Strava is undoubtedly a popular choice among runners and cyclists, thanks to its robust activity tracking and social features. While the app’s free version offers basic features like activity recording and access to Strava’s social network, the company has long placed its live location tracking feature behind a subscription. Well, not anymore. Recently, Strava made its live location sharing feature “Beacon” available to all users for free. So if you want to keep your friends and family updated with your running paths, we will teach you how to share your live location on Strava.
Share Live Location with Friends on Strava (2021)
What is Strava Beacon?
Strava Beacon is a live location sharing service from the popular running app. With Beacon, you can share your location with up to three people. You can pick these safety contacts within the app. Right before you start a run, the app generates a unique URL that you can share with your safety contacts. Link sharing is done via SMS message, but you can also choose to manually share the link using any of the secure messaging apps.
While you can use Strava Beacon for free with your phone, you will need a Strava subscription for using Beacon with compatible Garmin devices and Apple Watch Series 2 or newer models. With that out of the way, read the next section to know how to set up safety contacts and use Strava Beacon on your iPhone or Android device.
Set up Safety Contacts on Strava
Note: We will demo the working of the feature using an Android device, but the steps will remain the same on iOS as well.
1. Open Strava and press ‘Record’ from the bottom navigation bar. Once the run/ cycling recording screen appears, tap on the Beacon icon from the bottom panel.
2. You will now see a toggle to enable ‘Beacon for Mobile’. Turn it on, and you will see the option to ‘Add Safety Contacts’. You can add up to three safety contacts, with whom you want to share your live location in Strava.
3. Go through your contacts list and pick up to 3 contacts. Hit the Save button at the top-right corner once you are done.
4. Before sharing your live location, you can choose to customize the invite message that goes along with the tracking link. All you have to do is tap on ‘Message’ and customize the predefined template if you prefer.
Share Live Location with Strava Beacon
- After setting up safety contacts, tap on the ‘Send Beacon Text’ button before starting your run. A share sheet will then pop up, with the option to share the link to messaging apps.
2. Now, you can send an SMS to the contact. Alternatively, you can copy the link and share it on a messaging platform of your choice. Once the recipient opens the Strava link, they can see your run path along with the live location. Notably, anyone with the link can view this data in a browser and are not required to install Strava app.
3. When you expand the status section, you can also view additional statistics, including the distance covered, time active, and the battery percentage of the runner’s phone. It will actively sync the status, as you can see in the second image below, where I paused the run.
Share your Run with Friends on Strava
So that’s how you can use Strava Beacon to share your live location when tracking your run with the Strava app. The feature should come in handy, especially when you go exploring new run segments in your city alone. And if you are looking for other ways to level up your fitness, go through our article on the best workout apps to keep yourself fit.
