In mid-April Zwift announced a pile of new features coming to the platform. I’ve covered almost every one in detail, but today I’m wrapping up this series of posts by digging into the new Action Bar Zwift is planning to roll out.
While Zwift isn’t telling us everything about the new Action Bar, they’re telling us enough to give us a good idea of what will be changing. Here are the details…
Action Bar Intro
Zwift’s Action Bar has been a useful part of the in-game interface for years. It’s hidden when not in use, but you can make it pop up in a variety of ways:
- Hit the up arrow on your keyboard
- Click on the lower-middle part of the screen with your mouse
- Tap on the lower-middle part of your screen if you have a touchscreen device
- Swipe up on your AppleTV remote
The action bar is also available in the Companion app, but oddly enough it’s not the same action bar as you see in game. It contains some different buttons than the in-game bar, and the buttons are in a different order.
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About the New Action Bar
The new Action Bar will be reachable in the same way as before, but its layout and available functions will change substantially. Zwift will be introducing new Action Bar buttons, re-ordering these buttons, and (for the first time ever) placing submenus under some of the main buttons.
Main buttons and their submenus will include:
- Actions: give a Ride On*, change the camera angle, or make a u-turn
- Emotes: Ride On, elbow flick, toast, and wave
- Rider teleport: choose a rider or RoboPacer (read more)
Zwifters will also be able to access Coffee Stop from the Action Bar and perform existing Action Bar functions like changing the camera angle, turning on HUDless mode, and recording a video snippet.
*In their press release about this feature Zwift includes “give a Ride On*” in the Actions menu, but also includes the “Ride On” emote. We’re hoping this means Zwift is adding a new shortcut to easily return a Ride On.
Here’s a sample of the new action bar, taken from Zwift’s publicity images for the new Rider Teleport feature:
Release Date
Zwift is saying the updated action bar is coming “this summer”. Our guess is you’ll see it released in May or June, with additional refinements/modifications following.
Questions or Comments?
Post below!
Looking forward to the Teleport feature!
Teleport feature completely devalues the 100 likes badge. I had to ride around jumping on different pacing groups under my own steam to get that bad boy.
You don’t need to RoboPacer hop to get this badge. I got mine on the BMTR 100mi ride. I got it before 70 miles even, you just have to have patience and an extra few hours on a Sunday.
You could already get there relatively easily by just not ending your Zwift session between rides.
If anything the Robopacer feature devalued it because that gave people a non-event option to get a lot of them in a very short time.
the 100 ride on badge had value? you live in world separate from mine
Different people value different things in life. Can you let people different from yourself exist in the same world as yourself? Or do you only want people exactly like you around?
They’ve got a point though!
What point? The badge had no value? I value my 100 ride on badge because it took quite a bit of work (physical work, effort, endurance) and time to get it. I’ve been around since when Watopia only had one route and I only managed to get the 100 ride ons badge this winter. So it was harder to get then 150 or so other badges and took 7+ years. Seems like sarto just wanted to put others down, and make himself feel/seem superior and frame it as some shallow “wanting to be liked” or popularity contest, when it actually requires a bit of physical effort and endurance and persistance to get. So that’s why I pushed back.
You could already get 100 Ride Ons easily by riding with Coco on a national holiday for about 60 minutes.
Has the video snippet been rolled out yet . If yes . I’m still waiting for that .
It is, but only on iOS devices so far
I can see this being a nightmare to navigate using the Apple TV remote.
Companion will be really useful in this case for us on TV. But it should work even with the old TV Remote. Zwift should take care of clicking and not be able to move up and down as well as left and right at the same time. One click to open Teleport -> left and right to choose friends / RoboPacers -> click to choose -> up and down to choose specific RoboPacer click and it will teleport you.
But if you could change it in any direction, it will be mess. I hate it on the main screen. Changing RoboPacers, looking at the courses, looking at the position of the Pacers and in a matter of seconds, I’m swiping another submenu with workouts.
Very nice…!!!
Arrow down Key for both navigating through the menu and making an U-turn? Could leed to some unfinished route badges…
Already happens occasionally with camera panning.
My old recommendation is if you’re so gassed you can’t manage the buttons, well, you probably should just focus on riding!
On my setup I’m limited to the mouse in Windows… which is harder than it looks by the end of a hard ride. More keystroke options would be useful, please. 🙂
Also the “U” key does u-turns.
“We’re hoping this means Zwift is adding a new shortcut to easily return a Ride On.”
Yes please. I probably spray more ride ons with the app into oncoming traffic than I get, but when I do get one, I want to return the favor… which seems nearly impossible while I’m biking.
I believe that if you use the Ride On Bomb feature directly after receiving one, it will automatically give one to that person who gave it to you if you haven’t already given them one. I’m not 100% sure but I have noticed that in RoboPacer groups when I get a ride on and then use the Ride On Bomb, the option to manually give one to the person disappears.
I don’t think it works that way precisely Ima – but what happens is, someone near you does the Ride On bomb, then you doing the same often “hits” that same person. I know, because I do this sort of thing all the time when I see someone nearby give me a Ride On!
Is the action bar on companion app going to be reconfigured such that there will be zero left to right scrolling?
Would love to see an option for an emote that encourages your group to work together to catch (or stay away from) another pack in a race.
Probably very difficult to code even with the new pd4 pack dynamics, but it’s an excellent idea, Matthew!
I do feel a bit like the Black Mirror monkey with the limited shouting available. “Hammer time” means go faster, “I’m toast” means slower. Then there is the enigmatic bell…like a car horn? Or simple bicyclist greeting?
Hi Eric! 🙂
Pros:
1. Teleport and Coffee Stop features both look very useful!
Requests:
2. I’m still waiting for / hoping for a keyboard key to mimic the “Back to Me” rectangle, after clicking on & kuo’ing other riders.
3. Hoping for the Android and Windows versions of the new video record replay now under MacOS.
…kudo’ing…
I know Windows video is on the way. I assume it’ll come to Android soon as well, but basically each platform does it differently…
What’s happened with the background graphics on the 1.34 version? It is looking like 420p. Horrible!! The number’s sharpness is awful and the scenario remembers the ’80s videogame. I’m using the Mac version.
Can we change up the rides, and worlds that the pacer groups ride?
How come in the new Companion update you can’t skip forward through a training rep or toggle a training session effort level up or down? If you hit a patch you’re too knackered to finish (45 secs at 500?) You basically come to a standstill til you have a break or switch off ERG). Or if you want to fast track the last stage or two due to need to finish early you fail to complete that day’s training.
Love it! Came back in from the outdoors mid summer to try this out, teleported onto a robo-pacer with my bezzie’ really looking forward to meeting friends easily!, great feature.
Just focus on riding