I’d been using Endomondo to track my bike rides, walks and just about every other activity since around 2012 – it was the only tracking app available on the now defunct Windows Phone. I’ve since upgraded to Android, but I still had a soft spot for Endomondo.
Endomondo had been purchased by Under Armour in 2015, and now they had finally closed it down. To be fair, they did give a warning but not having used it much during the latter half of 2020 – I missed the popups telling me to switch to a new app. So here I was about to go on a walk without an app to track it. I took my boots off and went back inside.
It didn’t take much investigation to find an alternative, there was Strava and the Under Armour suite of apps Map My Run/Ride/Walk/Fitness. I decided to use Map My Fitness – I didn’t see the point of having separate apps for running, walking cycling and as I do some cycling as well I thought I’d install the one that covers it all.
The app installed quickly and signing up was a doddle. I used the sign-up with Facebook option, it saves having another password to remember. If you don’t use Facebook you can sign up using just your email address and a password.
I should say at this point that I’m using an Android Phone (currently a Google Pixel 4XL), so your experience may differ on different devices but probably not by much.
Ease of use
The app itself is extremely easy to use – especially if you’ve used any sort of tracking app in the past.
To start a workout you just need to open the app, select the type of activity you are doing and press ‘Start Workout’. The app starts tracking immediately.
While you’re on your walk/workout the apps runs in the background – so you can continue to use your app for other common tasks; using Google Maps, listening to music or podcasts and, most importantly for me… the camera. As you continue on your walk you can pull down from the top of the screen to see an instant update on time and distance. You can also set it to speak your time distance at every mile marker. This is really handy – but always seems to do it at an inopportune moment, I’ve had a few stares in the past.
If you need or want to stop during your walk there is a ‘pause’ button. Handy if you are trying to get a faster average mile and don’t want to ruin your time by resting, stopping to tie a shoelace or chatting with someone.
At the end of the workout, you simply hold down the ‘End Workout’ button for a few seconds (great idea – it stops you accidentally stopping recording during a walk) and the walk is saved. At this point you also get the opportunity to add any comments about your walk and a photo. I love this feature – especially if you have people on your friends list as they can see what you’ve been up to and where you’ve been.
Does MapMyWalk work for the 1000 mile challenge?
One of the great features of MyMyWalk or MapMyFitness is that the apps seamlessly link to the #walk1000miles ‘My Virtual Mission’ app to record your distances. Once you’ve signed up to the #walk1000miles+ using the Virtual Mission you can easily connect the MapMyFitness app by logging into your account online and then adding the app as a connection. As soon as you do that, every walk you go on will automatically be added to your total. It’s not instant – but it seems to add the mileage at certain times throughout the day.
The connectivity, together with ease of use and the fact it’s on your phone, so it’s with you anyway makes it a perfect choice for the 1000 mile challenge.
What’s not so great?
Overall it’s good but there are a couple of areas where it could be improved…
It takes ages to start up
Most of the time that app starts almost instantaneously, but there have been numerous occasions where it has been ‘stuck’ on the loading screen for over 5 minutes. When you’re heading out the door, the last thing you want is to wait for an app to start up. Frustrating.
Connecting to friends
The biggest letdown is the ability to add or search for friends, a bit of friendly encouragement and competition goes a long way.
The app doesn’t allow you to connect to your Social media accounts to easily find friends who are using the app too. Instead MapMyFitness relies on you searching for friends using their email – it’s very clunky, and useless unless you have emails for all your contacts. I don’t for most of my Facebook friends.
Endomondo used to have this feature and it seems an odd omission.
Overall
I found this a really easy to use and a pretty well featured app. There is a good balance between ease of use and the amount of data it collects.
If you only want to use it to track your miles it will do the job admirably, and if you want a bit more more data then the app offers much more info on your walk and results over time. Additionally logging into the MapMyFitness website allows you to see full overviews and breakdowns of your routes and achievements.
The fact that it’s a FREE app and links seamlessly into the My Virtual Mission app are all plus points for anyone doing a walking or running challenge. The biggest drawback is the connectivity with friends – which needs improving.
Overall though, if you are looking for a simple app to track your walks – I’d recommended MapMyFitness as one to consider.
If you’re using MapMyFitness let me know how you’re getting on or if you can recommend something even better, please let me know in the comments.
Talking points