silence). The updated routes experience is designed for that: start from your current location (or set a
custom starting point), and generate community-backed options right in the Maps tab.

Why the “community-backed” angle is a big deal

Heatmap-driven routing can reduce the guesswork in unfamiliar places. If hundreds or thousands of people have
recorded activities on certain streets or trails, odds are they’re passable and popular for a reason. That’s
not a guarantee of safety (more on that later), but it’s a strong signalespecially compared to building routes
from scratch with no local knowledge.

Mobile Route Builder Finally Feels Like a Real Tool

For a long time, serious route planning often meant “do it on a computer later.” Strava’s recent mobile updates
change that. The mobile Route Builder has been redesigned to feel more dynamic and faster for planning with
precision, with features that make it easier to shape a route instead of wrestling it.

Three ways to build on mobile: tap points, draw, or go manual

Strava’s mobile route creation now supports multiple building styles, which matters because people plan
differently:

• Add Points: Tap the map to drop points; Strava connects them using community activity data.
  Want more control? Place points closer together.
• Draw on the map: Trace with your finger; the route snaps to nearby roads or trails, and even
  respects context like choosing paved surfaces for a road bike route.
• Manual Mode: When routing gets stubborn, manual mode lets you add straight-line connections
  or force the path where you want it.

Once you’re happy, you can save the route, set privacy, and even download it for offline usehugely helpful for
travel, remote areas, or the classic “I swear I had service five minutes ago” situation.

Edit without starting over

After the route is built, you can still tweak it: move points, delete points, reverse the route, or adjust
segments that don’t feel right. This sounds basicuntil you remember how many route tools make you rebuild an
entire loop because you wanted to avoid one awkward corner.

Enhanced Route Details: A Better “What Am I Getting Into?” Preview

Strava added a genuinely useful detail-preview: you can move your finger along the route and see key info
change as you goelevation, distance, surface type, and grade. This is the difference between “that hill looks
fine” and “oh, that’s not a hill, that’s a personal growth experience.”

Why this matters for runners and cyclists

• Runners: You can spot where the route gets steep, where the terrain shifts, and whether that
  “flat loop” quietly includes a climb at mile three.
• Cyclists: Grade and surface matter a ton for pacing, gearing, and bike choiceespecially if
  you’re switching between road, gravel, and mixed terrain.

It’s a small interaction that saves big regret. Previewing the route is now more like “scrubbing” a story than
reading a static profile and guessing where the pain lives.

Waypoints and Points of Interest: Plan the Stops, Not Just the Lines

The most human feature in route planning is admitting you might need a stop. Water refill. Bathroom. Coffee.
Viewpoint photo because you’re a person with a camera roll and not a robot. Strava’s waypoint tools now make
that kind of planning easier.

Route Adjustment: add, move, delete waypoints

Recent updates make it possible to add, move, or delete waypoints so the route fits your needsthink
café stops, restrooms, scenic overlooks, or any other “this matters to me” marker.

Custom Waypoints: make a route shareable and more useful

On the web route builder, custom waypoints let you mark specific places and share details with others. They can
also be sent to certain GPS devices during navigation, which is handy if you want your route to include
structured stops (or if you’re organizing a group ride and don’t want twelve people asking “which café?” at the
same time).

Tappable Points of Interest: discovery meets practicality

Strava has also expanded “Points of Interest” so subscribers can tap a POI (like a café or viewpoint), see more
information, and generate a route to itor generate routes that include it. The goal is to make route planning
feel more like planning an experience, not just drawing a line on a map.

Switch Sport Types Mid-Route: Because Real Routes Aren’t One-Flavor

This is an underrated upgrade: Strava made it easier to transition from one sport type to another while
creating routeslike road to gravel cycling. That sounds niche until you remember how many “simple” routes
include a paved start, a crushed-gravel path, and a short trail connector (often because the most direct
route is also the least pleasant).

Multi-surface planning helps you build routes that match your bike setup, your comfort level, and your goal for
the day. It also helps avoid the classic mistake of routing a road bike onto a “fun shortcut” that turns out to
be loose gravel plus regrets.

Desktop Maps: Bigger Screen, Better Control, More Heatmaps at Once

If you love details, desktop route planning is still where you can really nerd outin a good way. Strava’s web
Maps experience brings multiple heatmaps onto the same screen and makes it easier to fine-tune routes with a UI
that doesn’t require you to pinch-zoom like you’re defusing a bomb.

Global, Weekly, and Personal Heatmaps (choose your planning vibe)

• Global Heatmap: Follow the routes the community uses most.
• Weekly Heatmap: Get a sense of recent activity patterns and seasonality.
• Personal Heatmap: See where you always go… and where you never go (hello, fresh scenery).

Web-only planning perks

Strava highlights several web-focused tools that help refine a route, including customizable waypoints, a
scrubbable elevation view, surface type charts, and manual mode for more flexible routing. Put together, it’s a
cleaner, more confident way to plan big dayslong runs, long rides, hikes, or anything where you don’t want to
improvise in the middle of nowhere.

Maps Got a Visual Glow-Up, Too

Route-building isn’t only about toolsit’s also about map clarity. Strava introduced a proprietary Map Rendering
Engine that integrates elements of FATMAP’s mapping technology, bringing more realistic 3D terrain and terrain
layers to Strava’s map and routing experiences. That kind of visualization is especially useful when you’re
planning routes where terrain truly matters (hello, hills, mountains, and “why did I choose this?” climbs).

