The latest Zwift update has been announced and will be released in phases over the next few days.
This release’s big new feature is virtual shifting for Zwift Hub, which delivers a host of benefits to users. There’s also a pile of bug fixes included in the new build. Let’s dive in!
Virtual Shifting for Zwift Hub
Today’s update brings virtual shifting to Zwift Hub owners who have Zwift Play and/or the new Zwift Click controller. Use the Companion app to make sure your controllers have all their firmware updates installed, and make sure your Hub is on firmware 5.2 or higher, and you should be good to go!
Start up Zwift, pair your controller(s) and Hub, then make sure Virtual Shifting is enabled on your main settings screen:
How does virtual shifting work? The same way it does with any smartbike. You can read more about it in today’s Zwift Hub One post, but basically you’ve got 24 virtual gears, and as you shift between them the resistance on the Hub changes to mimic a mechanical shift.
You cannot currently set up custom virtual gearing, although Zwift says that may happen. Instead, the Zwift Hub auto-detects your physical gearing when you first start pedaling, then auto-calibrates resistance so you’ll have plenty of gears to work with. (Zwift calls this “‘real gear ratio calibration”, and in our tests it works flawlessly.)
Virtual shifting may be one of those features few asked for, but everyone loves. Benefits include:
- Fast, smooth, quiet: with no chains skipping between cogs, your shifts are completely silent, perfectly smooth, and lightning-fast.
- Less wear and tear: reducing mechanical shifts means your chain and cassette/chainrings won’t wear as quickly.
- Shift under full load: no need to ease off the pedal when shifting under power, as your chain isn’t going to “skip” when virtual shifting like it can with mechanical shifting.
- Compatible across many bikes: no more spinning out on your low-geared mountain bike, or needing to swap cassettes if you swap bikes. The Hub auto-calibrates to your physical gearing.
- Expanded shifting: at launch Zwift supports a virtual 24-speed setup, which is more gears than most riders have on their outdoor setups. Additionally, the gear ratio range is very wide (from .75 to 5.49), meaning everyone should find that virtual shifting offers more easy gears and more hard gears than your mechanical gearing.
- In-game gear visualization: with Zwift’s virtual shifting, you can always see what gear you’re in on screen.
Read Zwift’s virtual shifting FAQ >
Pack Dynamics Bug Fixes
Zwift’s release notes include two items dealing with bike behavior in packs:
- Improved bike movement behavior in worlds with left-hand traffic.
- Fixed an issue that could potentially cause Zwifter’s bikes to sway left or right in a pack and lose draft in Pack Dynamics 4.1.
Zwift continues to stomp out bugs when it comes to pack dynamics and steering using Zwift Play. While the experience still isn’t flawless, it’s quite good and much improved from a few months ago, so kudos to Zwift’s developers on this front!
More Release Notes
Zwift provided notes on additional tweaks and bug fixes in this update:
- Zwift Play: Fixed an issue which could cause reconnection issues or game crashes on the Pairing screen.
- Fixed a crash that could potentially occur when starting a Coffee Stop via the Zwift Companion app.
- Fixed an issue which caused the roadway and water to flicker in the cave on the Jungle Circuit route in Watopia.
- Fixed an issue which caused water to be missing on some routes in Makuri Islands.
- General game stability improvements.
Windows
- Fixed a crash that could occur on the pairing screen
- Fixed a crash that could occur when saving a video screenshot
Android, iOS
- Fixed an issue where password reset emails were not sent if the account’s email address contained a “+”.
Discuss this release on Zwift’s forum >
Questions or Comments?
If you spotted any other changes or bugs in the update, please comment below!
Nothing on the new Watopia routes yet?
I’m guessing that will come out simultaneously with the tour of watopia stage that uses the new roads.
Route badges have appeared (8 of them) although not yet named……
8! nice!!!
Seems to be a two tier system developing in the world of Zwift. Of late, so much of the development has been around the incorporation of hardware orientated around the the Zwift hub and the play controller. These of course aren’t available in all markets. Maybe the pay structure should be two tier to reflect this.
Virtual shifting. Now to take it to the next logical step, making the shifting automatic so we don’t have to bother, take away one of the annoyances of outside riding (like stop signs and traffic and rain) that we don’t need to have indoor!
You can turn the trainer sensitivity down so you don’t feel any of the hills and can stay in one gear the entire time, only changing when you want more power.
Yes, I know, but what is the point of gears if they are virtual? “The scenery went up, so I have to click this button on my handle bar. The scenery went down so I have to click this button on my handle bar.” Do people actually enjoy that? What value is that clicking providing the user at that point? It’s just busy work.
