This morning, news broke that two of the services on our best fitness apps list were joining forces: Strava is buying Runna.
Strava, which we rated an excellent service at both free and premium tiers with a terrific social media platform and run-tracking integrations, doesn't really have much in the way of coaching, bar the availability of some static training plans. This seems to make Runna, another highly-rated app built around coaching plans, including an AI coaching service, a great fit.
As Strava CEO Mike Martin put it in an interview with TechRadar, alongside Runna CEO Dom Maskell, "The way that I think about it, it's like the world's largest team just got a new coach. I think that's a really exciting way to position it."
After reading the reactions on the Runna subreddit (cautious optimism, unlike the furor around Garmin's new Connect+ premium tier last month), I wanted to ask both CEOs, especially Martin, if there's a temptation to force Runna users to eventually onboard to a new system, in the same way Google has done with the Fitbit community.
Martin said: "I want to be really clear to both communities and user bases... A key component of Strava is that we are and remain an open platform for the entire connected fitness industry. So we expect to continue to do that, and that is the way that Runna is is integrated in with Strava as well.
"I think there's lots of interesting opportunities for us to accelerate both the support that we provide for the the running community between the two businesses. And just to put a fine point on it, this is a growth and investment play for us... not to do a forced integration play, or something like that."
A Runna for swimmers/cyclists?
I asked Maskell and Martin what the acquisition means for users of both platforms, and in the short term, nothing will change. However, it seems like a given Strava will eventually be able to use some of Runna's comprehensive workout plan-building Runna AI technology in some way.
I also asked what Runna will be taking from Strava: of course, Strava also offers features for cyclists, swimmers, triathletes, and all sorts of other disciplines. Could we see Runna-branded AI coaches for other sports in the future, with Strava's help and investment?
Short answer: not yet.
Maskell said: "It has always been our long-term intention to explore other sports one day. The reason why we didn't do triathlon kind of a couple of years ago is because it's very complicated to do. We would have to build a swimming app for the Apple Watch, and we would have to give customer support to cyclists, and all this kind of stuff. We wanted to really, really nail running before we started exploring other sports."
However, Maskell has revealed some changes to his roadmap: "We'll probably look to internationalize to non-English speaking languages, probably in the next couple of years. Strava has a lot of users... that number [of non-English speaking users] is very, very high.
"We might decide to translate a bunch of the coaching comments, all of the videos, all the kind of content in the app sooner, so that we're able to serve those users. I think that's the kind of thing that would make sense to expedite.
"In terms of other sports, I think that's more the long-term vision."
