Map My Tracks

Inappropriate comments on activities

Over the Easter weekend Map My Tracks was under attack from spammers who were posting inappropriate comments on user activities. Our monitoring systems alerted us to this activity but not before many comments had been posted on activities.

For this I am sorry. I appreciate that some of the users that the spammers have targeted have received many, many emails as a result of the comments being posted. I know how annoying this is but rest assured that no account credentials were compromised and no accounts were breached. The exploit that the spammers took advantage of chose random user IDs to spoof comments on behalf of other users.

We have already taken steps to halt this action and are in the process of adapting how comments are posted in future to combat this issue. One side effect of how the emails were sent means that some users will still be receiving emails over the coming days. These emails were actually sent several days ago but due to how mail servers work they were held back and only now being delivered. Unfortunately, we have no way of recalling these emails as they have already left our system. It goes without saying but please ignore these emails and do not click on any links within them.

Should you wish to manage what emails you receive from Map My Tracks in future then please update your preferences.

We will update this post with further details over the coming 24 hours. Should anyone be concerned, or have questions, please contact us at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) where we can assist you further.

Again, I apologize for the hassle, and concern, this has no doubt caused.

Regards
Nick Tatt
Founder of Map My Tracks

Showcase your best photo with cover slides

New to the app, and website, is the option to set your favourite photo as the cover image on your activity.

With the cover slide option you can now make the first photo that everyone sees to be one of your choice. When no cover slide it set the photos will be presented in the order in which they were taken.

Simple, neat and very handy to show off your best photo.

Embark on a virtual event with your friends and family or just go solo

Always wanted to hike the length of the Camino de Santiago or ride across America or the length of Britain? Now with Map My Tracks virtual events you can remotely complete routes by using your everyday workouts.

Virtual events on Map My Tracks make every mile count and are a great way to embark on long distance challenges remotely. A virtual event takes your activities and uses each mile covered to propel you along a virtual route. Along the way you can pass point of interests, explore the terrain and compete against others to get to the finish line first.

Why not challenge your friends and family to walk the West Highland Way over the next two weeks or ride the Scottish North Coast 500 over the weekend. Want a solo adventure? Create your own virtual event to keep yourself motivated.

As with all events it’s simple to get started. Create your event then upload, or draw, your route. After that, invite the participants to join the event. Once your event has started all activities uploaded by participants will contribute to their distance along the virtual route.

Participants can use the Map My Tracks app to track live and have their progress updated in real-time or record their activity with compatible devices and upload their activities after they have finished each workout. Either way, the distance covered goes towards completing the virtual event.

Map My Tracks virtual events can be set up using the Event Planner and be viewed on the Map My Tracks app for iOS and Android as well as within Map My Tracks Events on the website.

Get started and set up your first virtual event. It’s free.

More control over your followers

Today we've rolled out a small, but handy, update to managing followers.

It’s now possible to remove a person from following you. This might be useful if you don’t know the person following you and would prefer that your activities are not in their activity feed. It also stops them from getting push notifications about your activity.

When you remove a person from following you it doesn’t stop them from following you again. We have plans to roll out user blocking which will be available in the coming weeks.

The option to remove followers is currently only available on the website. Head to your profile page then click on the ‘Followers’ link to see who’s following you. From there you can remove followers.

For now, we hope this small update helps to give you more control over your privacy.

Automatically upload workouts to Map My Track from Wahoo ELEMNT

Great news if you are a Wahoo ELEMNT user.

Automatic uploads to Map My Tracks from a Wahoo ELEMNT is now available. This makes it super simple to upload your workout to Map My Tracks.

The step-by-step guide below should help get everyone set up. You’ll need to make sure you have the updated Wahoo ELEMNT app to use it. The setup takes only a few seconds and once done any workouts recorded on the ELEMNT will automatically upload to Map My Tracks.

If you have any questions about getting this set up then contact us at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) and we’ll help get you all set up.

More ways to sync your workouts into Map My Tracks

Today we would like to welcome the RunGap app to the Map My Tracks family.

