RunKeeper Pro

*All app reviews at RunningDigital.com receive updates as new app versions are released. No review is ever finished, rather I attempt to provide you with a current window to the developer’s products and services. Every day a different app here is used for testing in real training conditions. The testing queue is actually a loop, and whenever possible, the latest sessions are embedded on their respective pages. If I missed something, please leave a comment.*
 

It’s difficult to prove which sport tracker has the biggest user base, but RunKeeper is a contender for that distinction. The reasons for their popularity, imho, lie in a well-run company with an aggressive marketing department, rather than best-in-class apps. RunKeeper is good, doing what it should do while providing a simple and effective user experience. Follow them on Twitter and Facebook and you’ll find legions of followers and evangelists. They’ll retweet just about any, over zealous RunKeeper related tweet they see, and frankly it’s annoying. Why annoying? Well, having used every mobile sports tracker app since 2006, there isn’t one thing RunKeeper does that wasn’t already being done. But what they do, they do well.

RunKeeper is not an app for the more serious athletes, but it will work well for most people as their daily fitness logger. Again, it does a great job with the basics; Semi-configurable display, limited audio cues, HR sensor integration, 2-way history sync, map overlays, goals and fitness plans. I exclude more demanding athletes from my recommendation because a number of things are missing like extended audio cue configurables and large graphical statistics. Look, I’ve been making the case for years that mobile app + sensor systems will replace Polar and Garmin’s traditional loggers, but we’re not making strides in that direction when we have a HUGE display and most of it is wasted with glossy black graphics. Use that space to show us only what’s important. My perfect display would show only one stat at a time and I could tap or swipe through others. Don’t make me squint at a small area on the screen to see my heart rate, especially when you don’t provide a heart rate audio cue.

Still, for most people RunKeeper provides an easy setup with an easy maintenance. Turn it on, get your satellite fix, tighten your laces and hit start. Once you’re finished with your route you’ll have “post to Facebook and Twitter” options and upload to web portal at your disposal. The RunKeeper website is one of the best examples in this category. A real pleasure to use. There are premium products available for those who want more, but RunKeeper’s basic feature set should be enough for most users.

Like a few other apps, such as CardioTrainer, RunKeeper uses its own voice samples for audio cues instead of your phone’s own TTS engine. It’s a female english voice which sounds okay but I’ve been spoiled by VOX’s custom TTS voices.

On my latest test run for a measured 11km route, RunKeeper showed 10,28km. Distance being off for one run is always possible regardless of your setup. So, I’ll have to try several more sessions before drawing any conclusions.

I listen to podcasts and audio books on my runs and RunKeeper did well handling the apps audio cues over the playing tracks.

Overall, a very good sports tracker with a no nonsense approach and a bright future. I like the interval training and fitness classes, as well as a top-notch web portal. Look for more sensor data integration coming up.