Tim, it seems you misunderstand how virtual shifting works…
Please enlighten me as to what I misunderstood then?
Because what you’re suggesting isn’t like riding a bike at all. You can’t just take away shifting on hills because the way a person approaches climbing a hill often differs each time and certainly differs from person to person. Are you climbing at 90rpm in a low gear or 60rpm in a high gear? How’s the CPU or trainer supposed to know which you’d like to do? That’s what the buttons at for – not busy work. I for one have no interest whatsoever in spinning at the exact same cadence and power output for 2 hours indoors. I want… Read more »
“Because what you’re suggesting isn’t like riding a bike at all.” I guess riding a single speed bike isn’t “riding a bike” in your book then? But even on a multispeed bike, it is very much like riding a bike, with one tiny little task you no longer have to worry about. “You can’t just take away shifting on hills” I have news for you can just turn off zwift changing the resistance on hills at all in the settings, it’s right there. So you gonna yell at Zwift then to remove this setting? “Are you climbing at 90rpm in… Read more »
I wasn’t one who you Tim. I, like Eric, thought you didn’t quite understand the way it worked. I have virtual shifting on my Kickr bike. It feels just like regular shifting and I love it. If you’re looking for something different and ride a single speed, then good for you. But for the vast majority of us, outdoor riding is done on geared bikes and we’re looking to create a similar dynamic indoors. The new virtual shifting just makes it a bit easier for some folks to do that, especially in a one trainer with multiple bikes situation. But… Read more »
*wasn’t one who downvoted
We are all trying to explain it to you but it seems that you do not want to understand. “Sir, we have found you an argument, but we are not obliged to find you an understanding.”
Tim, for your sake, I really hope you are trolling at this point. 🥴
The point of the having virtual gears and changing them is exactly the same as the point of having real gears and changing them. It allows one to match their pedaling torque capability (leg strength) to their cardiovascular capability (oxygen and metabolic waste transport to and from the muscles) thereby maintaining optimal power output over a variety of external conditions (speed and terrain).
You’ve completely missed my point. The thing that is controlling those so called “external conditions” is also controlling the virtual shifting, they are one in the same. So there does not need to be any method of compensation if both the external conditions and the compensation are the very same thing!
The comment I responded to made no point, it asked questions. You (Tim? Trev? names seem to have been changed to protect the innocent) literally asked what the point of virtual gearing was. I simply explained that. Yes, the “thing” that is controlling the pedaling resistance for terrain and virtual shifting is the trainer resistance unit, and is the same resistance unit controlling for both terrain and virtual shifting. The control according to the two factors (terrain and virtual gear) are superposed. So the resistance unit is “one in the same” but the resistance control for gear and terrain are… Read more »
Sounds like the automatic transmission on a car, but even that is tuned to the characteristics of the engine. There is no automatic transmission that works smoothly in every car. I would prefer to have control over my cadence at a given power output.
I guess you’re after something like the Isokinetic mode on the Tacx Neo. Don’t ride the Neo any longer so I don’t know if it is available still, but I liked it.
Hi Eric, rather frustrating but any insight into availability of Zwift Play into Australia. Seems nonsensical that we can get 99% of smart trainers etc but not this?
Same thing in Canada. =(
Jason – look into US forwarding mail services. Should work to get the stuff across the border.
I’ve shared with Zwift that people are frustrated about their shipping restrictions – and I’m sure they’ve heard it from many others. I haven’t heard any sort of promises or timelines about expanding their shipping territories… just vague stuff like “We’d like to be able to expand” and “we’re working on increasing availability”…
Are any other Apple TV users seeing a full reset with every update? Have to re-enter email, password, go in game, adjust every preference setting back to how it was etc. Takes forever, I’ve missed multiple event starts now!
That’s super annoying. I’m no longer having issues but at one point a few months ago I was having to reenter everything and adjust trainer difficulty almost every single ride. The only thing that solved it was doing a full factory reset on the Apple TV. There’s a discussion on the Zwift forums somewhere about it. I tried several solutions but the reset did the trick and it hasn’t happened since so while it feels like a waste of 20 minutes at the time it did solve the problem for me. Also make sure you force quit Zwift every time… Read more »
Thanks Andrew, glad it isn’t just me! I will do a factory reset on the Apple TV. Yes, in the habit of forcing quit every time already, so it isn’t that unfortunately.
Trainer difficulty and the stupid background music and noises!!
