Value your health by keeping track on your training. It records as you go running or walking, and gives you a bike computer with a bigger screen for cycling. You can even mark interesting locations along your way with pictures. The app keeps recorded statistics in great detail for analysis.
It also has voice announcements, and supports Bluetooth LE sensors for heart rate (Polar, Wahoo Kicker/Ticker, moofit, Mi Band 3, Amazfit Neo, Garmin HRM, and more), speed and distance (running and cycling), cadence (cycling), and a power meter (cycling). It measures altitude gain/loss via the phone’s barometer sensor. You can export data without any restrictions, as tracks either as KMZ (incl. photos), KML, or GPX.
It requires no Internet access, or extra permissions, and there are no adverts nor in-app analytics. You share only the data you want others to have. It can be installed from the Google Play Store, but also from the F-Droid store, with all Google services excluded.
It is not aiming to be a direct competitor to Strava because there is no public website, and also no iOS app. Strava’s website does help create more of a social and peer pressure type motivation for many, across both Android and iOS users. But OpenTrack is focussing more on preserving privacy by not using such a service, although one can import the recording into other apps and share from there. Regarding iOS, well the app is fully open source, so maybe someone could consider compiling it for iOS if the dependencies are not an issue.
See https://opentracksapp.com/
#technology #fitnesstracker #health #OpenTracks #opensource
Why’s it free on F-droid but $3.49 on Google Play? Or is the dev on Play just shamelessly profiting off an open source app? Edit: My bad. As everyone pointed out, purchasing on Google Play is how you can donate to the project. Sorry to jump to conclusions.
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Because Play Store is the “voluntary donation” option.
Or think of it as “convenience fee” for the people who can’t use F-Droid.
If my friend, who thinks I’m IT support since I majored computer science, asks me which tracker they should use - I would just tell them to pay the $4 for OpenTracks.
I have no problem with FOSS having a monetary cost. Devs have to eat too. The dev on Google Play store does seem to be on the core team for the app. (https://github.com/OpenTracksApp) I would hope the money is going to the project and not just that one guy but I don’t see anything transparent about it. That being said it would really not be hard for any of that team to notice that the app is on the g play store and for money with that person’s name attached to it. So it’s most likely on the up and up.
Edit: Other people have noted that the play store version is essentially the donate to project option. I need more coffee since I didn’t find that link lol
It is great to see support for the devs here though!
Also, publishing on F Droid is free while publishing on Play Store requires a developer account which costs money. Charging for the Play Store version makes sense if the dev even wants to offer it on a paid storefront. The free and FOSS option is free so I’m happy with that. I dislike when ALL options to acquire binaries of a FOSS app are paid but charging for the version on the pay2play store is understandable.
Nothing wrong with that? Loads of devs do that and point to fdroid for a free alternative. Just view it as a donation for the devs work.
In the Fdroid page there is a link to the google play store version next to their donate button so they’re using it as a way to make it easier to donate to them.
The thing that I struggle with is, once I have this data… what do I do with it? I’d like to pull it to a laptop for analysis and so forth, but I’ve never found a decent open source package for that kind of thing (the closest I found is pytrainer and it is, to put it mildly, a little rough around the edges).
Any recommendations that I’m not aware of?
I just pull my open tracks data into a spreadsheet and sum, average it in there. But my analysis needs are very basic.
Nextcloud maps is my go-to. Or Fittrackee.
My goal is to try and cover the map with various tracks I hike.
Interesting. I like renovating forgotten projects. What can you say are the issues with it?
There is https://www.goldencheetah.org/
It’s mostly for cycling, not too user friendly, not well documented, but very powerful once you figure out how to use it.
There are some such as D3.js, and some Python libraries such as Plotly, Bokeh, Matplotlib, etc but I’ve not used them. Another source may be free analytics apps. But it may also be worth seeing if you can’t import your data to something like Samsung Health as the upload does also strip out most normal metadata that an actual app is reading the whole time. Otherwise this app may be an alternative too with some built-in analytics at https://f-droid.org/en/packages/de.tadris.fitness/.
There’s FitoTrack (also available from F-Droid) as well, I’m using both and I think I prefer Fito’s individual view of exercises over OpenTrack, but they’re bith very good
I’m also a FitoTrack user (for running). I prefer the UI and the way data is displayed, but you’re right that they’re both really good options. I’ve used both simultaneously to compare features and accuracy and the main difference for me was just the aesthetics.
I’ve been using it for the last two years without any issues.
Does it automatically start tracking e.g. my cycling trip to work without needing to manually start it every day?
No, it does not have this feature, it is very privacy focused so it seems unlikely it would have a feature where tracking individuals is needed.
This would not contradict privacy. If the app just never sends thus data anywhere, then it’s no issue.
Open a feature request on github. You might get lucky.
This looks really cool! Thanks!
Looks awesome! Can it hook in to coros fitness watches? Is iOS on the roadmap?
They did not mention iOS. I suspect, although they exclude Google Services, it is hooking into some other dependencies. Their Githib project drills into more details on specific Bluetooth LE devices supported.
Thanks! I’ll take a look!
The primary function of the app is to record a GPS activity with your phone. If you already have a GPS watch and like using it, I don’t see the point in using both. And I’m not sure about Coros, but Garmin at least give you the option to manually download your GPS traces directly from the watch without using their web services if you’re concerned about privacy.
You may not see the point, but Ipersonally do. I prefer to see my route on my phone but use the metrics from my watch, since it will include heart rate. So I sync both to Strava and delete the recording taken from my phone after. Sometimes the watch doesn’t sync well, or I forget to start recording on one or the other, so it also gives me a backup.
OP said it was nearly a Strava replacement, so I was just trying to see how close we’re talking. I’m always on the lookout for a better mousetrap.
I use it, love it and can recommend it in conjunction with Nextcloud maps that will show your tracks on the map.
Thanks! I’ve been trying to replace Adidas Running (formerly Runtastic) so i’ll give it a try. Runtastic bugs you to accept their TOS too often which needs internet. And If you’re in the middle of the run, you can’t get past that screen to view the stats. 🤦
Needing a different app for viewing map seems a little inconvenient though.
If you use osmand for navigation you can use that to view your tracks, too.
