Changes to default Activity names

Starting August 18th, we changed the way Strava automatically names your activities. Previously, when uploading from a device (via the Strava website or via a syncing program) your activities would be titled "mm/dd/yyyy City, State" or "dd/mm/yyy Town, Region, Country". Now, your activities will follow the same naming convention as the Strava App. For example, "Morning Ride", "Afternoon Run", "Evening Run".


The default activity name is easy to edit. From the mobile app, when viewing one of your activities click on the "pencil" edit icon or select edit from the menu button. From the website, see the "pencil" edit icon to the left side of your activity page. You can also edit multiple activities from the "My Activities" view under the Training tab. 


We made this change in an effort to build consistency between the Strava website and mobile app. Additionally, when viewing activities listed on the profile or Activity Feed, activities are always listed by date making it easy to determine when the activity took place. 


September 9th, 2015

We understand that the new default activity names will not work for everyone on Strava. We welcome your comments and discussion on this thread and hope you understand that your feedback is heard and has been discussed with the Strava team. We do our best to cater to all the needs of our community, knowing that new features and product changes will impact our members in different ways. 


We don't currently have plans to revert the changes or build additional settings to customize default activity names. Our product continues to evolve and we hope you stick with us knowing that we take your feedback seriously. 



  • Several answers to your points.

    1.  I don't always care to update the ride title.  And when I don't morning/afternoon/evening is useless for searching.

    2. Another complaint is that this used to work just fine.  I am a software developer, and one of the first rules of software feature development is don't take something that people use and like away.  Especially when NOT taking it away would have been no effort at all.  Strava removed a perfectly functional (if limited) titling system and replaced it with something utterly useless.

    3.  But most importantly, Strava ignoring its users is what bothers me the most.  IIRC we were actually asked for feedback on the new system and we all said:  "We don't like it!"  Response from Strava?  Pretty much... "Screw you, we are not changing it".  Lesson in customer service; if you have no intention of listening to the feedback you receive, don't ask for it.  All that does is piss people off more as they have now been told "You don't matter and your opinions don't count."  I don't think that there was a single person that said:  "Yeah!  This is a great idea!  I love it!" 

    So, while I agree with you that titles are relatively easy to change and that it is not a huge deal, I do not choose to give money to a company that does not care one whit for its users.  Just like I would not purchase software that did not suit my needs.  On the other hand, if Strava were to actually start listening to users I would be happy to once again become a premium member (or whatever they call it these days).  

    And yes, once again you are correct, there is nothing more to discuss because Strava doesn't care.  Ultimately that is the point.  This is the first time in years that I have responded to a comment on this thread for that reason alone.

  • @Jonnyknight, I do not see how "morning road" is original ...
    I strongly suppose that you are a user of Strava through the app so obligatorily after the end of the output, the input fields are there.
    With a synchronized device the route data is transmitted directly if you want to change the name there is a useless and boring manipulation
    And the number of users of Strava with Garmin or others is not anecdotal
    for @Keith, no I do not necessarily know where I am when I move on several days, especially several years after

  • @Gilles you must've read my reply too fast. This is what I wrote: "so Strava puts a mundane placeholder (Morning Ride) in to increase the odds that you'll replace with an original title"

    and fwiw, I use a Garmin that syncs with my iPhone via Bluetooth and then the file is uploaded to Strava, Garmin Connect and TrainingPeaks. I've been using Strava since 2010 so I remember the "Location/Date/Time" 

    also, I guarantee Strava monitors their users' behaviors very carefully and I'd be willing to bet they noticed a considerable uptick in comments (conversations) after reverting to the placeholder titles that encourage people to create their own unique title.

  • Exactly @Giles C. Low-effort sharer here. I don't want to curate my runs on Strava.

    Bad on Strava for dropping this topic. I just don't understand their position.

  • Marwan Joury, as a software developer you should also know about the privacy issues of extracting the city name from the activity and put it in the title.

  • @Tommy Enger: there are no privacy issues. If you can see his activity you can see his map and where it occurred. Adding the place name to the title means nothing.

  • @Dylan MacDonald Let me give you an example. When I visit I see all your activites because you have an open profile. Most poeple on Strava has the same, and most people dont know or care about setting their privacy. If the city name and date was in the title of each activity I could write a script that tells me if you are at home or not. And not only you, I could do this for every single user on Strava with public activities giving me a daily report on what users are at home or on holliday. For example: give me all users who usually have activities in San Francisco, but today are at least 100 miles away from San Francisco. I could write this script in less than 1 hour. 

