The latest Zwift update is now available on all platforms: Mac, PC, Android, iOS, and AppleTV.
Not sure if your Zwift install is up-to-date? Here’s how to check >
This update includes a sizeable list of fun features and additions, and some of what’s included we can’t even talk about yet! Kudos to Zwift for putting together a strong update. While it doesn’t include new roads (those will come in November), it includes more new stuff than we’ve seen in the past several months, and that’s great news.
Zwift Handcycle
Back in March Zwift announced that they were partnering with the Challenged Athletes Foundation (CAF) to conduct research into disabled athlete accessibility, inclusion, and representation. Along with hand cyclists, the research focused on other disabilities (such as visual impairment) to determine how all adaptive athletes would use the platform.
This week’s Zwift released the “Zwift Handcycle” as the first tangible fruits of that research.
The handcycle has some unique attributes when it comes to drafting in Zwift:
- An upright bike cannot draft a handcycle
- A handcycle can draft another handcycle
- A handcycle will get half the drafting effect when drafting an upright bike
Our speed tests so far show that it behaves how you would expect a handcycle to behave outside: it’s decently aero, but quite heavy. It only has one wheelset, and with those wheels it completes our flat test in 50:16.5, which essentially matches the fastest road bike frame paired with the fastest wheels.
(Keep in mind the handcycle only gets a half draft off of an upright bike, so using it in a race would be a huge disadvantage compared to a standard road bike which can draft fully.)
The handcycle completes our Alpe du Zwift test in 56:07, making it the slowest climber in Zwift. But it descends like a dream!
Handcycling Events
The Zwift handcycle is accessible to all Zwifters, whether they pedal with their arms or not. To celebrate this moment, Challenged Athletes Foundation will be hosting rides from September 16-23 that include a Pace Partner on a handcycle. These events may also be joined by Challenged Athlete Foundation athletes, and event unlocks include Challenged Athletes Foundation kit and sunglasses.
Wanting to regularly ride with other riders who use a handcycle setup? Join “The Handcycling Club” which is a community-run club of handcyclists. Find them in the Companion app!
More Garage and Drop Shop Additions
The Cadex TT bike frame has been added to the Drop Shop. Watch this space for the results of our standard speed tests on this bike.
Zwift says they’ve also added the Zwift Lederhosen kit to garage. Wunderbar! (We arent seeing it in the garage, so we think this may be an event unlock for something in the future.)
Levels 51-60
We wrote about Zwift adding levels 51-60 last week. Visit that post for details on unlocks for levels 50-60, plus details on how accelerated leveling works!
Level 50 riders should unlock fresh “fire socks” when they sign in. Word is these socks are hot hot hot!
Workout Menu UI Improvements
We wrote about this recently, and you can view that post here. Zwift says these improvements are rolling out starting now to Mac, PC, and iPad users, with AppleTV following “very shortly after”.
Homescreen UI Improvements: Recommendations
With this update, Zwift is rolling out the first of what will eventually be much more intelligent activity recommendations on the new Homescreen UI. Zwift is learning that what they put front and center on the Homescreen drives the activities of Zwifters in a big way, so they have a big, multi-month project underway to serve up very smart activity recommendations.
Until then, they’re taking a “quick and dirty” approach to offering simple but smart recommendations. Here’s how these will work:
- Events: this will show upcoming (or late join) events you’re already signed up for, plus additional upcoming events
- Pace Partners: the first two Pace Partner cards in the list will be the most recent Pace Partners you joined
- Routes: the first two route cards in the list will be based on your recent activity length
- Workouts: the first two workout cards in the list will be based on your recent activity length
Note: you’ll need to do a few activities after Zwift updates before the recommendations begin kicking in.
Ride On Bombs Return to Events
Hurray! We can now tap in the Companion app to give Ride Ons to the nearest 5 Zwifters when we’re in events!
This is something we requested back in January, and Zwift says Pace Partners have effectively tested their system’s ability to handle lots of concurrent Rides Ons. Nice work, Pace Partners. Ride on!
Smart Anvils
The anvil powerup adds 50kg to your body weight, for 30 seconds. It has been famously misused since its arrival in game by users activating it on flats or (worse) climbs. And at 30 seconds long, sometimes Zwifters would activate the anvil on a short descent, but carry it into the next gradient change, which wasn’t always helpful.
Today’s release updates the anvil so it only adds 50kg while the gradient is -1.5% or greater, effectively making it a “smart anvil”. You can activate it whenever you’d like, and rest assured that it’s not going to hurt you, only help. A helpful, smart anvil. What will they think of next?
AppleTV Remote Improvements
AppleTV users should notice some improvements in how they interact with Zwift’s UI using the AppleTV remote. You can now slowly slide across the remote to “pan” the entire homescreen (if you’re on the new homescreen UI). Various menus have been improved for use with the remote as well.
