If you’re a Ride with GPS app user with an Apple Watch, get ready to pull out your iPhone a lot less during rides. In fact, you don’t even need to bring it along anymore.
Thanks to updates unveiled this month, you can use the Ride with GPS “record” function without your phone. The utility lets you navigate your route, track your data, and share it all later. To use it, you can now just tap the button on your watch and go.
The updated app also supports turn-by-turn navigation, ride metrics, and integrated heart-rate data, just like any compatible smartphone. Haptic alerts for when you go off course, countdowns for intersections, and more all help you stay on track without looking down. And push notifications appear on the watch face.
You can customize the data you see from any ride, too. To do it, choose from 27 measurement criteria on the Ride with GPS app on your phone — distance, elevation gain, average speed, etc. Your Apple Watch can track five metrics at a time.
The watch’s heart rate sensor takes care of fitness tracking through the app. Riders can choose to track their heart rate throughout the duration of any ride by enabling it through the Ride with GPS settings.
Ride with GPS does guard some of its new Watch utility with a paywall. If you want voice navigation, mobile route planning, and the route correction feature, you’ll have to spring for an upgraded membership.
The cost disparity is fairly minimal: a basic membership costs $8 a month, and the premium treatment goes for $10. You can also try out premium for free with a seven-day trial. The new Ride with GPS app works with Apple Watch 3 and newer models.
