It was at the end of 2024 that Strava disabled the ability for users to share URLs on the its multiple app surfaces. It also deleted all historical URLs that had been posted. The change was cited as necessary to protect the Strava community from a wave of harmful spam attacks.
"Recently our team has been dealing with a sustained campaign of inauthentic content posted to the platform and as a result we have taken certain necessary steps to safeguard the community," the company said at the time.
As workarounds, users who wanted to share links to charity fundraising pages, club pages and events and social media accounts and posts were having to replace periods with the word ‘dot’. They could also post QR codes as activity photos that other users could scan.
Strava has now announced news that it has improved its spam detection and prevention systems and once again users will be able to share URL links.
In a post on the Community hub, an administrator explained:
"At the end of 2024, we temporarily removed links in response to a surge in harmful spam that targeted Strava users with fraudulent and misleading content. These attacks put our community at risk, so we immediately took action to protect athletes from scams and malicious intent.
"We’ve been hard at work improving our spam detection systems to keep Strava a trusted space for users. With our upgraded machine learning model, we can better detect and block suspicious activity, so you can share links in the places that matter most.
"We appreciate your patience as we assessed the best steps for our Community moving forward."
New best practice for link sharing
Anyone on Strava can now add links to the following areas: athlete profile, club description, event descriptions, activity descriptions.
Only admins of verified clubs will be able to post links in club posts.
Strava has shared this best practice for links as it re-enables sharing across some of the "most engaging parts of Strava" and where it can be the "most meaningful".
- "Similar to other organizations, we ask that Verified Athletes use their profile for important links. This is similar to the 'Link in bio' feature available on other platforms.
- "While links to external websites are limited, all athletes can use Strava links. Please continue to promote your club and events using links.
- "For Verified Clubs, only Club admins will be able to use links in Club posts. If your club allows members to post in their Club, those users will not be able to use links."
Links that were restored for verified athletes and clubs will remain on the platform. For non-verified users, any previously shared links will not be reinstated across any surfaces.
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