Increased Club Membership Limit
Zwift is increasing the Club membership limit from 10,000 to 25,000 this week as well. And that’s just in time, since Zwift Insider’s Club (the largest club on Zwift) has been hitting that limit!
We thought we were well under the limit, then found out the hard way that invited members count toward your club membership total, even if they haven’t joined the club. So we’ve been manually deleting scads of stale member invites to allow more people to join.
Haven’t joined the Zwift Insider Club yet? Do so here >
More On the Way
Some features in this update are “feature flagged”, meaning they will roll out in the coming weeks to batches of users until everyone has access. This includes AppleTV improvements which should please a lot of ATV users, plus the workout library UI upgrades we wrote about recently.
Bug Fixes and Misc Improvements
Here’s Zwift’s list of fixes and improvements included in this update, with our notes in italics:
- Fixed a few issues with automatic screenshots: auto-screenshots arrived in last month’s update, but some were being timed incorrectly, resulting in dark screens or blank results screens. We assume this is the fix.
- Fixed bug where critical power curve graph was often scaled incorrectly: this is a long-standing bug, and as power curve nerds we’re happy to see it fixed. Now you’ll be able to tell at a glance whether you improved your power curve at the end of a ride!
- Runners’ footsteps have been made quieter
- Various other fixes and improvements
See notes on this update release in the Zwift forum >
Questions or Comments?
If you spotted any other changes or bugs in the update, please comment below!
For the improvements to the ATV REMOTE, is that for the new remote or old remote?
Both, I believe.
I hope it makes scrolling the pace partners easier. Its a nightmare!
Try sliding your finger down the touchpad slowly. You might have to swipe right first to try to activate the scroll bar then come back to the PP screen. You have to develop the right feel for it but it will move the full screen so you can see which PP is highlighted.
Second that. The pace partners on the bottom of th list is nearly impossible to select with the old remote.
“Zwift Lederhosen kit”?! Immediately downloaded the update and was disappointed not to see it in my garage. Is this level locked or do I have to have a beer in real life to get it in game?
Must be for Oktober.
Hope its available with start of Munich Oktoberfest on Sept.17th
Shooj says it’s for an upcoming event. Oktoberfest, I’d assume, but will they start the event in September, like the real Oktoberfest or in October like most of the US?
With the remote control, i carn’t scroll down in the garage, is this a game issue or remote issue
similar here, thought it was my apple remote at first, but only occurs in the drop shop
Did anyone else loose the entries in the 90 day pr list?
Has Tim Searle reached level 60 yet? 😂
Not yet. Give him a day!
No Lederhosn and no Socks in my Garange 🙁 Iam Lvl 50 🥹
Outstanding review Eric. This update looks like a winner!!
there are some included features that we can’t even talk about yet … what does this mean if it’s already included ???
Some features are in the code, but “feature flagged” so Zwift can release them to particular cohorts of users whenever they see fit.
ah ok … so perhaps the autobraking-feature for downhill races could be tested from a special group of users with big impact … thanks Eric for this post
Finally a use for the mountain top pens!
I’m still waiting on the UI update for the AppleTV.
Not holding my breath for this update any time soon.
And unless the remote actually works now, the Apple TV needs these update badly
In all the years I’ve been on Zwift, I don’t recall ever seeing the anvil being used. Hopefully next week for ZRL. I can just imagine someone trying to throw it away before the next banner. Which you have to climb to get to. That, would have been unfortunate.
Those auto screenshots, hopefully they fix the timing for when the results screen shows up, or when you get a PB on a segment. The results screenshot is taken just before the results are listed. And with PBs, it’s taken just before your time shows up on the list.
Anvils are seen in races all the time. But you won’t see them anywhere else, since they’re event-only.
Didn’t know I was waiting for it. But the powercurve fix is really appreciated 😃
Right?!
Why did they have to set back your earned XPs? I was over 1,000,000 now back at 500,000. sorry this should have really just continued. I am disappointed
THIS! I thought we’d get a choice. Has everyone been automatically switched over to “Accelerated Leveling Mode”??? I want my lvl 60 NOW! T_T
So that you didn’t instantly jump to level 60. you will earn double xp until you have reached your 1,000,000 so they are not lost. You’ll get them back just a way that allows you to level up slowly rather than being instantly level capped again.
So what happens once you reached level 60? Will you than get back the non double counted xp back. Or will I have to do another 250‘000 to get my former level back. Sorry this doesn’t make sense.
Last time they kept giving back the XP, after you reached level 50, until you had everything you have earned. If they just made everyone a 60 that had 750,000 or more, the complaining would start for more levels. This way there is a feeling of progression.
