Strava makes Beacon live location sharing feature free to all users… on mobile

Strava has announced that all users, including those without a subscription, will now be able to use its Beacon live location sharing feature for free on the mobile phone app for keeping safe on rides... but it will remain a paid-for feature on connected devices like GPS computers and smart watches. 

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“Beacon was built to give athletes more control over their own safety, and to keep them connected to their community when they need it most,” Strava says.

Users can share their live location with up to three people, who will then be able to keep track of where you are until you finish your ride.

Safety contacts can be added and automatically notified every time you record in the app. Or Strava says you can manually text a link to anyone you like so they can keep track of your location.

Beacon auto-sharing from connected devices like Garmin bike computers or Apple Watch, however, will continue to be a paid feature. Strava explains this is due to the added complexity of supporting those integrations.

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Strava also recently increased its privacy options for editing map visibility and hiding personal fitness data.

The Privacy Zones feature was re-launched as ‘Edit Map Visibility’ to give greater privacy control for its users over their hidden zones with the added options to hide up to 1 mile from the start/end no matter where you are as well as hiding the map completely for all activities.

Data – including speed, power, calories and heart rate – can also now be kept private from your followers and the public.

www.strava.com