General Outdoors News

    FATMAP Announces Termination Date for App and Web Platform

    fatmap-mountain

    Image via FATMAP

    A dire day looms for fans of 3D-adventure mapping platform FATMAP: In an email to its users, FATMAP announced that its app and website will no longer be available after Oct. 1, 2024. This comes about a year and a half after British-based FATMAP was sold to California-based Strava.

    Since the January 2023 acquisition, Strava has said that it was working to incorporate FATMAP’s features, including its amazingly detailed and accessible mapping functions, into the popular social/movement platform. However, don’t expect everything to make it over. While there are still several months before that October retiring date, some of FATMAP will get left on the cutting room floor. In an FAQ on Strava’s website, Strava says that only “certain FATMAP features” will be available on Strava.

    “Your Adventures, Guidebooks, and Waypoints can not be transferred to Strava,” Strava has said.

    For folks who have FATMAP-specific subscriptions, now is the time to harvest your data.

    “If you’d like to move your FATMAP routes to Strava or receive a copy of your FATMAP adventures, routes, waypoints, photos, and guidebooks, follow the steps outlined here before October 1st. After that date, your data will be deleted permanently,” FATMAP said in its email.

    Images from the FATMAP app

    While FATMAP did have some social functions in its app, it was more realistically a navigation and adventure platform, and not all of its users have that same viewpoint about Strava. Already, there are social media threads asking for alternatives to FATMAP for those who don’t want to dive into the world of Strava.

    When the acquisition was announced, FATMAP CEO Misha Gopaul said, “By becoming part of the Strava family, we bring together the world’s largest active community and FATMAP’s 3D outdoor mapping, enabling new and exciting possibilities to help people discover and explore the world.”

    FATMAP subscribers have not been charged annual renewal fees for the past several months, presumably in anticipation of the app and website being discontinued. Most mapping features on Strava, including route creation, route discovery, offline downloads, flyover and personal heatmaps, require a subscription.

    Users can transfer Routes, Adventures, Guidebooks and Waypoints to Strava using this data tool.

    Image from FATMAP’s website