I have the issue of having to enter login details before every ride. Game settings do not change. It occurred at the last Apple TV os update which came out a couple of days after last Zwift update. I’ve done the factory reset and re install but that has no cured it. Never been a problem for previous 3 years
Any insight into displaying OTHER smart bike shifting on screen in the future?
Haven’t heard anything from Zwift, but they REALLY need to get that done!
Is there an update on the plan to support ‘Keep Everyone Together’ mode for Club Rides (as we already have for Meetups)?
In my Zwift Play, the right side controller will constantly vibrate causing my avatar to slow, then finally stop. I finally just unpaired them. Will this newest update fix this issue? Thanks in advance
Doubt it – sounds like a buggy controller. Contact Zwift support for a new one!
after the update, the application stopped recognizing my equipment, it keeps reconnecting and the HR band is not detected at all. everything worked before
There are 8 new route badges but without name? Somebody know?
8 new Watopia routes, coming in a couple of weeks!
Just to be clear -this works on the Zwift Hub trainer -even with a cassette (and one of the switch devices), but none of the other brands of smart trainers?
(virtual shifting)
Correct.
Was it this release that ‘enhanced’ the workouts view, by taking away loads of great workouts?
I was hoping for workout search and filtering but what was delivered is disappointingly odd. A reduction in workouts and moving most of them to be managed as custom workouts, without a ZWO file schema or user guide to help understand how to organise the workout view using ZWO file tags.
After v1.49 was installed my Apple TV logged in etc, but crashed any time I started to ride. I thought v1.5 would cure this but sadly not. Anyone else having this problem. It’s a latest version Apple TV. I’ve deleted and reinstalled the app a couple of times with no success.
That’s really odd. You should contact Zwift support – they can tell you how to send ATV crash logs to them. And maybe they’ll have other ideas…?
I had this same issue and contacted Zwift support about it. They told me to cancel my subscription. I wish I was joking. They just gave me a partial refund and told me to cancel until they fix the issue. Who knows when that’ll be.
That’s… crazy, Charlie. Did they say what the issue was?
I’ve got the latest ATV and it’s working fine…
Nope, they didn’t even say what the issue was. I think (fingers crossed) I might have actually figured it out today, though. I found an old reddit thread where somebody suggested disabling Dolby surround audio on the apple TV (it’s in audio and video settings) and just setting it to Stereo. I did that today and was able to do a Zwift ride without it crashing for the first time in several months.
Mind blown by some of these comments on virtual shifting 😆 Here’s the easy translation folks: Zwift is trying to replicate the outdoor experience….indoors. That’s it. That’s the sell…and they’re getting closer with each incremental improvement/upgrade.
You’re wrong. If zwift was trying to replicate the outdoor experience, then they would be investing in real snow, rain, ice in home technology, they would add random flat tires, they would add stop signs and pot holes and traffic and car’s randomly hitting you and smog. Zwift is not trying to replicate outdoor riding. They are trying to provide a good indoor experience. And yes, definitely some of that is replicating some of the aspects of outdoor riding that either make it more interesting or more engaging for some people. But they don’t want to bring the aspects of… Read more »
I think some of the “outdoor experience” issues you mention would be good for April Fools Day: random flat tires (with the squirrel servicing you from a little team car), stop signs (that we’d all blow through just because), cars and other traffic. Could I also suggest that the dinosaurs attack riders or at least we come around the corner and they have a rider in their mouth.
Looks like they have deleted a lot of training sessions during the course of this update.
Have to ask … is there a technical reason why virtual shifting only works with the Hub and not other trainers, given that the gear changing is controlled by Zwift and not the trainer?
I can only assume there is something different about the way resistance changes work when simulating gear changes vs simulating terrain changes, because if not there seems no good reason why other trainers couldn’t be controlled in exactly the same way.
The need for a firmware update points to there being a difference in how the resistance change actually functions. Does anyone know?
I have the same question. I suspect maybe it’s because the button that does the shifting pairs to the smart trainer and not to zwift on the phone/tablet/computer?
It was my understanding that the button linked to Zwift … you can also us the Play controllers for shifting, which definitely links to Zwift and not to the trainer.
Hmm, maybe zwift click only pairs through the trainer? if you read on https://zwiftinsider.com/hub-one-release/ it says “Getting into the weeds a bit, if you’re on Apple TV the Zwift Click option may be preferable to Play controllers because it only uses one Bluetooth channel, meaning you can pair your Zwift Hub, Zwift Click, and HRM (as long as it’s run through the Zwift Hub) directly to your Apple TV without needing to go through the Companion app.” Which seems like the click is paired through the zwift trainer. And then later it is directly said that trainers have to do… Read more »