Strava to Challenge Hound via Apple Health

• Open the Strava app, click on YOU icon in the bottom left, then the Gear icon in the top right to get to your Strava settings.
• Click "Manage Apps and Devices"
• Under services, click Health or Connect with Health
• Enable Health - make sure to allow Strava to Write "Walking + Running Distance", "Workouts", and "Cycling Distance". All other Health permissions are optional.
• Ensure "Send to Health - Automatically send activities to Health" is toggled on. You can leave the other settings all off.
• Within Challenge Hound, head to the Apps page, and connect Apple Health.
• That's it. When an activity is logged using Strava it will automatically sync to Apple Health, then subsequently automatically sync to Challenge Hound.

If you are using Garmin, Apple Health, Fitbit, or MapMyRun, we recommend connecting those apps directly to Challenge Hound.

Recent Strava API Changes

On November 15th, 2024 Strava sent out the following email to all developers using their API:

At Challenge Hound we are in the process of unwinding this and trying to figure out best how to respond to this drastic, sudden, and seemingly unfair change. Challenge Hound has worked well with Strava for over eight years. Challenge Hound has driven tens of thousands of customers to Strava. We believe users of Strava should have the right to share their data with any third party apps through technology that is already in place and working, especially if this users are paying Strava to use the platform.

This change has impacted thousands of apps and tools that use data from Strava. The community has been confused and angered how Strava could suddenly aim to kill off apps that helped build the brand. This was covered by DC Rainmaker in the article Strava's Big Changes Aim to Kill Off Apps.

The good news is that Challenge Hound has solutions and alternatives. Challenge Hound is not just about Strava and still works well without the Strava API or even Strava at all.

• Challenge Hound already supports Garmin, Apple Health, Fitbit, UACF and more. Many Strava users are already using one of these underlying systems to log activities and can simply update the app settings within Challenge Hound to connect directly to Garmin, Fitbit, Apple Health, Health Connect, or UACF. Visit the Apps page to make these changes.

  
  
• For participants that are only using Strava, activities can still be synced between Strava and Challenge Hound through Apple Health, using the Challenge Hound iOS app. Here are the steps:
  • Open the Strava app, click on YOU icon in the bottom left, then the Gear icon in the top right to get to your Strava settings.
  • Click "Manage Apps and Devices"
  • Under services, click Health or Connect with Health
  • Enable Health - make sure to allow Strava to Write "Walking + Running Distance", "Workouts", and "Cycling Distance". All other Health permissions are optional.
  • Ensure "Send to Health - Automatically send activities to Health" is toggled on. You can leave the other settings all off.
  • Within Challenge Hound, head to the Apps page, and connect Apple Health.
  • That's it. When an activity is logged using Strava it will automatically sync to Apple Health, then subsequently automatically sync to Challenge Hound.

• Challenge Hound always supports manual entries as well. Manual entries can be used exclusively or to add any missed activities.