Better maps don’t automatically make better decisions, but they reduce friction. When the terrain is clearer,
you can plan more intelligentlyespecially for elevation-focused training or outdoor adventures where the route
isn’t just “a loop,” it’s “a loop that will humble me.”

Saved Routes Are Easier to Find and Manage

Route planning isn’t just about building a route onceit’s about building a library you can reuse. Strava added
search and filtering for Saved Routes so you can find routes by keyword or filter by sport type, distance,
elevation, route owner, or surface type.

That means less scrolling through an endless list of “Saturday Long Ride (Final) (Final v2)” and more quickly
finding the route that matches your mood today.

Practical Tips: How to Build Better Routes with the New Features

1) Start with a goal, not a shape

Instead of thinking “I need a loop,” start with what you actually want:
distance, time, elevation, surface, and how spicy you want the effort to feel. A route that matches your goal
feels satisfying; a route that’s random feels like homework.

2) Use community data, then take control

Heatmap-informed suggestions are a strong starting point, especially in new places. But don’t be afraid to
tighten up the route by adding more points or using draw mode. You’re collaborating with the crowd, not
surrendering to it.

3) Preview the pain (politely)

Use enhanced route details to scrub along the route and spot steep grades, surface changes, and where the climb
really happens. If the route looks like a saw blade, that might be a signunless your goal is “become a stronger
person through suffering,” in which case, carry on.

4) Add “life support” waypoints

If you’ll want water, bathrooms, or a café stop, add it upfront. Routes are more enjoyable when your brain
isn’t running background anxiety like, “Will I find water, or will I become a cautionary tale?”

5) Save smartly: names, privacy, offline

Use route names you’ll recognize later (“Gravel Loop w/ Coffee Stop” beats “New Route 47”). Set privacy based on
what you want shared. And if you’re headed somewhere with spotty service, download it offline before you go.

What These Updates Still Don’t Do (And How to Stay Sharp)

Even great route tools aren’t magic. Here are a few reality checks that keep your planning grounded:

• Popularity isn’t the same as safety. A road can be heavily used and still unpleasant at rush
  hour. Use judgment, especially for cycling.
• Routing can be imperfect. Auto-connections sometimes choose an odd path. That’s why manual
  mode and extra points matter.
• Conditions change. Construction, weather, and trail closures can still happen. If you’re
  planning something remote, consider adding conservative waypoints (bailout points, water sources).

The good news: Strava’s new tools give you more ways to adapt quickly. The better the controls, the less you’re
stuck with a route that feels like it was designed by a confused squirrel.

Conclusion: Strava’s Route Builder Has Entered Its “Actually Helpful” Era

Strava’s newer route-building features are great because they solve the real problems athletes face: planning
in unfamiliar places, balancing community intelligence with personal control, and getting more detail before you
commit to a route that might secretly be a mountain goat audition.

Between Heatmap-guided suggestions, a more capable mobile route builder, improved waypoint handling, richer
route previews, upgraded maps, and better route organization, Strava is making route planning faster and more
confidence-inspiringwithout stripping away the flexibility people need.

In other words: less time staring at maps, more time doing the thing you opened Strava for in the first place.
And yes, that includes stopping for coffeebecause “athlete fuel” can also be spelled “c-a-f-f-e-i-n-e.”

Real-World Experiences: 5 Ways These Features Change Your Week (About )

If you’ve ever tried planning a route in a new neighborhood, you know the emotional arc: confidence, optimism,
mild confusion, bargaining, then acceptance that you’ll be “exploring” today. The updated Strava route-building
tools change that arc in small but meaningful waysespecially over the course of a normal week.

1) Travel stops feeling like a routing gamble. The first big difference shows up when you’re
away from your usual routes. Instead of guessing which streets are runnable or which paths actually connect,
Heatmap-guided route suggestions give you a shortlist of “people really do this here” options. That doesn’t mean
you should turn off your brain, but it does mean you can spend your mental energy on your workoutnot on
navigation anxiety.

2) You stop overplanning and start editing. With the mobile builder offering tap-to-add,
finger-draw, and manual mode, many athletes naturally shift from obsessively planning the “perfect” route to
building a decent one quickly and refining it. You lay down a draft route in a minute, then adjust a turn that
looks awkward, add a point near a park, or smooth out a section that seems too steep. That “edit-first” mindset
makes planning feel lighter and faster.

3) Terrain surprises become less common. Enhanced route detailsscrubbing along the route to
see elevation, grade, and surfaceturns route planning into a preview instead of a leap of faith. Over a week,
this tends to reduce the number of “why is this suddenly a hill?” moments. It also helps match routes to your
training intent: easy day stays easier, hard day stays intentionally hard.

4) Stops get baked into the plan (and group rides run smoother). Once you start adding points
of interest and waypointscoffee shops, restrooms, water refillsyou realize how often the best workouts are the
ones that are logistically comfortable. On group outings, shared waypoints cut down on the mid-ride debate
(“Wait, which café are we meeting at?”) and reduce the risk of the group splitting because someone missed a
turn toward the snack stop.

5) Your saved routes become a real library. With saved-route search and filters, route saving
becomes useful rather than aspirational. Instead of hoarding routes and never finding them again, you can build
a personal collectionflat recovery loops, hilly tempo circuits, long-run routes with water accessand pull the
right one on the right day. Add offline downloads into the mix and you’re less likely to get derailed by poor
service, which is the least athletic obstacle imaginable.

Put together, these updates don’t just add featuresthey reduce friction. And when planning gets easier, you’re
more likely to go out the door. Strava didn’t just upgrade route building; it upgraded the odds that your
workout actually happens.