Strava’s first safety feature. Built with feedback from our community of athletes.
Out riding, back by noon.
For most athletes, that’s as high-tech as safety notifications get – a Post-it on the fridge. And if you’re not back by 12:30, expect someone to come looking for you. We all worry about safety from time to time, and our family and friends worry even more. So we made a feature to take some of that concern away and give our loved ones peace of mind.
While we are proud of the new feature, we can’t take all the credit. The concept for Beacon came from the Strava community. “We started by surveying our athletes to find out what types of features they would be most interested in and safety ranked highest,” said Rayleen Hsu, our Director of Product Marketing.
The friends, spouses and parents who will be using Beacon had input as well. They asked for the ability to view an athlete’s location without having to log in to Strava or install the app. We designed it so you can send a secure and randomized URL that works on any web browser, desktop or mobile. That way your Beacon safety contact doesn’t need to be on Strava to check in on your adventure.
"Let’s say it’s 3:30, you said you’d be home at 3:00 and you’re not moving towards home,"
said Ethan Hollinshead, Senior Product Manager. “That’s a good indication that they should reach out to you and see what’s up. Maybe you stopped for a coffee, or maybe you got a flat tire. Where it’s really designed to help the cyclist or runner is in that peace of mind scenario – to keep people from unnecessarily worrying about you.” Now you don’t have to leave a note and you can save that space on your fridge for your next finish-line photo. Summit athletes with the Safety Pack can use Beacon on mobile and compatible Garmin devices.
4. An orange dot will indicate when Beacon is active, letting you know your contacts can see where you’re going. Remember you’ll need to send a text every time you start a new activity to keep your Beacon up to date.
We’ll always be committed to helping you make the most of your activities, and part of that commitment is doing what we can to get you home safely. Take Beacon along on your next adventure and let us know what you think!