Google Ending My Tracks Support in April 2016

While the news shouldn’t come as a huge surprise to many, Google announced that as of April 30th of this year, their exercise mapping app My Tracks will no longer be available.  The app, which allowed you to track your run, walk or biking activities and display them in Google Maps, never really caught the imagination of users and faced stiff competition for other apps that provided more detailed information on users activities.

After April 30, 2016, My Tracks will no longer be available. We apologize for the inconvenience this might cause My Tracks users. We’ve made the tough decision to invest our efforts into other, more wide-reaching, mapping projects. Below are some resources to help you manage or export your data and find other apps to continue tracking your activities.

If you are a heavy user of My Tracks, Google has provided a way to export your data and save it which is outlined in the announcement.

Even with this announcement it would be premature to assume that Google is getting out of the health & fitness app arena.  They have made serious strides with Google Fit which, after its last update, has the ability to track and map your exercise routes.  Essentially, Google has made My Tracks redundant.

Google My Tracks

Here is my review of Google Fit.

When it comes to exporting data out of My Tracks, you have four options:

• KML: Contains locations, markers, photos, and sensor data
• GPX: Contains locations and markers, but no sensor data like heart rate, cadence for biking, cadence for running, and power
• CSV: Contains locations, markers, and sensor data
• TCX :Contains locations, no markers, and some sensor data

Finally, Google has included a list of alternative apps in the announcement that users can track their activities within.  This includes Google Fit, Strava and Map My Run to name a few.