Originally Posted by
bobwysiwyg
I'm still struggling to understand the "logic" behind Strava's decision about ceasing support for directly connecting devices via their app. Don't all the other apps support this also, and they aren't whining about them crashing their applications
Dunno, but I'd guess it's the difference between Strava supporting an international network with some realtime features, and other apps working mostly at the phone level until the closed log is uploaded.
I've used only a few Bluetooth/ANT+ monitors with various apps -- no Zwift, etc. With Wahoo Fitness, Cyclemeter and others, all the interactions during an activity are confined to the phone. Even if there's some location based interaction -- a signal for an upcoming segment or circuit for intervals or laps -- it's based on GPS, not interfacing with an app network.
Cyclemeter specifies it records only to the phone by default. The user must choose to share data. Wahoo Fitness appears to work the same way, although it's difficult to find a company statement about that.
I'm betting it has more to do with security concerns that merely integrating wireless devices into Strava. But it'll be months or years before we know for certain. It's common for companies to stay quiet about security vulnerabilities and exploits until they've patched it and identified a possible hacker individual, organization or nation. (See the recent news about exploits in Avast and CCleaner.) They don't want to tip the hackers that the targeted organization is aware of being probed.