Everyone likes to talk about the biggest, most “important” Zwift feature requests. But what about those less important changes? They matter too, right?
Here’s my five not-really-important Zwift ideas for 2025.
#1: Rearview Window
If you’re wearing the Rearview Mirror Glasses (level 55 unlock), a little window should pop up on the screen showing the, ahem, rear view.
#2: Quicker Leaderboard Timeouts for Questionable Efforts
When a certain threshold is beaten or a dumb trainer is used, change the time-out criteria on leaderboard jerseys from 60 to 15 minutes. The Zwifter still gets credit, but those far‑too-often superhuman times will be less likely to prevent realistic efforts from earning jerseys.
#3: Auto-Warmers
Put us in arm and knee warmers every time we are above the snowline. Brrrr…
#4: Extra Drops for Leaderboard Jerseys
In addition to the current accelerated drops when getting a Ride On, also accelerate accumulation if you’re wearing a Leaderboard Jersey. That might incentivize even more competition.
#5: RoboPacer Recoloring
Change the color of Robo Pacers so they make some sense. Like along the color spectrum – Red for the hardest to Violet for the easiest.
Those are my five unimportant wishes for Zwift in 2025. What about you? Post your not really important ideas below!
All I want is to be able to teleport to the climb portal. And to see a rider’s position alongside the message when they chat in a race
All I want to know is how people chat in races? I can’t take my hands off the bars to type and I definitely can’t speak. 😳
I always think the same! No way I could type in a race, half the time I can’t even see the keys 😂
Use the Companion app and voice communications.
Voice chat for me
Voice to text in Companion. That’s why I have a little tablet running Companion when I’m Zwifting.
Companion app and voice to text more than likely…otherwise I’ll just sit up and chat away with my phone, it’s not too difficult.
Or even as simple as if the rider commenting is ahead of you, the message is at the top of the list, and if they are behind you the message appears at the bottom of the rider list
I approve #3!
I’d like to have the possibility of switching on ERG mode in a free ride
What trainer do you have? I have Kickr and use Wahoo’s basic app to control my trainer in ERG mode and then ride around Zwift in free ride mode and up the wattages for climbs
Suito. I don’t use any other app but Companion while on Zwift
This is a great idea. My shifter buttons on my stages bike are useless from sweat. Currently I use Garmin edge to control the resistance for free rides
ERG mode only makes sense if there is a workout program with power values in it for the trainer to follow. So turning ERG on in a free ride basically means starting a free ride, picking your route, spawning into the game, then going to the menu screen, and choosing a workout. You can already do this. Otherwise, if you could just turn ERG mode on, what would set the power level for the ride?
There should be a +- command that like a cruise control can control the power
So you would like to set a constant power, then use +/- buttons to raise and lower the power during a ride? This capability already exists in workouts. You would simply create a custom workout at whatever constant (or varying) power level you wanted, start that workout in the route of your choosing, then use the +/- buttons in the workout control screen in the companion app to change the power level on the fly. Granted, the +/- bias is limited to, I believe, +/- 15%. But what you are talking about doing is already a thing within Zwift.
Yes I know that I have it in wo. I’d like to have that possibility also in free ride so I could toggle on or off as I prefer
A ‘lap’ or ‘split’ button to mark and record intervals in an unstructured ride, or time splits for a segment manually during a ride just like I would out on the road or trails with a bike computer or sports watch.
Yes…lap button with time and average watts.
I think this already exists in some places like the volcano or Javis
To earn the same XP in a workout for a ramp segment as for a steady segment. Puts me off if a workout’s key segments are all ramps.
New animations!
-If I hit I’m toast I want to see my avatar struggling in the saddle
-if i get a new pr or finish a route my avatar should give a little first pump
-an emoji/avatar animation to indicate to my peers I’m hydrating or eating IRl would be nice so they know I might slow down for a few seconds
-why not have options for riding styles.
Examples: Alberto contrador dancing up the hills, all the different types of sprinter forms, Chris froomn super tuck…every rider looks and rides identical. Surely room for improvement is possible here.
you got to hand it to zwift re: rider animations. they are really good – smooth and natural looking. just take a look at ANY of their competitors and the rider animation are stiff and terrible.
running animation however needs some tweaking.
I agree that the zwift cycling animations are better than the competition. It helps that the world is a bit cartoonist as it allows the riders to have the same art style and any odd animations don’t stand out as much.
In particular the augmented reality competitors have it bad. Trying to make a cgi avatar look natural in a video environment is a task none of them have successfully done.
Maybe I’m misremembering but I just saw a MyWhoosh video and I felt those avatars looked way better than Zwifts. Now I need to go double check.
I’d love the 30 second coffee shop to extend to the first 30 minutes of a ride, that way if you need to grab an extra fan or forgot something after 5 minutes you can still stay with a group.
I’ve been saying this for years (literally). It doesn’t make sense to only out it for the first 5 minutes, then not be able to do any sort of stop for the next 25 minutes.
Make it the first 15. That’s usually when I’m sweating buckets!
