If you’re a runner that doesn’t have a smartwatch, there’s a good chance you use Strava and your phone’s GPS to track your runs. If you’re also the kind of runner that needs a soundtrack to push yourself to new personal bests, you’ll know that juggling apps while on the move can be an awkward and distracting experience.
Today, Spotify and Strava have announced that everything’s going to get a little simpler. Spotify now has a media widget that appears within Strava itself. This allows runners to access their tunes, podcasts and audiobooks without leaving the app. The widget lets users play, pause, resume, skip and browse content directly from the tracking screen.
Brilliantly, this isn’t a paywalled feature, meaning those on Spotify’s free plan aren’t left out in the cold. However, they have the usual restriction of not being able to pick specific songs and will have to endure occasional adverts.
“Over time, the consumption of music has evolved dramatically from CDs to streaming, which has opened the door for audio to inspire us in ways they couldn’t before,” said Strava’s Vice President of Connected Partnerships, Mateo Ortega.
“We’re excited to partner with a global leader like Spotify to seamlessly integrate music and movement on the platform. This new feature further solidifies Strava’s position at the centre of connected fitness and continues to demonstrate the power of the global community of active people on Strava.”
For many serious runners, this will likely be too late to be useful. Anyone who tracks their runs with a smartwatch or a dedicated fitness tracker from Garmin or Fitbit will control their runs and music playback from the wrist, with their phone safely pocketed.
In other words, this was a bigger problem about a decade ago, when neither the Apple Watch nor Android Wear (later: Wear OS) existed.
Still, for those that either don’t want a smartwatch or are just dipping their toes into the world of running for the first time, this is a welcome addition. Getting your inspirational workout mix moving just got a bit easier, so hopefully the PBs will follow.
