Innovation and experimentation are incredibly important to the Strava Team, so much so that we spend two full days each month working on our own projects and investigating new ideas. We call this coveted time a Strava Jam.

The output of a Strava Jam could be anything from a t-shirt or infographic design to a mobile or web feature. Sometimes we make smaller improvements to existing features and functionality, while other times we embrace big ideas that require more planning and testing before they’re ready for prime time. In either case, the experiments that emerge with the most potential and added value to the Strava experience are crowned X-Features.

With all that said, the entire Strava Team is excited to announce that X-Features are available to all users starting today. These experimental features are accessible from your Settings page and available for you to turn on and off, try out, and provide your feedback as they develop. Some things to keep in mind:

  • X-Features are a little rough around the edges.
    An X-Feature is a lot like the new guy in your cycle club. He’s wearing a different kit and still has a visor on his helmet. But you know that it’s only a matter of time before someone tears that visor off, gets him in a club kit, and makes the world right again. X-Features need a little more development, testing, and design love before we decide to graduate it to a full fledged feature.
  • X-Features are unsupported.
    No support vehicle, soigneurs, or energy bars at mile 13. X-Features are experimental and haven’t gone through the same product and development process as our other features. Please don’t contact the Support team if you experience problems. On the Settings page, you’ll see a link to give feedback to the respective X-Feature.
  • X-Features are web-only right now.
    Our team works on X-Features for our mobile apps too. Getting them into your hands isn’t as straightforward as on the web, however, so for now X-Features are web-only. We expect to have a release path for mobile X-Features in the near future.
  • X-Features may one day grow up to become real Strava features.
    X-Features aren’t meant to stay that way forever. They give us a way to share our ideas with you faster, but we may decide to graduate an X-Feature to a become a full-fledged free or Premium only feature, or we may decide to retire the functionality altogether. X-Features may come and go, but Strava is forever!

I hope you enjoy using X-Features as much as we have. There’s a lot more to come.

– Sarah