How about the first 15 minutes and then not again for an hour?
Seems like you should be able to hold it in for the first hour.
How about for only prime minutes? So minutes 1-3, then 5, then 7, then 11, then 13…. this also improves rider math skill and increase tactical complexity when using it in group “rides”.
Alternately, allow it only for Fibonacci minutes: 1-3, 5, 8, 13, 21, ….
So many possibilities.
Being able to fanview friends on all worlds when they are doing a race/ride and I want to view them.
Now if the world isnt active I have to do all kind of tricks to be able to view them. That should not be needed.
Agreed. Fan viewing should be super simple.
Yes! Great to watch friends races, particularly ladder.
Seperate the bibs from the jerseys.
How about speedsuits!
You got one of those I would love to see, the rearview mirror view.Msybe be one of the view selections as well
Didn’t we used to get info of how far back someone was? Like once they were within 50m it shows how quickly they were approaching as it dropped down to 0m and passed you. This was a great feature I loved.
Still do on PC, I think that’s only an issue with certain platforms.
Bit more basic and platform specific (Apple TV) I’d change it so you go to Zwift homepage or route selection after completing a route, rather than back to the annoying connection screen where sometimes you have to connect everything again even though it was working fine on first route.
Yes, this.
It’s the same on Android. I don’t understand why. I always thought it couldn’t be implemented technically. But why? My friends on Windows don’t seem to have this problem. Or have they?
Extend the coffee stop to 10 minutes instead of 3 minutes every 30 minutes in case I have to go #2 during my ride
You should be doing that “before” your ride so you can then in good consience reduce your weight🤣
Switching clothes when you go to cold places is my favorite idea so far!
So, what would happen when riding through the volcano with all that lava nearby? I’ve been wondering how hot that would be 😉
I’d love it if I could lock a pacer or group ride leader to the nearby rider list, so they’d never scroll off the screen. I could then always tell how far ahead or behind they are.
yes if he was always at the top, and it said if he was + or – distance/seconds…
The worst is when an intersection comes up and in some instances you can pull away quickly.
Seems like this should be automated. Always show the leader beacon on the rider nearby list, whether they ahead or behind. And show a time gap.
Be able to go back to repeat parts of workouts instead of just the ‘skip forward’. The very worst is when I’m tired and meant to hit power up or down and accidentally skip. The whole workout can be ruined!
💯. I hate it when I hit the power up and it skips!
Agree!
What is ‘skip forward’?
An easy way for at least some subscribers to create an race/TT event, providing something very similar is not already scheduled within ~30mins either side of your planned time.
I’d probably create something like…
5Km no drafting race or TT
Everyone same frame and wheels
A quartet of back to back races like Tiny Races that has an essentially flat/downhill, rolling, hilly and mountainous course in the quartet each week
Approx 50-200; 200-350; 350-500; 500-650; 650-1000 Racing Score pen ranges
Oh yes. Especially the rear view would be amazing
Ride Leaders being able to see both the Men’s and Women’s Sprint times would be good.
Better Filters in the Companion App
I’m not part of ZRL, so I’d like to filter out all of those events, instead of them taking up space
Filters by event length, world, or course (similar to ZwiftPower filters)
RoboPacers on some of the big event group rides again
They did this for the Tour de Zwift (I think) in 2023, and I thought it was great. More of that please.
Not important or critical in any way, but would be nice to have.
I’d like to be able to filter events by time. My morning is at the end of the European evening, so if I’m looking for an event the next morning I have to scroll past something like 70 events between my midnight and 5am.
I wish they would also add the option to search for events by words. A simple search box should be doable.
Double XP when climbing all the well know climbs.
reconfiguration of Zwift Play – turn left/right with steering buttons but not with arrows left/right buttons.
I want to get notified when a friend schedules themself for an event. I want to join before the event starts, not after they’ve started.
#4 is a great idea.
this was a thing before they added more pacers
I’m pretty sure there’s enough letters left in the alphabet to cover all of the RP’s on call. There’s what, eight RP’s? Taylor being the slowest and Jock being the fastest? WTAF? How ’bout: Alex, Bobby, Celeste, Daniel, Elise, Fred, Gina, Harv, etc…
Thought of this a few weeks ago, and this seems an appropriate forum for it.
In mass start races with multiple categories seeing each other, being a B or C racer depending on score range for the event, it is *extremely* difficult to look at the minimap and see where other people in your category might be as the light green and light blue colors are far too similar. Are there others in the group ahead of you and do you have to dig in to catch up? Or are you clearly ahead of everyone else of your same category and can cruise with your current group?
Two suggestions to help this:
1 – Make either the green or blue color slightly darker compared to the other so that the minimap is easier to differentiate between the two.
And 2 – In the rider list on the right of the screen, only display those riders in your category so you know where you stand in the competition.
Either or both of these would help a lot in such events, I’d think.
RoboPacers on all of the big event group rides.
Make it easier to watch races. I would like to share a watch race link with friends or family and they can watch without an account driving more visibility to zwift. The race watching portal should have different features than someone riding in the race.
