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Best Garmin watch for running in 2024
Garmin's running watch lineup offers feature-rich software, innovative tech, and plenty of style
If you've searched for "running watches" on Google, you've probably been overwhelmed by the sheer number of options available. Whether it's Apple and Android smartwatches with their own running apps, or third-party watches on Amazon with questionable quality and obscure brand names, the choices seem endless. Furthermore, newer brands like Coros and Suuntos are gaining popularity among athletes.
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Strava's one of the most popular tools for runners and cyclists to track their progress, and its usefulness can depend on its interoperability with existing platforms, like Fitbit, Apple Fitness, and Google Fit. Unfortunately, that last one had been presenting something of a problem, as Strava users found themselves unable to sync their fitness data with Google Fit.
Strava's latest update cleans up its messy maps
An all-new look to help make space for upcoming features
Strava is one of the most popular fitness apps on Android. Perfect for running, cycling, and swimming, the app has more than 10 million installs on the Play Store, and it's easy to see why. Strava's development team has added a ton of new features and functions to the app over the last few years, which has made the interface a bit clunky and crowded. Thankfully, the UI is getting a complete redesign to help clean up the experience.
Fitbit Charge 4 review, one month later: All the fitness tracking you could ask for, plus some smartwatch goodies
Some smaller omissions taint the otherwise great product, though
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For many people, Fitbit is synonymous with fitness trackers, but the company has faced new challenges from smartwatches in recent years. The Fitbit Charge 4 signifies a change, even if it doesn't look too different from its predecessor. The tracker packs everything you could want from a fitness tracker, and you get basic smartwatch capabilities like notification management, Spotify controls, NFC payments, alarms, and more. However, its $150 price tag may make it a tough sell when a smartwatch like Fitbit's own Versa 2 often goes on sale for the same price.
There are many fitness tracking apps around to monitor your runs, rides, and other workouts. Over the past few years, several of them have been acquired by athletic apparel and footwear manufacturers, which usually made them part of their overall fitness offering. For instance, Under Amour integrated Map My Fitness and Edomondo into its portfolio, and Asics did the same with Runkeeper. Adidas also went shopping back in 2015, when it bought Runtastic. Two years later, the company shut down its miCoach ecosystem, prompting users to migrate to the newly acquired service. The German brand now pushed the integration further, as it officially renamed Runtastic to Adidas Running.
If you ask my friends what I'm really into, they'll definitely mention fitness. As surprisingly as it sounds, this wasn't the case about ten years ago, until I decided I wanted to lose weight and start training more seriously. I've been able to achieve my goals and understand what I was doing thanks to a bunch of apps, and I wanted to share a some of them with you to help you get in shape or track your objectives in a way that matches your lifestyle.
In the world of activity trackers, nothing comes close to the Mi Band's value. Cheaper than any Garmin or Fitbit tracker, even the most basic vivofit4 and Inspire, but still packing enough functionality, it also benefits from Xiaomi's name recognition and is considered a serious choice, not a cheap knock-off no-name tracker.The most recent Mi Band 4 pushes the value-for-money envelop even further thanks to a colored AMOLED screen, swim tracking, and music controls, which get added on top of the previous generation's all-day activity, sleep, and heart rate tracking. Overall, the package is very attractive, but cracks are inevitably hiding below the surface, especially if you like spending your time in a pool.
Nike+ Run Club, or NRC for short, is a popular running companion app that tracks your runs and and compares your data with that of other users (get it? Run Club?). With its latest update, NRC has become considerably nicer to use for owners of compatible Wear OS devices, who can now leave their phones at home during workouts.
Location games' Run An Empire is a brand new augmented reality app that ingeniously gamifies walking, jogging, and running. Similar apps already exist on the Play Store, though Run an Empire takes the AR gameplay into a whole new direction. Instead of running away from zombies or defending Earth against alien invaders, you will be tasked with building an empire through the ages. It's like someone combined the 4X game Civilization with an exercise app.
The Strava Android app has been available on Android Wear for a while now, giving users access to activity stats on their wrists and letting them start and stop tracking without having to pull their phone out of their pocket. But that companion Wear app was still tethered to the phone in two ways. One, you had to have the Strava app on your phone to get it on your watch, and two, even if you could track activities through your watch without a phone nearby, you couldn't upload them directly to your account, you had to sync them to your phone first and then let the latter do the uploading.
I've never been much of a runner, so I've only taken my phone with me for a lap around the neighborhood a handful of times. When I did, it felt Runtastic. But the Nike+ Running app has been another option for people looking to set goals and track their progress.
Today Spotify announced the ability to track runs using Runkeeper while listening to Spotify. Integration should provide a smoother experience than swapping back and forth between the two apps.
A number of fitness-oriented apps popped up over the past few years and attracted users with ways to track their workouts. Whether it's counting calories or mapping out runs, people have embraced the concept by the millions.
Human's activity and fitness tracker has been available on iOS since 2013, but it has just decided to get its running shoes on and ride to the Android side. The app takes a passive approach to activity tracking, working in the background on your phone to figure out everything (walks, runs, bike rides) you've done throughout the day. If this sounds familiar, it's because it's very similar to Google Fit or to the previous "celebrity" in the category, Moves.
Shoe maker and producer of other athletic gear Adidas has released a beta version of its Train & Run app. But it's not going with a Play Store beta program. Instead, it has created a separate entry on Google Play.
Spotify Running has been available for quite some time now, first on iOS, but also for Android users who signed up for beta updates. These folks got to try things out back in June. Now Spotify has officially announced the feature's availability for regular premium subscribers with Android devices.
Sony announced the Smart B-Trainer at this year's CES as part of its continued efforts to log your life. This fitness-oriented device isn't the wrist band you might expect. Instead, it's a headset. Now Sony has provided a few more details, including a launch time frame. The Smart B-Trainer is scheduled to hit the US this fall.
The more seat bound and satisfied among our readers may be surprised to know that there are no shortage of Android apps out there that want to track how you run. Actually, maybe not. All that time spent on the computer probably means a greater likelihood of running across this post and the many like it than someone who's out running. Either way, the Nike+ app has managed to reach version 1.7 without spraining something, and it has picked up a few new features along the way.