Or leave XP as before (vs. resetting to 500,000), accumulate XP per usual over time, but level up at half of required XP. So, to move to level 51, require only 10k XP instead of 20k XP. BOGO would see 1+M plus 10k XP at level 51
it was like this when they increased to 50; it makes sense and it works as its supposed to. if you are already lv50, you should know this!
So how does this work with a pace partner where you can get up to 2xp, then you are leveling up at 4xp?
Pace Partners give you extra Drops, not XP!
So happy about the runners footsteps as the have been incredibly loud lately!
it Dumb that they nerf Anvil, are we going to have warning aero going up hill or draft boots going solo ? and so on.
that is King bath salts 2 cents.
Want your change?
???
lol – he doesnt get it
Anyone know when the new UI will be rolled out to everyone? I’m still on the original UI and seems everyone else I know has the new one.
Are you on windows, I am and still have the legacy home screen, but I have a zenbook with integrated graphics which is just this side of still acceptable to zwift. So currently zwift is not releasing the update to those integrated graphics cards as there are issues with it. This is not widely known I think.
It was mentioned quite a while back they’d no longer be supported.
Those integrated cards were 1 iteration older, these are still supported in-game, likely for a couple of years, but I guess don’t play nice with the new home screen
The best Eric thanks as always mate!
A ‘dumb anvil’ pretty well sums up my racing style.
Has graphics changed as well? I swear my kit is shinier and pockets are lumpier??
They appear to have fixed the missing eGPU support for the Metal version of the Mac application.
Just tried a ride around Watopia and my trainer difficulty was hard set to maximum and wouldn’t change
Thanks Eric, still no word on the “ride with” function returning? Not everyone is organized enough or flexible enough to simply create a meetup ride in advanced.
Ah, thought it was just me when I couldn’t find this recently!
They’re working to bring it back. My guess is we’ll see it in Oct or Nov. But no promises.
Thanks Eric, and how cool are those socks when you put some watt’s down.
I will look forward to my training peaks workout for the day being front and centre then… (I hope). It’s so far off screen and fiddly to get to right now.
No new homescreen for Android ??
There is no new Apple TV UI. It’s still the old one. How could there be improvements coming to the “new one” on ATV, when it does not feature it? Confused.
Because the plan is to roll the new homescreen out to AppleTV users pronto.
thought we might get the ‘ghost’ pace partner in this update Eric? i’m on Apple TV and still to see the new home screen, hopefully in a few days, keep up the great work! cheers John
You know how I mentioned above that there are features included in this update that aren’t yet activated? Well…. 😉
Got my baseline email today – still blank…
Got mine also today. It contained some numbers and a categorization. Quite minimalistic if you ask me but it looks complete.
Have they fixed the issue of free ride sections in workouts for Apple TV
Did I hear new sounds after the update?
Like… the sound of a thousand handcyclists clapping?
🙂
I had the impression that the birds sounded louder / more and there was a new sound effect when drafting or overtaking someone. Usually I don’t listen to Zwift’s sounds for longer than some seconds, so I may be totally wrong.
Ride on.
Found this in the Zwift forum:
“New bleep/bloop sound effects on things coming and going off screen, like ride-ons.”
I think that is what I heard. Crazy shit. 😲
I also noticed new chimes. Three notes. Seemed like they appeared randomly during my ride. I noticed a few during “Close the Gap” messages but then I’d get them without a message.
Seemed like the new sound was playing when I overtook somebody, or when somebody overtook me. But not always… seemed like it was only triggered by overtaking certain riders, but not others. No idea what criteria Zwift is using for this.
is there any chance that the gradient maps could be improved so that show the actual gradient for the route you are on? Especially in events, this is frustrating, like in France where Ventop dwarfs everything, but the event goes nowhere near the mountain
And yet another lame update from Zwift …
This is getting to be par for the course with them.
Really curious about the cadex test results. I have high hopes.
perhaps new cadex wheels incoming as well?
Eric, could not find description yet so asking you might make sense. Any idea what these white round frames at the icons for junction selection mean? Interestingly going up to Epic KOM they were not displayed. Thx.
Eric have you seen the fire trails now when you sprint?
Edit, you have to equip the new fire socks that are unlocked at level 50.
oh that makes sense
Saw them weeks ago, but Zwift asked me not to write about them for a few days, so people could discover it for themselves.
This is a great little addition! Saw the fire trails a few years back at an April Fools day event on Zwift, it’s great that they put it back in-game!
The only issue I see is – and maybe it’s just me, but…I have a Wahoo KICKR V5, and I use Bluetooth. I’ve never had an issue…until after the update! Now, when I come into the app on my Apple TV, I get an error that there is a limit to the number of bluetooth devices I can connect – I have a Whoop Strap (for HR), and a Wahoo KICKR (as mentioned earlier) – never a probelm before. Now, it’s like each feature of the KICKR wants to send a different bluetooth signal. Is that a fault in 1.29.0… Read more »
I saw someone else with the same issue. He rebooted the AppleTV and it worked again. There has been a major AppleTV software update on monday.