    I'm not saying it's impossible to retrieve this information programmatically from the map. But it's a completely different programming job than reading it in plain text from the title.

    You still mean that there are no privacy issues?

    (sorry for my bad English)

    EDIT And one more thing: To get the map you actually have to be logged in (When logged out it's just an image). The title is available even when logged out.

  • @Tommy Enger Fine, so add it as an option (as many people have requested).  Problem solved.  That would be ADDING functionality, not taking it away.  If you don't want to use the location data you don't have to.  And anyway, that was NOT the reason Strava removed the information.  Go back and read the earlier posts (if you have not already done so) it is highly likely that this was a money saving move on Strava's part (belying all their excuses to the contrary).  So, if they want to save money by taking functionality away, I will save money by not signing up for a premium account as I once did.
    This never was a privacy concern.  Not even Strava suggested that it was.  And any privacy concern that is now being used as another excuse to not supply this information can be easily addressed.
    Also, if we are going to start writing scripts to pull activity names (titles), there is nothing to stop you from pulling segment names.  It might take a little more work, but would give you the same information as location names in the title.   I wonder what other data could easily be retrieved by writing a script.  For example, I am sure that the GPS location information of your start point is in there somewhere.
    And since anyone can create a Strava account and log in maps are readily viewable.
  • @Tommy Enger: those are all good points.

  • The reason why Strava cant have this as an option, you see in this thread. Most people do not understand the consequences of setting this option. This is why my bank wont let me have a 4 digit pin to sign in. It would be very convenient for me, but the bank knows better than to give me this option.
    Just see what happened when I wrote one sentence mentioning that there is privacy issues of extracting the city name from the activity. The comment get down voted and the first comment is "there are no privacy issues". 

    How are they saving money on excluding city name from the title? I definitely think privacy isses was a part of their reason, but who would say publicly that their software used to have privacy issues? 

    To see maps and segments you have to be logged in. It would be easy to reveal a user running a script like this because this user would have to load thousands of users and activities every day. If I were the software architect at Strava I would have rules like "If a user views more than X users or activities within Y minutes, block user for Z minutes". (I would be surprised if this is not implemented)
    When you can get the information without being logged in, you can "simply" use a botnet to read all the activities. 

    Dont get me wrong, I liked the old title much better just as you. But I understand why they had to remove it.

  • If you are concerned with privacy, you probably shouldn't be uploading rides to a public platform in the first place.


    The reason given by Strava many years ago (can't remember if in this thread or another) was that they were moving from Google Maps to a free Map service that didn't support the activity location naming. It had nothing to do with privacy.

  • @Tommy Enger  As I suggested, go back and read the earliest postings.  Apparently Strava changed their mapping provider (to save money) and in doing so lost the ability to resolve GPS locations to geographic place names.  This was suggested very early on and never disputed by Strava.  Their excuse for removing this functionality was to make the web app (PC) compatible with their phone app which is utter BS.  It was never about security, not even Strava made that claim when trying to justify their decision.

    To answer your concern about people not understanding the ramifications, that is also very simple.  When you switch from the default (which could be the current system) to a location based naming convention you could be given a short warning blurb in bright red text and have to check a box to acknowledge that you understand.  If the text of the warning is kept short (e,g. "Adding location to your title can be a security risk") followed by a link for a longer explanation, the problem is solved.  I admit that long legalese is often ignored so keep it short.  I don't want Strava to tell me how to handle my security.

    You could even add a trust level.  Currently I believe there are three trust levels (self, followers, others), many people (like me) don't force followers to require permission to follow you which is not very secure.  But you could add a "trusted follower" level which requires the individual to confirm the follower as a trusted follower.  If the person is a trusted follower he/she sees your title.  Otherwise they get the Morning/Afternoon/Evening title.

    My point is that there are all sorts of ways to alleviate any security concerns.  Strava didn't employ any of them because (as I have stated multiple times) this was never about security.  Any claim to the contrary at this point is rewriting history.

    Furthermore, and this should be a warning to all software vendors, Strava went about this very badly.  They asked for their customers' (our) opinions and then after getting dozens of responses to say that we didn't like the change, they basically said "Screw you, we are not changing it back."  That is NOT the way to run any business.  People don't exactly feel all warm and fuzzy if they are asked for their opinions and then told, hey, we really don't care.

  • I agree... location back please.

  • Just a tip....Strava doesn’t even know this thread exists any more!!! 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂

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