Runtastic gets updated with Routes feature and more for Windows Phone 8

One of my favorite fitness apps, Runtastic got a nice little update today that brings with it a variety of new features – some exclusive for Windows Phone 8. Let’s check them out.

If you aren’t up to speed on Runtastic, read our mega piece on it from a few weeks back. It’s a 2000 word masterpiece where we go into detail about Runtastic and its offerings. So what’s new in this update that wasn’t there a few weeks back? Quite a bit actually! If you update you’ll get yourself:

• Flag one of thousands of new routes from the Runtastic website and sync them automatically to your phone
• Use routes for your activities
• Share routes via NFC with another phone
• Navigate to start point of a route
• Wide Live Tile with monthly statistics
• New languages supported: Chinese, Dutch, and Portuguese
• New icons for sport types
• Updated wordings and dialogs
• Improved app start time and performance
• Bug fixes – Heart rate monitor wouldn’t connect in some cases, rare problem when loggin in with email and password, connection to Twitter would fail, and a few others

Windows Phone 8 users will appreciate the wide live tile support – it shows your monthly activity and is a good way to make sure you’re hitting your fitness goals at a glance. Icons for the different sports have been tweaked and updated. If you have another friend who uses Runtastic, you can even share routes via NFC. But by far the biggest and most welcomed update is the addition of ‘routes.'

If you navigate to the Runtastic website you can explore a section called routes, where users can create and share routes from an activity like running or cycling. From there you can sync them to your phone, that way you can try out routes from other people. It’s a great way to find new trails if you’re on vacation or in an area you aren’t familiar with. You get access to some handy data within a specific route. For example, the distance, elevation, estimated time of completion, and top runs from other users.

Runtastic is available for all Windows Phone users – in free or pro/paid version ($4.99). The free version is good for basic logging of runs, but you’ll need to enter an unlock code or buy the pro version if you want routes, heart rate monitor connection and no ads. QR codes below, free to the left and paid to the right, or swipe to the right in our windows Phone Central app.

Thanks Daniel R. for the tip!