(my typos corrected and bits of wording slightly cleaned up - SD 9/5)
Unless I am being v dim, I don't think there are any instructions about sharing a route with friends; so a candidate for attention? (I learned of it thru the patreon newsletter or the cycling uk forum, can't remember which, or was it both; but was then a struggle...)
By trial and error, I found that the option in the app under "Save" to "Send to friends" worked fine so long as the route was set to be public. (Sending was from Andoid and receiving was to both Apple and Android).
So suggestions, in suggested order of priority:
- the error message when recipients entered the code was the the effect that "can't be done"; if the reason is the route is private, tweak the error message to advise "route can't shared as it is set to private; advise author to save as public" (and perhaps needs "then try again"?)
- enhance instructions in app and in website to explain the "Send to friends" process.
- add the "Share with friends" feature in the website version (obviously at present can be done simply by creating in website and saving , then opening in the app, then Save > send to friends; but more intuitive to be able to do it from the website too.
- given that the route being shared has a unique access code, it seems unintuitive for a route to need to be public. (eg use case: meeting at my house with friends to go on a circular ride together returning back to house, so one might prefer not to make that a public route.)
Comments
I'm sure it's fairly standard for private routes not to be visible to others even when you share the unique URL. Garmin Connect is the same.
All good ideas. Sharing routes is one of those things on the medium-term list that I haven’t had the chance to put much time into yet.
Essentially at the moment each route has a numeric ID, which is in the URL (the web address) like this: https://cycle.travel/map/journey/748890
If the route is public then others can see it. You can use that URL on the web, or you can enter that ID in the apps to open the route. Really that’s about as far as it goes right now.
I would like to do more with sharing codes and Bluetooth sharing and things like that. But the next things on the list are Android background navigation (which I’ve almost finished) and better route search, so it won’t be quite yet!
I’m sure you’ve thought of this, but I’d warn against making routes shareable only by ID; there’s another routing tool that does just that, and you can easily browse through other people’s journeys by simple URL manipulation.
Partially-public routes would be really nice, and I’d certainly use them, but they’d need a careful design.
It might make bug reports easier too; I’d not publicly post a broken route from my house, but I’d probably share it privately. Of course, that might make the to-do list problem even worse :-)
Richard: Thanks as ever for your energy! I do understand that there are other developments competing for your time; tensions between doing minor refinements and new functionality is inherent in lots of situations in life, and you juggle this in CT v well.
Meantime, is a tweak to the help text perhaps something that would be a small thing to do (ie utilising your existing process for help content, rather than needing wholly new functionality) that IMO would actually cover a lot of the issue, pending anything more fundamental medium term?
And note Bluetooth sharing (doubtless splendid) would not cover the use case of sharing routes to people not physically adjacent.
re eeR3Er8g general concern about consequence of "making routes shareable by ID": isn't that what the app does already (by requiring the route to be public)? The author of the route gets a 6 digit ref to give to their friends; but I suspect that anyone who happened to enter the same code in their app - perhaps by a miskeyed entry - would get the route, too. (A risk curtailed if the sharing window is perhaps time-limited?) And currently, as a public route, it will have been visible in the website at the foot of the home page, against "Explore more"; in Journeys, the latest 20x20 public journeys are listed, using their intial creation date. A journey rapidly become 400+ so is no longer listed there - after only a couple of days, at present. So if the author initially creates as private, then after a few days edits the status to public, sharing to friends is already possible with little risk of unintended people getting it; perhaps a tip that could be referred to in an interim enhancement of the help text ...?)
I'm not really understanding the anxiety about 'public routes'.
Sensitive locations can be 'hidden' by starting (or ending) 1,2,3 etc. km from them, on the assumption that we know how to get to/from them :-)
Richard, maybe it would be an idea to include the Patreon updates as past of the 'Help' page?
Hobbes: I feel similarly that privacy is a secondary issue. The key point I am raising is that there is no help text explaining how to share with friends. That could include a tip on the method noted above (9/5) that IIUC means a route can have public (=shareable) status but be invisible as it is beyond the public listing on the website, hence addressing the concerns that some have re privacy.
There is! Subscriber's Update, May 24:
You could make an argument that the update info be more accessible or you could also consider that CT is a one-man operation - and that man likes to get out on his bike too! :-)
As for the public/private status of routes, I'm of the opinion that both meanings are pretty clear - public: anyone can see, private: no-one can see. Given that CT is available to a large number of non-English speaking countries such linguistic clarity is no bad thing.
Here's a thought! Many bike clubs require members/riders to commit to a number of volunteer so many hours a week in order to ride with the club. Maybe cycle.travel could require those posting demanding attention to their specific little concerns to do likewise. Volunteering to help design cycle.travel routing details in return for assistance from the designer-in-chief?
In that case, Ken, what would be the going rate of volunteer hours for suggesting the ditching of over a decade's worth of development to adopt Google Maps? :-) I don't say that to be mean or to be a dick, but just to point out that most of us have 'specific little concerns'.
The fact of the matter is that there are a wide variety of different ways to use CT, and, as such, folks making requests allows the developer to see different perspectives. I've been using CT since 2017 and I still don't know how it all works. What I am aware of though, is the sheer breadth of skill and expertise that Richard brings to it.
It's not just the technical side of things - the programming and coding, the app development - there's also the vision required to have a broad view that appeals to so many diverse users in different places - and works!. There's the scale - nearly half the planet is on CT, yet local detail is tweaked on OSM. And the guy that can do all that can also design the shape, colour & location of every button/menu, not to mention the CT map, itself. After doing all that, he comes on here to enthusiastically answer questions - far too often from people who don't give an example or clarify app or website.
It would be very easy to forget that there's a human being behind all this - not a robot, not a team. One person.
I think you're in Texas so you might be aware of these words of the Oklahoma/Texas troubadour, Ray Wylie Hubbard: The days I keep my gratitude higher than my expectations I have pretty good days.
Words to live by.
Mm! Interesting comment from Hobbes in reading quite the reverse of the intent of my post. Oh well!
I'd really like to be able to connect with other friends within the app so that we can jointly plan routes together. I find it strange that this function is not built in. In some of the other apps there is an option to create a 'group ride' and invite specific friends who likewise have profiles/accounts in the app.
Kate – interesting idea. How would you see that working? Would you want to share an individual route, or a folder of routes? Would you just want to say “here’s the route, you can follow it” or would you want friends to be able to edit the route too?