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anchskier
Denali
Status: Archived

Years ago, Strava unilaterally disabled the flyby feature on all profiles.  They did this without any kind of notice so most people figured the feature was removed completely.  Only those who dug around could find that it was a toggle setting in the privacy settings that had to be manually enabled for each person.  Only a small number of people figured this out and re-enabled it on their profiles.  This action by Strava essentially destroyed the very fun and useful tool.  

Flyby is used by many after rides and events to relive how the ride/event unfolded.  See where I got away from the group.  See where others were faster or slower.  See how close I was to catching that guy ahead of me or how close the guy behind me was at some point in the race.  

This feature should be re-enabled on all "public" profiles.  People with profiles set to private could have it remain disabled unless they have specifically enabled it.  This will help maintain the privacy and address the concerns some had that people would use the feature to "stalk" them after crossing paths out on a ride/run.  Strava should publish a notification of this change a week or so prior (possibly multiple notifications to ensure people saw it) so users would have sufficient time to choose for themselves whether to go along with re-enabling the flyby feature or opting to keep it disabled.  This leaves the choice in the hands of the user.  

This was once a great feature, but was broken when Strava made their change.  Please consider reversing that decision.  By implementing sufficient notice and only applying it to profiles that are already "public", it will maintain the privacy of those who have concerns and allow people the opportunity to disable it if they so choose.  

5 Comments
ChrisBerry
Kilimanjaro

I support this 100%. 

Status changed to: Archived
Soren
Denali

Thanks for sharing this suggestion on the Flyby feature. We understand that many of you have come to enjoy this feature and find it useful for a multitude of reasons. At this time, we are not considering reverting any changes. As always, we value your opinions and feedback. This idea will be marked as archived, but we will continue to monitor this thread and welcome anyone to share their thoughts and comments on the topic as long as they respect our Community Standards.

As a refresher for anyone who isn't familiar with this feature: 

For more information, please refer to our support article on Flybys Privacy Controls.

anchskier
Denali

@Soren - Why won't you at least leave it open to voting to gauge the interest level from the users rather than archive it?  Are you afraid that the users, the ones paying your wages, may think differently than you guys do?  Strava made an uninformed knee-jerk reaction regarding privacy.  I am just trying to suggest that it be reconsidered but you are apparently trying to hide it in the archive.

Luko79
Shkhara

@Soren if you dont set it to ON for all public activities, make a pop-up banner on the top in the app periodically that "Hey, there is a fly-by feature what is DISABLED at You at the moment but with this cool feature You can know who passed You in front, who overtook You, who You overtook, who did  you miss just with a few secs at a place, and can build up a cycling social life! Do not hesitate, ENABLE IT TODAY!" 

This is what an app should work imho. 

ChrisBerry
Kilimanjaro

I agree with @Luko79. At the very least you should make users aware that the feature exists.