Yes!
Yes, my kids would love that.
it would also be great for simple Dsing in a race or TT
Before the start of a race, an animation of my avatar trying to put on a skinsuit while sitting in a small car. This would make the whole Zwift race experience much more realistic.
My wishlist for a long time has been to have automatic finish line photos for races.
My other idea would be some sort of option in the menu like “auto follow pacers” or especially not.
I’ve had to stop on a route before to prevent following ’em, I usually don’t want to if I’m riding a route because I go for the route completion more; if I do want a pacer I’ll pick directly from the menu.
Put the garage in the companion app so that I can sort out any sartorial requirements and bike tart stuff before launching and getting ride ons for sorting my sartorial requirements out!
I wouldn’t call this “not really important” because it would an awesome option for me personally (and I know others that would love this too). The ability to NOT send your ride info to Garmin Connect, or Strava (or wherever) until you say to do so. And then link all of the separate rides you’ve done on Zwift into a single activity with mulitple laps to Strava.
For example:
Do a 20km race warmup. Posts to Strava.
Do a 40km race. Posts to Strava.
Do a 10km cool down. Posts to Strava.
Rather than 3 separate activities, I would much rather have a single activity with 3 laps that only posts once to Strava.
Not sure how to work this from a Zwift user perspective.
Something like a prompt that asks
Post acivity(ies) to Strava now [ ]
Link to next activity [ ]
So if you select “Link to next activity”, Zwift will save that .fit data and join it together with your next activity. Daisy-chaining as many activities as you do into a single activity (with multiple laps) on Strava.
That would be great. Currently, I download the .fit files from Zwift.com and then use fitfiletools.com to combine them before posting to Strava. I’d love to skip this manual step.
Exactly so! I would love this functionality!
Could the coffee stop option not disable when there are no riders nearby? Maybe it could be set at the average watts someone is doing at that time during their ride.
Why would you need the coffee stop if you are not in a group? You could simply stop, have your break and then ride on.
Because sometimes I unexpectedly get dropped from a group, particularly on an uphill or downhill. The break helps me, my mind, and legs regroup and if my average FTP is high enough, the break would give me a chance to rejoin the group.
Add pedals both side. we can see no pedals at the No 5 view
rear Derailleur/chains move when shifting
These are excellent suggestions. Especially the leaderboard timeout!
Hear me out: Finishline celebrations.
Either awarded in events or purchased in the drop shop. Think of it – crossing the line and having your avatar perform the Pogi Bow, the MvDP Salute, Wout wings, the Jonas ring kiss or even the Contador pistol. Available at first event winners these could also be tailored for different positions… head in hands for a closely fought second place… collapsing into the barriers following an all out effort…
Love it, it’s a bit of fun that would be great to add. Hopefully the get the windows video issue fixed so we can see a replay too.
I’d add Podium photos too. We can choose a face shape, beard, sunglasses etc but we never really see them outside of the avatar creation screen. We don’t even see the front of our jerseys without playing with different camera angles.
And it doesn’t have to just be for races. Finish some epic group ride, get a picture of your avatar holding a finishers medal.
2 things I would like in the workout builder:
– Being able to color freeride blocks.
– Easy interval building for freeride blocks.
+ Having a lap button (like on your bike computer)
3 different avata body types, small, normal, large
Some kind of badge or tracking system for Climb Portal please.
I’d LOVE to be able to collect badges for these, because yes, I’ve got that badge collector mentality.
And please make it work in the Companion App so I can wistfully look at my progress when I’m meant to be working.
On the dirt/gravel sections add a more real life trail running experience: face planting after tripping
Show the start time of activities in the companion app, not the finish time
I would like to be able to put baseball cards in my spokes like I did when I was a kid!
I would also like to see a “wheelie” power up, just for fun!
#3 No need for arm and knee warmers. I’d like to be able to completely opt-out of rainy and snowy conditions. I don’t like bad weather for riding, either outside or inside, even if it’s only simulated.
Fix the drone camera buttons that has been broken for 20 months.
it’s a very easy fix for ZHQ it’s not hard to add an IF statement around an input capture.
Zwift still seem massively bound by lack of developers to make progress.
If they spent 6 months less on marketing and put the money into development for all the great ideas that have come up in the last n years it would please a lot of people.
virtual snow would be great & lap button.
I would like the ability to plot your own route and then Zwift would follow the turns you want.
I’s also like to be able to warm up on a pace partner and then choose to ride a route and if its on same world you would be navigated (or teleport) to the start and the route would start automatically rather than having to exit and start a new session. Would cut down on the number of FIT files that you have for a ride.
You could add, put the compass direction someplace, and add a trophy case to the companion app…
Virtual shifting for all trainers. Come on, Training Peaks Virtual does it. I’m thinking of switching for this reason.
I’d like to be able to choose from all existing IRL bike frame colourways and custom colour and finish (gloss, metallic, matte, etc) for all framesets, and even helmets.