Strava should enable gift subscriptions again

[ron_anejo]

https://support.strava.com/hc/en-us/articles/115001685450-Gifting-a-Subscription states:

"For the time being, we have removed the option to gift a subscription to an athlete. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause and appreciate your patience."

This seems to be a really bad idea. I was just looking up how to give a gift subscription. If it isn't possible, I'll be spending my Christmas gift money elsewhere.

Strava should consider enabling gift subscriptions again and stop throwing income away.

[MarkyBCus]

Just discovered the gifting option is gone too. I've gifted Strava multiple times and wanted to do so today. Guess I won't. I'm sure they have their reasons for not offering gifting anymore. But it would appear, correcting that, accepting more revenue, should be a priority heading in to the 2023 holiday. Weird choice. Any news @Soren?

[Schlermie]

If you gift a Google Play Store (or Apple App Store) gift card for $80 to the recipient and write "For Strava" on it, that seems to be a workable solution because when they upgrade their subscription, there's an option to pay for it with a gift card balance from the Play/App Store. It's not the most elegant solution though. 

[Schlermie]

Nope, this doesn't work anymore either. There's no longer an option to pay with the Play store gift card balance. ☹️

[XChrispy]

To answer everyone's question: they're probably blocked by Apple and Google from offering direct gift card payments, and probably can't or don't want to tell us that. I've seen other apps do the same and no longer offer gift cards. Instead, they have to encourage gifts be purchased through the app stores, so Apple/Google get their 30% fee. Apps face removal from the app stores if they offer direct payments. But you can give an Apple App Store or Google Play Store gift card to friend and family and simply write "For Strava Premium" on it.

[Schlermie]

I don't think the App/Play Store gift card idea works. There isn't a free version of the app and a paid version of the app. There's just a single Strava app, and you pay Strava directly for a subscription. 

[XChrispy]

It works. You gift the gift card, and the recipient adds it to their balance. In the Strava app, when they select to subscribe, it will use the App/Play Store credit.

[Schlermie]

This must only work in the Strava app for iOS. If you try to subscribe from the Android Strava app, your only payment options are by credit card, Google Pay (which doesn't have access to Google Play credit), or PayPal. There's no way to pay with the Play store credit.

[VikK]

No that's not right, you are not allowed to offer it via the app or advertise the option inside the app. You can still offer it on your website which is what Strava used to do and what Spotify does still.

If I remember you can't apply a gift card/voucher if you subscribed from IOS which is another rule. I think you can from Android. 

The best way to support Strava is to subscribe from the website, they get more revenue that way.

[jaf0faj]

Interesting theory.  However, I disagree with the argument that Strava can't tell us that.  Indeed they should.  If this is true, their message could have read "Due to restrictions from Apple and Google app store agreements, we can no longer....". Why would that be such a huge secret?

[XChrispy]

Unsure. I may be wrong. I've done some research and it's possible you can offer gift cards if it's for a digital subscription (like Netflix and Spotify do), which Strava Premium is. But unless they tell us the reason, which they don't appear to want to do, unfortunately we may never know!