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The update a few months ago has really diminished my enjoyment of Strava. I have always enjoyed trying the ‘road less travelled’, especially out in rural areas where the previous version seemed to be very good at showing the more adventurous routes that other runners had taken. It’s not just that Strava have divided up the routes into various activities. Even when I have systematically gone through all the options (including hiking and gravel bikes) some routes that were previously shown have disappeared and the only routes that are still shown are the very obvious ones. Come on Strava, bring back the sense of adventure! Global heat maps has become a fairly redundant function. Also it would help if you used a colour that contrasted better with the map. Pale blue on top of pale cool colours that are used for the maps are hard to read 

I am quite critical of some of Strava's map-related decisions, but this one may not be on them entirely. While it's true that the new map engine color scheme is not as bold, it's entirely possible in your area people are not being as adventurous but it's taken a while for that to be reflected. According to their documentation, the global heat map is updated monthly on the previous 12 month's data. Anecdotally, in my immediate area there's not a lot of activity. But over the last year I can see my individual impact on the global heatmap layer because it lines up exactly with my personal heatmap. So get out there and make some faint blue lines for others to follow! 

 

If the start and end of my runs are hidden for privacy of my home location , does the whole run not get recorded to the global heatmap? 

None of my runs are showing up , even if I don’t start from my hidden home location 

It should show up if your activity is set to everyone. But it could take quite a few (~100) activities and some time before it shows up on the global heatmap.

The Global Heatmap shows 'heat' made by activities with visibility set to "Everyone" over the last year.

  • Activities with the privacy setting "Only You" or “Followers” are excluded from Strava Metro and the Heatmap automatically.

  • We also exclude all portions of activities hidden using your map visibility settings (hide address, hide start/end, hide entire map).

  • Athletes may opt out of aggregate data usage by updating their privacy controls. After opting out, an athlete’s contributions to the heatmap will be removed at the next monthly update.
  • Roads and trails with very little activity will not show “heat” until several different athletes upload activities in that area.

rAll emphasis theirs]

Have a look at these settings on your account and activities and check back next month. 

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