Maybe that helps. Anyway, it’s worth a try.
I have the same issue with Elite Suito as many others have with different smart trainers. I upgraded to iOS 16 before updating to Zwift 1.29. Before the ZWIFT update I had not had any problems with Bluetooth. The connecting problems started right after update to ZWIFT 1.29….so I missed my training last night. I rebooted the Apple TV and restarted ZWIFT several times including the smarttrainer. I disconnected them as suggested. Once I connected the heartbeat belt together with the Suito, I received the message. I tried without the heartbeat belt and I connected the power supply first, then… Read more »
@Eric Schlange I just saw someone sprint and they left a fire trail…
Something new?
Fire socks, baby!
I use Apple TV & here is what I found after one ride. The font is awful. I have decent (not perfect) vision and I’ve never had an issue with being able to read everything while Zwifting. With this new font, I can’t easily tell the difference between 3’s & 8’ or 5’s & 6’s.The 4 looks awful. 1’s & 7’s are difficult ti differentiate as well. Why was this changed? it created a problem where one didn’t exist. I cannot use my KickV5 as I have for a long time. When I go to use it for my cadence,… Read more »
Where do we find TrainingPeaks workouts now please???
Ok. The Fire Socks are easily the third coolest thing on Zwift. First of course is the Big Wheel (hope we see it again), second is the Tron bike but then the Fire Socks slot nicely in there. Several of us were wearing them during our race last night and they looked so cool in the sprint. I am never taking them off!
Ah – I get it now. I saw that I “earned” some fire socks – and did a “who cares” shrug.
Then I saw fire trails coming from some of the riders around me and was wondering wtf that was. My brain jumped to a mistimed Anvil power-up being dragged on the pavement.
I have the fire socks, however, no fire? is there a certain watts or bike type? I have been using a TT Bike.
Aww I like it when people used there anvils on a climb
Stupidity should be punished.
How else do people learn ?
When will Zwift be able to run on chromebooks (again)?
WRT Ride On Bombs Return to Events: Is that limited to certain events? I did not see this in the ZAR baseline ride or the Group Workout 1.
I am in an event too but no opportunity for ride bombs . So sad 😞
It may require a Companion app update… which I know is coming soon. Not sure.
Yezzz that’s awsome newz thx eric
I’ll be honest.
When I read “Ride On Bombs”, my first thought was “How Dr Strangelove!” …
Just experienced the ATV interface with the new remote…love the UI, but having the touch pad and the arrow buttons immediately adjacent causes unintentional moves and selections…very annoying!
two things- noticed new sound when another rider gives a thumbs up… there is another tone cannot figure out why it occurs…
I don’t have the ability to give thumbs up yet in events other than individual… what am I doing wrong here? Have updated etc
Really annoying sound has to do with “close the gap”.
I’m so confused, when i log in (on apple TV) I see no changes, i.e. no new home screen. But when my other half logs in, on the same apple TV she has the new home screen. Am i doing something daft? Thanks
No – it is being rolled out in a per-account basis. As of today, Zwift tells me 25% of ATV users have the new homescreen. My guess is you’ll get it very soon!
Has the dura ace bug been fixed yet?
Several months ago!
Finally, new UÍ is on ATV this morning!
Eric,
My Windows 10 laptop still has not received the updated home screen even after this latest update. I thought Zwift announced months ago that the Windows “phased roll-out” was complete. This is really frustrating to think you are being lied to by a company you are a customer of.
Zwift says they’ve rolled it out to everyone on Windows. You might want to contact support to see what’s up… I don’t think they’re purposely deceiving you. 🙂
Eric, I just received a response from Zwift Support which confirms that the rollout is not yet complete for Windows users. I pasted it in below. Makes you question their truthfulness when they make public statements that the rollout is complete for Windows users and they have been saying that for months. I prefer companies that I am paying money to use their product to be a little more transparent and truthful. I also don’t mind if they come out a make a statement like the rollout is now complete for 95% of Windows users, but we are trying to… Read more »
I’m a long time Apple TV user. I’ve been looking for an improved UI for years. I use the new Siri remote with arrows and touch pad.
I’ve used the new Apple TV UI a few times now.
A few initial questions
1. How do you change Zwift users?
2. UI Navigation has a delay on some screens. Is it just me.
Thanks All
Our ATv was finally updated to the new UI. All seems ok except for one big issue. My wife was 10 weeks into a 12 week training plan and there doesn’t seem to be anyway to access the plan via the ATv. Her progress through the plan still shows up in her companion app but nothing on the ATv. Are we doing something wrong?