RunGap is a third-party iOS app that uses the Map My Tracks API to sync workouts between services. Using this app make it super simple to keep your Map My Tracks in step with all your other apps and services.

RunGap can be downloaded free from the App Store and it includes options to upgrade unlock all features.

If you are a developer and wish to use the Map My Tracks API for your project then please contact us at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).

Map My Tracks Android app update - v4.1.2

We've been busy behind the scenes updating the Map My Tracks Android app which, we are thrilled to announce, is live and available to download from Google Play.

So what’s new in this update - v4.1.2?

Cleaner, clearer high resolution maps - It’s now a lot easier to see street names and other features with the new Street map style. High resolution map tiles also make each map clean, clearer and sharp. As before, you can set your preferred map style in the app’s Settings > Display section.

Optimisation - The app has been upgraded and converted to work great on Android 9. As a result of these changes the app is now more responsive with faster page loading all round.

Data validation - Due to various changes in recent versions of Android some, but not all, devices need to allow Map My Tracks to run in the background. We’ve added in data checks to detect if your activity has been recorded fully. In the event that the app detects irregular data it will now suggest that Map My Tracks is allowed to run fully when used in the background.

Various layout improvements - The app now makes use of your device’s full screen to provide a great experience on all pages. A host of other small refinements are dotted around the app.

We hope you like the updated Android app which can be downloaded from Google Play.

Automatic privacy zone detection

With your privacy as one of our top priorities today we have launched automatic privacy zones detection.

Starting today, all new activities will be scanned to check if you regularly start or finish in the same location. If we detect that you do often start or finish in the same place a new privacy zone will be created for you. The privacy zone will mask the exact start or end location so anyone viewing your public activities is not able to determine where you home or place of work might be.

Privacy zones can be edited, or created on the website at Settings > Privacy. You can choose to disable auto-detection altogether, or choose to ignore any zones that have been automatically created for you. Likewise, privacy zones can be deleted.

Privacy first

Our default set up for new users is all offline. This means that users have to choose to share their activities publicly when they wish to. We wanted to make sure that when our users do share their activities publicly that their privacy is protected by default. Automatic privacy zones will work in the background without users needing to configure their account to protect their privacy. Automatic privacy zones will help to do that for you.

We hope you like this new feature. If you have any feedback about this or any other features then please do get in touch at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).

Sync your Apple Watch workouts to Map My Tracks

We’re thrilled to welcome HealthFit app to the Map My Tracks family.

From today, anyone that uses an Apple Watch to record their outdoor pursuits can sync it automatically to Map My Tracks through the HealthFit app.

HealthFit is a third-party app that uses the Map My Tracks API to seamlessly sync Apple Watch workouts over to Map My Tracks. It’s easy to set up and get started and once configured the HealthFit app will take over and do work in the background keeping your Map My Tracks account up to date.

All activities synced across using HealthFit will be set to Private but if you would prefer to share them with followers on Map My Tracks then you can edit each one on Map My Tracks.

The HealthFit app is available to download from the App Store for $2.99.

It’s great to see our API being using for really useful tools like HealthFit. If you are a developer and wish to use the Map My Tracks API for your project then please contact us at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).

Connect your Polar account to Map My Tracks

We’re thrilled to welcome Polar to the Map My Tracks family. From today, anyone that uses a Polar watch to record their outdoor pursuits can sync it automatically to Map My Tracks. Polar joins the existing set of services, that includes Garmin Connect and Fitbit, that makes is easy for anyone that enjoys getting outdoors to keep all their records in one place.

It’s simple to set up

To get started first connect your Map My Tracks account with your Polar Flow account. On the website go to Upload > Connect to devices. On the app go to Settings > Services to complete the connection. Once connected, your Polar activities will be synced across to Map My Tracks. After that, all new activities synced to Polar Flow will also be synced to Map My Tracks. It will not sync historical activities. If these are needed on Map My Tracks then they can be upload manually.

By default, any activity synced from Polar will be made private. It’s possible to alter this by editing the connection settings on the website at Upload >  Connect to devices.

As ever, we are keen to hear from our community on what other services would be good to integrate with. Get in touch to let us know.