A recent Strava app update has unlocked a feature people have wanted for years, offline route guidance for the Apple Watch app. And it’s not alone either.
Reddit users have noticed the feature has begun rolling out. And while the post describes the feature having arrived as a beta, folks who are not enrolled into any sort of beta program appear to have been granted access to it.
Published Strava Apple Watch app screenshots show the route selection display, and how the navigation screen shows the route on top of a relatively subtle map view. It’s not just a breadcrumb trail.
Strava is yet to officially announce this upgrade, which for now at least does not appear to require a paid subscription to the platform.
Instead you’ll just see the option to use a pre-planned route when you start a run, walk or bike ride session.
For now at least there’s no suggestion of more advanced features like live re-routing.
The move is consistent with Strava’s recent developments, which show a desire to broaden what the platform is used for. Most recently, Strava has added Instant Workouts, which works out “personalized activity recommendations” across more than 40 activity types.
Apple Watch Komoot App
Strava is not the only popular fitness platform to get offline navigation right at the moment either. Komoot now has it too.
Hiking and all-round adventuring platform Komoot now lets you navigate with a guided route, using the watch alone, complete with turn-by-turn guidance. And like Strava’s solution — for now — a premium subscription is not required either.
Komoot has more plans for the rest of 2026 to expand these abilities too, including auto-re-routing and location sharing.
In Komoot’s case, the map data downloaded covers roughly 1.5km to each side of the planned route, acting as a buffer should you want to have a pan around the local environment.
These are pretty compelling argument that more Apple Watch owners should consider trying out a third-party tracking app rather than Apple’s own. Apple added its own take on offline maps to the watch with watchOS 10, released in 2023, although it was pretty basic until watchOS 11 arrived a year later.
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