{"id":434237,"date":"2026-01-28T06:21:15","date_gmt":"2026-01-28T06:21:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/434237\/"},"modified":"2026-01-28T06:21:15","modified_gmt":"2026-01-28T06:21:15","slug":"two-app-updates-make-the-apple-watch-even-better-for-fitness-tracking","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/434237\/","title":{"rendered":"Two App Updates Make The Apple Watch Even Better For Fitness Tracking"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\" top-image\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/1769581275_624_0x0.jpg\" alt=\"A Strava screenshot on Apple Watch Ultra.\" data-height=\"800\" data-width=\"1200\" fetchpriority=\"high\" style=\"position:absolute;top:0\"\/><\/p>\n<p>A recent <a class=\"color-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.forbes.com\/sites\/andrewwilliams\/2025\/04\/17\/strava-acquires-runna-what-it-means-for-subscribers\/\" data-ga-track=\"InternalLink:https:\/\/www.forbes.com\/sites\/andrewwilliams\/2025\/04\/17\/strava-acquires-runna-what-it-means-for-subscribers\/\" target=\"_self\" aria-label=\"Strava\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Strava<\/a> app update has unlocked a feature people have wanted for years, offline route guidance for the <a class=\"color-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.forbes.com\/sites\/andrewwilliams\/2026\/01\/20\/apple-watch-samsung-and-garmin-wearables-under-threat-in-patent-case\/\" data-ga-track=\"InternalLink:https:\/\/www.forbes.com\/sites\/andrewwilliams\/2026\/01\/20\/apple-watch-samsung-and-garmin-wearables-under-threat-in-patent-case\/\" target=\"_self\" aria-label=\"Apple Watch\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Apple Watch<\/a> app. And it\u2019s not alone either. <\/p>\n<p><a class=\"color-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.reddit.com\/r\/Strava\/comments\/1ql92bb\/routes_and_mapping_now_available_in_beta\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\" data-ga-track=\"ExternalLink:https:\/\/www.reddit.com\/r\/Strava\/comments\/1ql92bb\/routes_and_mapping_now_available_in_beta\/\" aria-label=\"Reddit\">Reddit<\/a> users have noticed the feature has begun rolling out. And while the post describes the feature having arrived as a beta, folks who are not enrolled into any sort of beta program appear to have been granted access to it. <\/p>\n<p>Published Strava Apple Watch app screenshots show the route selection display, and how the navigation screen shows the route on top of a relatively subtle map view. It\u2019s not just a breadcrumb trail. <\/p>\n<p>Strava is yet to officially announce this upgrade, which for now at least does not appear to require a paid subscription to the platform.<\/p>\n<p>Instead you\u2019ll just see the option to use a pre-planned route when you start a run, walk or bike ride session. <\/p>\n<p>For now at least there\u2019s no suggestion of more advanced features like live re-routing. <\/p>\n<p>The move is consistent with Strava\u2019s recent developments, which show a desire to broaden what the platform is used for. Most recently, Strava has added Instant Workouts, which works out \u201cpersonalized activity recommendations\u201d  across more than 40 activity types.<\/p>\n<p>Apple Watch Komoot App<\/p>\n<p>Strava is not the only popular fitness platform to get offline navigation right at the moment either. <a class=\"color-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.forbes.com\/sites\/scottkramer\/2025\/06\/17\/hiking-apps-can-make-the-walk-less-stressful\/\" data-ga-track=\"InternalLink:https:\/\/www.forbes.com\/sites\/scottkramer\/2025\/06\/17\/hiking-apps-can-make-the-walk-less-stressful\/\" target=\"_self\" aria-label=\"Komoot\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Komoot<\/a> now has it too. <\/p>\n<p>Hiking and all-round adventuring platform Komoot now lets you navigate with a guided route, using the watch alone, complete with turn-by-turn guidance. And like Strava\u2019s solution \u2014 for now \u2014 a premium subscription is not required either. <\/p>\n<p>Komoot has more plans for the rest of 2026 to expand these abilities too, including auto-re-routing and location sharing.<\/p>\n<p>In Komoot\u2019s case, the map data downloaded covers roughly 1.5km to each side of the planned route, acting as a buffer should you want to have a pan around the local environment. <\/p>\n<p>These are pretty compelling argument that more Apple Watch owners should consider trying out a third-party tracking app rather than Apple\u2019s own. Apple added its own take on offline maps to the watch with watchOS 10, released in 2023, although it was pretty basic until <a class=\"color-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.forbes.com\/sites\/davidphelan\/2024\/06\/12\/watchos-11-unprecedentedly-cancels-support-for-3-apple-watches-report-says\/\" data-ga-track=\"InternalLink:https:\/\/www.forbes.com\/sites\/davidphelan\/2024\/06\/12\/watchos-11-unprecedentedly-cancels-support-for-3-apple-watches-report-says\/\" target=\"_self\" aria-label=\"watchOS 11\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">watchOS 11<\/a> arrived a year later. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A recent Strava app update has unlocked a feature people have wanted for years, offline route guidance for&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":434238,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[42],"tags":[1041,8543,166,205597,86273,74,7157],"class_list":{"0":"post-434237","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-gadgets","8":"tag-apple-watch-ultra","9":"tag-apps","10":"tag-gadgets","11":"tag-komoot","12":"tag-strava","13":"tag-technology","14":"tag-update"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/434237","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=434237"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/434237\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/434238"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=434237"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=434237"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=434237"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}