Zwift has just pushed the latest version of its Companion app to the Apple App and Google Play stores. This isn’t a major update, but it does bring a welcome upgrade for Boost Mode events and a couple of messaging updates as well.
FutureWorks Boost Mode View (and Keyboard Shortcuts)
The new Boost Mode Views makes it easier to control your boost activation and charging when racing in boost mode.
Don’t know what Boost Mode is? Check out this post >
Before this update, you could activate your boost or charging by clicking a small button in the Companion app or on screen. But the buttons were small and close together, making it easy to accidentally activate your boost when you actually wanted to charge, or vice versa. The new screen automatically presents us with a much simpler interface.
The screen when your race begins Charging Boost activated Boost activated… plus powerup!
Additionally, you can now use keyboard shortcuts to Boost and Charge in Boost Mode events. We love keyboard shortcuts! “B” boosts, “C” charges.
Messaging Tweaks for Club Chat
While Clubs features still haven’t been released fully, this Companion update includes a couple of small changes to how the Clubs chat works.
First, the newest messages now show in the club chat window, making it easy to see what folks in your club are saying.
Secondly, underage Zwifters are now prevented from viewing or participating in Club Chat.
These are good changes, but realistically, the Club Chat feature is very barebones. If Zwift wants it to be embraced, it will need to be upgraded to at least allow member tagging (with corresponding notifications). This should include the ability for club admins and moderators to tag @everyone, in order to easily notify the team of important news.
Bug Fixes
This update included the following fixes:
- Fixed a crash in the notifications area.
- (iOS Only) Fixed an issue with the date picker for Meetups.
- (Android Only) Fixed a bug that would cause the progression bar to appear when the user has completed Zwift Academy.
- (Android Only) Numerous BLE bridge improvements.
Three Companion Wishes
It’s always nice to see the Zwift Game and Companion app being updated. That said, there are a few niggles with Companion that have been around a long time. Here are my three Companion improvement wishes:
- Save Notification Settings: my notification settings get reset every time the app is updated, so my phone starts popping up “Post-activity Ride Ons” and other notifications I don’t want to see, until I go in and turn them off.
- Easy Ride Ons in Events: I want to be able to tap my arrow on the map during a group ride and give Ride Ons to the 5 closest riders, just like in free ride mode.
- Advanced Event Filters: give me an advanced search screen where I can filter events by keyword, number of signups, and other fun parameters.
Questions or Comments
Got your own Companion wishes? Questions or comments about the latest update? Share below!
Annoying that I can’t set up a group ride amongst my Strava contacts but have to get people to follow me on ZC. It’s a very long winded way of doing it. Unless I am missing something!!
great to see features for only the chosen few (clubs who are private), the excuse of “We can’t implement X because if we do we would not have time investing into Y that benefitst many more people” doesn’t scale anymore
I totally hear ya, and wish Clubs were be released to everyone… months ago!
That said, currently there are 80 clubs using the beta Clubs feature – these are the oldest and largest Zwift teams. So it’s hardly the chosen “few” – it’s more the experienced core, who are testing features still in beta.
I wish that the ability for minors to chat in clubs was a setting that club owners could control. As an underage Zwifter in a youth irl team myself this new ban on minors in club chat would limit functionality for youth specific teams looking to move to Zwift over the winter. As the entire team is made up of underage Zwifters save a couple of coaches the chat feature would essentially be pointless for us and other youth teams on Zwift.
Yeah… maybe they’ve only restricted it for users under 13 years of age? That would make sense, given Internet privacy/child laws. I’m not sure though.
Would be nice to be able to use the full in game companion app functionality when not on wifi.
YES! Because of my wifi vs my zwift set-up location and my flaky wifi connection, I almost always use data to Zwift. But, this makes in game companion app useless in game 🙁
I love the companion app for finding events. (but I also agree that having a few more filters would be nice)
I want to be able to scroll through the Leaderboards using the companion app. AppleTV doesn’t allow you to scroll Leaderboards.
the point “Easy Ride Ons in Events” is a little bit critical. When hunting the Jensie-Badge it is fine, but riding and only seeing thumbs flying around your rider is pretty anoying.
This could be fixed in a way like don’t showing the group ride ons the other riders get.
That could be a setting that everyone could turn on or off. To their own liking.
1. Select my equipment and kit in the companion app prior to races/events.
2. Create my own calendar to schedule workouts.
3. See badges in app.
Instead they waste time on boost mode…. makes no sense.
Eric, notification settings are not reset on my phone. I, too, have disabled the “Post-Activity RideOns” and this setting stays between updates. Using the Android app on three types of devices. Nexus tablet, Galaxy Tab and Phone.
Are you
Are you using iOS?
Yes, I’m on iOS.
Funny that there’s always people making excuses for Zwift not focusing much attention on racing but then they seem to hyper-focus on boost mode stuff which is a miniscule audience in the grand scheme of things.
