Strava’s API debacle highlights the messiness of health information

Just a few days in the past, Strava upset its customers over some restrictive API adjustments. It may appear odd for one app’s customers to fume over an API, however on the coronary heart of the matter is the inherent messiness of health information.

Right here’s a typical state of affairs. Say you’re all in on Garmin’s platform. You utilize their watches for working and power coaching. Then, you decide up a Peloton bike for indoor biking. Effectively, Garmin units aren’t suitable with Peloton bikes as a result of the 2 corporations haven’t struck a direct cope with each other for information sharing. So, to get your coronary heart fee on the Peloton bike, you purchase a chest strap. And then you definately determine to coach for a race, so that you join a type of digital teaching platforms — the sort the place a private coach evaluations your exercises and builds you a personalized plan.

The dilemma is now you could have three separate apps the place your exercise historical past is saved, with three separate interfaces — and none of them with the entire image of your coaching.

There are a variety of how you might consolidate that information, however on this state of affairs, the only is to add all of your exercises into Strava after which import all that Strava information into the teaching app.

This type of state of affairs has come up dozens of occasions all through my wearables testing. Most lately, it got here up after I reviewed a Mobvoi related desk treadmill. I didn’t like its native app, however making an attempt to get the information into my most well-liked apps was a nightmare. On the finish of the day, it was best for me to undergo Strava.

The truth is many smaller health apps and wearable makers don’t have the sources to strike up direct information integrations with the hundreds of different health apps and units available on the market. It’s a lot simpler for everybody to make use of Strava’s API and name it a day. And in contrast to Apple’s HealthKit API or Google’s Well being Join, Strava is platform-agnostic.

The place issues get actually murky is third-party health platforms that extrapolate their very own insights from Strava information — a no-no beneath the brand new API phrases.

Take a third-party platform like VeloViewer. The entire concept behind VeloViewer is to present extra in-depth insights into Strava information, together with 3D maps, charts, yearly exercise recaps, and leaderboards. This can be a nice possibility for people who need extra information than what’s natively obtainable in Strava, however the brand new API adjustments break most of the aforementioned options. As you may think, VeloViewer customers — lots of whom say they solely pay a Strava subscription to make use of VeloViewer — are pissed. VeloViewer has since launched a press release saying it’s working with Strava to resolve the difficulty, however it doesn’t change the truth that Strava holds all of the playing cards.

Admittedly, it is a area of interest drawback. Most individuals use one or perhaps two health apps with their smartwatch, and this isn’t actually a problem. However for these of us who need the liberty of utilizing a number of units and apps throughout numerous platforms? It’s a sobering reminder that it solely takes Strava altering the foundations to interrupt a rigorously crafted system.