Strava Messaging is Here!

[Scout]

Want to send a message to a friend on Strava? Maybe have a group conversation? How about sharing an Activity and/or Route? Now you can!

SENDING A MESSAGE: 
You can message a friends or create a group message for you and other members. Messages can be sent to Strava athletes who follow you but you may not be able to message another athlete depending on their privacy controls.
-Tap the Message button on the profile of the athlete you wish to message 
-Tap the speech bubble icon from the Home and Groups tab. Tap the pencil icon in the upper right to choose from a list of athletes that follow you.

VIEWING MESSAGES:
To access messages and invitations you’ve received, click the speech bubble icon found on the Home and Groups tabs in the Strava mobile app.

Note: Messaging is available via the mobile app; it is not presently available on the Strava website.

SETTINGS: 

You can control certain aspects of individual chats by opening the chat & tapping the icon () in the upper right of the channel.

Creators can:	Members can:
Name the conversation. Delete the conversation. If you created a group message you can also manage (add or remove) participants and control whether participants can invite other athletes.	View the participants. Mute the conversation. Invite participants if it’s allowed by the creator. Leave the conversation.

To decide who can message you, head to your Settings in the app. There are 3 options to choose from, and you can switch at any time:

1️⃣ Following: Anyone you follow can message you.
2️⃣ Mutuals: People will only be able to message you if you follow each other.
3️⃣ No One: No one can message you first. Only you will be able to start chats with other people.

SHARING:
Public activities and routes can be sent to chats on Strava. 

• To share your own activity, the activity’s privacy controls must be set to “Everyone” or “Followers”. Please be aware that everyone in the chat will be able to see a preview of your “Followers” activity but only participants that follow you will be able to view the full activity details.
• For others to share your activity, the privacy controls must be set to “Everyone.” However, another Strava athlete who follows you could copy and paste the link to a “Followers” activity in a chat.

In the mobile app click the share button () on shareable activities and routes and you will see the option to send the content to a joined or new chat. Users can share their own saved routes directly in a chat by pressing the route polyline icon () next to the chat keyboard as well. Shared activities and routes will be visible to everyone in the conversation where the content is shared. 

For additional info, check out hour help page HERE.  Happy messaging!

[swampyagain]

Hi & thanks for the introduction of messaging.

I suspect that most Strava users access their account from several devices:

- Their phone (using the app) anywhere

- A computer (using a browser) while at work or at a home desk.

Advice for Scout: your instruction would be so much more helpful if you prefaced your instruction with the note: MESSAGING IS ONLY AVAILABLE FROM THE APP

I now know this because I just wasted 30 mins of my day exploring why I could not see the Message button when using a browser. Not happy. I am a very busy person & I really appreciate effective communication that does not waste my time.

[Scout]

Hello @swampyagain, 
Thanks for your post. The post does note that messaging is only available via the app; sorry if you missed this.  Under VIEWING MESSAGES, the following is noted: 
Note: Messaging is available via the mobile app; it is not presently available on the Strava website.

[Arnim]

Hi Scout,
When I message someone on Strava, do they receive an email notification, or do they need to notice the message on their mobile app in order to be aware that they have received a message from me?
Asking because, if I message someone who isn't familiar with (or even aware of) Strava's' new messaging functionality, it seems that it might be easily overlooked.

Regards,
Arnim

[Scout]

Hey @Arnim, 
Thanks for your post. When athletes are invited to chat, they will receive push notifications when the mobile app is closed, and pull notifications within the app through the bell icon.

Athletes who have joined chats will receive push notifications about new messages while the app is closed, as well as numbers on the speech bubble icon in the Strava mobile app. Chat participants can control their push notifications for new messages by opening the specific chat, and then pressing the gear icon to open the conversation settings. Toggling the “Mute Conversation” control to the orange color will stop push notifications from being sent. 

You can use your account-level “Who can message you” controls to determine who can receive a message from. If you wish to avoid receiving notifications and being invited to chats at all, you can set “Who can message you” to ‘no one’.

I hope this information helps you better understand how notifications for Messaging work on Strava. You can check out our article on Messaging for more about the feature. 

[Adviikng]

Ok

[EliasGlad]

Hi scout

When i chat with someone and then i delete the conversation. The conversation is only deleted for me or is it deleted for both sides?

[Scout]

Hey @EliasGlad, 

Thanks for your post. At this time deleting a chat conversation will only remove the messages from your end of the chat. Similar to text messages, the other user in the chat will still see what was previously sent unless they also delete the message. However, if you are the creator of a Group message, deleting the chat will delete the message history for all users. I hope that helps!

[jjjjjjjjjjjj]

You should be able to access the messages function on the website.

[hikingwithu2]

Where? I just loaded the website and viewed all of the menus and there is no Messages or anything like it to be found. Can you just put an icon on the top bar next to the notifications bell icon?

[jjjjjjjjjjjj]

sorry my sentence was confusing... I meant to suggest it should be available on the website and it currently is not.

[Emyr]

Hi Scout,

What does it mean when I go into the settings of a chat and the recipients profile pic is greyed out? 

Thanks.

[razorjack]

Can't find that button on my friend profile ...

(web)

[Scout]

Hey @razorjack, 
Thanks for your post. At this time, messaging is only available via the app; sorry if you missed this.  Under VIEWING MESSAGES, the following is noted: 
Note: Messaging is available via the mobile app; it is not presently available on the Strava website.

[Andre4]

Hi @Scout 

Can you please explain how the ticks in the messaging works? Does the messaging have 2 ticks and does the colour change if the message is read?

[Scout]

👋 Hi All!
For those who would like to see Strava messaging on the website, please add your votes (kudos) and comments here: Add Strava Messaging/ Direct Message to Website

[Scout]

Hey @Andre4, 
Thanks for your post. Can you post a screenshot of what you are referring to?

[Andre4]