Club functions are still limited to a highly select group… nice to see them bolstering functions but someone at ZHQ should be looking at how to roll out Clubs to the 99% of Zwifters who cannot use it.
Supposedly ~80 teams currently have Clubs access… which is basically all the core/OG Zwift teams plus some others.
But yeah, I don’t disagree… we all want to see Clubs accessible to everyone! It’s been too long…
There are currently 11,304 teams in Zwift . So 80 is insignificant. Nothing wrong with canary roll outs but when they are left in that state for so long it just helps those 80 clubs unfairly preserve there status versus everyone else as they have in effect premium support and access to features disadvantaging other clubs.. Its elitism in its most blatant form.
Its also a poorly targetting canary beta program . All it will do is get feedback from established and well adjusted clubs with a certain demographic and set of requirements . When its rolled out more generally there will be no testing or UX feedback from a range of clubs with a range of challenges and requiermenst.
Gimme a break. Elitism in its most blatant form?
Sure, there are over 11k teams in ZwiftPower. But did you know that over half those teams have only 2, 1, or zero riders designated?
By my rough math, the top 80 teams in terms of membership account for around 1/3 of the total population of team riders. That’s not insignificant.
But I don’t know why I’m arguing Zwift’s case here… the Clubs feature is long overdue and should have been rolled out to everyone long ago.
Also a notification when someone comment on your ride in the companion app. With all the other notifications it get lost in the noise.
That’s already a notification option…. “Activity Comments”. Or perhaps I’m misunderstanding you…
I would like a single large button to reply to ride-ons in the companion app …
YES
I was very happy to see BLE bridge improvements for Android, as they apparently broke it with the last update. I didn’t see anyone else complain, but there was a 30-60 second delay in erg mode and with terrain feedback when using ZC to bridge to ATV, but only on Android. Hopefully it’s back to normal now!
Fingers crossed! Check it out and report back here, if you can!
The good news is erg mode now works perfectly on my Samsung S10e, but I only know that because I was forced to switch over to it mid-workout due to the ridiculous lag (up to 75 seconds – worse than before) when using my old LG G6.
Hopefully that update will again allow me to go into “game mode” from my Android SP when using my iPad to run Zwift:..hasn’t worked for weeks now ! If not I’ll have to dig out an old iPhone to see if it works better !
Share events via Android app! Believe its there for iOS. It’s annoying to have to go to zp so share an event link
Re: Ride-Ons, it would be SO helpful if I could give a ride-on by swiping right on the rider’s name from the rider list in the companion app, and maybe swipe left follows them. It is very tedious to have to open up the full profile to do either.
Your wish list is right on! Honestly who cares about Boost mode. I did one of those races and it was stupid. I also don’t see that ever making it’s way into the elite racing… stick to the random boost that make things exciting and stop wasting resources on pet projects no one is asking for!
And to add features to the event filter: start time – I’m not zwifting at 2am. Route choice for group rides. Race types: pursuit, tt, age based. Language preference. Keyword.
Would be handy if they added some post-event options. You can now join (or not yet join) an event or race with Companion. But afterwards when they show the results the ‘ok’ button to close them seems to be missing. Same with the ‘go to world x’ or ‘stay here’ option. When on iPad I have to get of the bike. When on ATV at least I have the remote, but that ain’t always a pleasure with sweaty post-race hands…
Would be nice if you could access your garage from the Companion app instead of having to actually start a ride.
I’d also like to have the ability to default the Activities section on the Home section of Companion App showing only my own activity – I know you can click into activities, then into a section for your own only, but I tend to not ‘follow’ other riders as otherwise my default activity feed is full of their rides and not my own. I agree with the additional ‘event search’ parameters, personally I’d like to be able to search for rides with say 15+ riders in a specified category, or for certain Routes/Lengths/Laps, and also for events with a Ranking… Read more »
Why cant the Companion app run in landscape mode …… major PITA and ought to be so simple to fix;(
How do I know if I am in erg mode? Thank you
The power button on activities won’t show the power graph. Button stays blue. Any thoughts?
Hey Eric!
do you know why the Zwift Companion gives inaccurate times for events? All my TDZ rides this year are adding my time in the pen before the event starts to my final time! Work so hard to have like 5 min added to your time!
It’s done that for a long time (maybe always). Sorta goofy, right?
I use Strava for my stats, so I really don’t even notice it anymore.
We are now up to 3.22 and I have a wish for the companion app. Send me a notification when someone UNFOLLOWS me!! After some years of zwifting, I had 2000+ more followed than following and suddenly I hit the limit of following over 5000 and Zwift would not let me be social anymore by following my new followers. So I went through the arduous process of flipping all the favorite flags to figure out which followeds had unfollowed me and I removed them. I had the difference down to about ten, but now it has crept up to a… Read more »