In a recent Reddit post, Runna announced a new experimental feature aimed at improving running motivation. That’s right, seeing your real-world fitness improve and times go down isn’t enough, there’s a need to gamify everything to boost engagement — introducing Levels!
If you are a premium subscriber, you can turn on experimental features to try out Levels, should you feel the need to boost your numbers. Of course, giving the creators the increased engagement with the app that they desire. If that sounds dismissive right from the off, then hold on to your running shorts because it’s about to get snarky.
The feature reeks of engagement bait from an app I expected better of. One I can genuinely credit with being the best subscription I have ever spent. Giving me multiple PBs over the last few months and motivating me to lose around 10 kg. Sure, it gets a lot of stick from coaches and PTs, but for me, it had been life changing.
Perhaps this is why it stings so much to see the development team work on something I’d expect to see from Bending Spoons to squeeze extra income from its users. Gamification is one thing, but winning points for referring a friend, completing a Pilates workout or adding a pair of shoes reeks of desperation.
It seems so unnecessary from an app that literally has times and runs at its deposal to focus the mind on. Sure, as they say, races are not everyone motivation – they aren’t mine either – but getting faster and healthier is.
I guess when the app is now owned by Strava, I shouldn’t be surprised. An app that is slowly squeezing its users after years of trying. Playing this off as a nice, useful feature that’s great for its users is precisely the type of hand waving I expect from Strava. However combine this with other recent missteps with Strava posting, and I am beginning to panic on the longevity of my subscription. Please don’t be another Headspace.
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