At its heart, Zwift is a social platform. The ability to interact with others begins at the in-game “Zwifters Nearby” sidebar, which shows a list of nearby riders/runners.
This constantly-updating bar sits on the right side of your screen, and while most of the information it contains is pretty straightforward, there are some icons and other indicators which new Zwifters may not understand.
The truth is, Zwift has managed to pack an incredible amount of information into this sidebar! Here’s a complete list of what the sidebar contains:
Always-On Elements
- Zwifter Name (which can be customized to include your team name or other info)
- Country flag
- Power in w/kg (or pace for runners) – turns orange when you exceed 8 w/kg
- Distance covered
- Time gap in seconds to selected rider
- Type of power device (zPower or smart trainer/power meter)
- Badges for verified account, pro rider, and pro triathlete (pro riders are orange, triathletes are green)
- Pace partner beacon
- Status Icons:
- Zwift employee status
- Following
- Structured Workout in progress
- Companion app connected
- Steering enabled
Temporary Elements
- New segment PR
- Ride On button: this pops up when a nearby rider gets a PR, starts an FTP test, completes a workout, takes a jersey, or gives you a Ride On (assuming you didn’t already give them a Ride On)
- FTP test in progress
- Leader’s jersey: shows when a rider has grabbed a sprint, KOM, or lap jersey (read more)
- Anti-sandbagging triggered (read more)
- Registered for Zwift Academy (this may be discontinued)
- Boost active (this may be discontinued – read about Boost Mode)
Event-Only Elements
- Category
- Rider event placing (only shows if this feature is enabled for the event)
- Event title (only shows if rider placing is enabled for the event)
- Rider count (total shows on top if rider placing is enabled for the event, bottom number shows rider count less those listed in the sidebar)
- Beacon indicator (yellow or red)
Whew. That’s a lot!
To help you see where each element fits into the side bar, I’ve cobbled together this visual from various screenshots so we can get all the elements in one place:
(Please note this is a composite image. So while Casey Schumm is probably currently sprinting on Zwift, I highly doubt T. Evans is a sandbagger. And Amanda Coker doesn’t lead the Roll with Castelli ride! The image is for illustrative purposes only.)
Questions or Comments?
Post below!
Thanks for information. I didn’t know what all was listed there.
I honestly thought that the “steering enabled” was to signify a Youth rider. DOAH
Perfect timing! I was trying to decipher the side bar the other day. I saw a rider with what looked like a volcano icon but I still don’t know what it was. Still, great info!
Volcano icon would be the current KOM/QOM of the 🌋 volcano climb.
Adding the different leaders jerseys to this article would really help me work out which seems others have
Way too many to show here, but here’s a helpful link: https://zwiftinsider.com/sprint-kom-lap-jerseys/
This is a fantastic article. I figured this all out over 3 years Zwifiting, but if I would have had this article when I first hopped on it would have been absolutely amazing!! Well done!!
Thanks Kyle!
Isn’t there missing Zwift workout indicator? Bars from the left side.
There is! I just added it, as well as a couple more things to the graphic that I missed. There’s a lot going on in that sidebar!
Does discontinuing boost mode mean they are getting rid of that feature or just the icon? Truthfully, I have only used it in one crit race.
The feature. I don’t know that they’re totally discontinuing it, but you don’t see Boost Mode races on the calendar anymore.
Actually T.Evans…very much a sandbagger
please tell me more about the click for ride on button
If you see it, you can click it. It’ll give that rider a Ride On.
you would have to be using the companion app for this to work?
No… works ingame on mouseclick
thanks. do you mean as on your laptop? I am on apple tv and using the remote.
It pops up when a nearby rider gets a PR, starts an FTP test, completes a workout, takes a jersey, or gives you a ride on (assuming you didn’t already give them a ride on)
thanks for the info
How does an become “Verified”?
Reach out to Zwift. I don’t know their criteria for who gets to be verified or not.
Hi Eric, great information, even after 180+ races I did not know everything you displayed above!!! But: while in former races riders from all cats were shown in the rider list in the correct categories (if enabled by race organizer), now it seems that for many races zwifters from other categories either show up in the rider list with my own category indicator (although higher / lower) do not show up in the rider list at all (although visible ingame and on the mini map) Perhaps this is a new bug but both of the above happened to me in… Read more »
I think this all comes down to how the event is configured. You can have other categories visible or not… just depends on what the organizer wants.
But then it seems some settings do not make any sense
At times the names of nearby Zwifters are shown highlighted (brighter), including my own. Any idea why?
I’ve never noticed this. Just notices different background colors for Pace Partners, and of course the selected Zwifter in the list (which is generally yourself) has a blue background.
I must correct myself it’s the Watts per kilogram that changes from dull to bright,, it appears to be belated the power output.
It changes to orange when riders hit/exceed 8 w/kg. Otherwise it’s white.
Brightness of the white seems to change very subtle
Maybe I’m wrong but I thought I’ve seen orange at less than 8w/kg. My guess before seeing this page was that it was a percentage of FTP/kg (eg 250% FTP/kg).
Hi Eric.
Do you know how the time gap is calculated? In my personal experience is not very accurate. For example, sometimes I got beteween 2.:30-3:00 of advantage over a rider, I stop for 5 minutes and the rider hasn’t caught me yet. Or in races, if I am X seconds behind for the last km, after he/she crosses the finish line, it always takes me much more time that the one indicated. Maybe is because I am a low D rider, why it does not work well for me.
Thanks for the article.
Used to be based purely on distance – see https://zwiftinsider.com/time-gaps/
I know Zwift said they made some changes to try to improve time gap accuracy in the last year or two, though. It’s possible their simple 30 kph system has changed… probably time for another test!
Sorry, even though I checked before I didn’t find that articule.
Thanks for the link.
How do you become verified?
I’d guess first be someone “notable”, then contact Zwift. I assume it’s similar to the Twitter blue tick, where someone can be verified as “the person you think they are”, rather than some other person who happens to have the same name or is trying to pretend to be that person. People like Eric Schlange and Shane Miller have a high enough profile that it makes sense
How incredibly useful! And incredible that it’s taken so long for someone to think of putting this explainer together! Not unexpected kudos for being that person!
With the Ride On button, is it worth adding that it appears when you select someone in the list to spectate them too? Maybe confetti could get its own entry in the “Temporary Elements” list – IIRC as well as setting a PR, it appears when someone completes a workout or reaches a weekly time/distance goal
A similar post on the map would be helpful. I’ve been on Zwift for years and still don’t fully understand all of the details.
Thanks – very helpful