Endomondo the Mobile Device App — A Review

Release your endorphins, so goes the motto of Endomondo and it is a good one just as the app is a good one. This review is of the full pro (i.e. paid) version, the free version has fewer features but will give you a good taste of the full version.

Endomondo — What?

Endomondo is an app you can download, install, and run on your mobile device. Its purpose is to track and log your physical activity that involves moving yourself over distance. I suppose you could use it for your weight workouts in the gym but it would not show much. Use it to track your running, skiing, biking, cameoing, walking, etc. It tracks your motion using the device’s GPS and records and logs the track.

When your activity is complete you turn the tracker off and it generates a map of your activity, reports on calories burnt, and provides statistics such as pace, fastest and slowest laps (laps come in one mile distances), and the like.

Endomondo — How?

First, select your activity by tapping the screen where the image has “Cycling Sport” and Endomondo presents a list of activities to choose from, select the one you are about to engage in, press the start button (or timed start), and commence being active.

The screen to the right shows you the current activity’s distance, time, calories expended, and if you are going on a route with a time established it shows you how far ahead or behind the best route time you are. Do not fret, you do not have to grab the phone, wake it up, and pull up Endomondo to view this information, you can set Endomondo to give you the data by audio. However, I find the audio a bit weak, even if I am wearing the phone on my arm. Admittedly, I am biking and there is significant wind noise, if I am using Endomondo to track a walk or a hike that works better.

when you complete your activity you simply tap the stop button (not shown and is a red filled circle with a white square in it). Endomondo then saves the activity to your history, uploads the workout to the Endomondo and pushes it to your Facebook timeline if you have it setup to do that.

That is the basics of running Endomondo, very simple.

Endomondo — History

The best thing about applications such as Endomondo is the ability to maintain a historical record of your activity which enables you to track your progress. Are you going farther and faster and how do you compare to others. Raw competition may not interest you, but stacking up against others is a good way to determine how you are really doing.

The screenshot to your left is my current history and looking at the image closely you will see your most recent activities with the activity type, the time, the distance, and calories. You can also see flags indicating if there have been any likes or comments applied to the particular activity. You can scroll through the list by simple finger swiping.

I am not certain about all activities, but my guess is Endomomondo stores a limited number of activities on the phone and if you want to review activities beyond that Endomondo has to go out to the website to get that data back. So, reviewing far history is best done when you have a good signal and most ideal when your device has a WiFi internet connection.

To view any particular history, simply tap the activity you want to dive deeper into and the activity details screen appears. Yes, most of my activity of late is walking, it is no longer easy to get some bike riding in, but I got a bike ride in yesterday.

Endomondo — Diving Deeper into Activities

This is where Endomondo rocks! the screen displayed here is the activity detail screen and its main feature is the map showing the actual route you followed. You can tap the map and a full screen map appears with the map and some other interesting measurements.

Once again, Endomondo displays the activity statistics such as time, pace, distance, calories expended, and they add a hydration requirement number. I believe this is a guestimate on the amount of water lost to perspiration and other biological processes. I look at it, but on the whole do not find it very useful.

This details screen gives you another level of detail to dive into. The first being the laps detail screen. The laps detail screen simply breaks your activity into 1 mile (or Km) laps and reports on the time it took you to complete each mile. In addition, you get split time and handy indicators to quickly point out to you the slowest lap and the fastest time. Do not worry, you will know instantly recognize the symbols and know what they mean.

The summary screen is the one pictured and then there is the comments screen. The comments simply displays comments posted to the activity by yourself and your Endomondo friends.

Endomondo — The Route Map!

The last screen this review demonstrates is the map screen. Endomondo displays the route you went over, this includes roads, landmarks, and all of that. You can also put the map into satellite mode and the phone downloads the satellite image online and overlays that satellite image on the map. Beware, the satellite imagery takes time to load and will contain lots of data so think twice before downloading satellite imagery against your data limits.

At the bottom of the map screen Endomondo displays another helpful feature. The one Ilikethebestis shown on the image and is not the default gauge, but the one you see is a bar chart with lap times and Endomondo marks them with a tortoise andahare. Click on a particular bar and the represented lap lights up on the map! That is a very nice touch.

The interesting thing about that feature is I find the tortoise and hare are usually on the same spots for each route I have. I guess that makes sense, my slow lap on this route is betweeen the two big hills on this route and that valley contains a stop sign and is generally uphill until it crests the last big hill. The fast spot is on a nice and newly paved road and contains a long gradual hill.

I have noticed this is very consistent on varying routes and can serve as a tool to help you progress through those sticking points. Admittedly, one lap is going to have to serve as the slowest time and one as the fastest time.

Endomondo — In Summary

what I like

• The map and the social media sharing and aspects to the application, but use it to inspire and not to brag.
• The statistics, I transfer those numbers to my diet application and use the two to keep my eating in check.
• Endomondo is reliable, I have had very few problems working it

what I do not Like

• Endomondo is chatty, but explore settings more to discover how to control that.
• Occasionally it loses GPS contact and tells you so (and when Endomondo reestablishes contact with the GPS) and that is annoying as well as cause one to lose confidence in the distance and mapping it reports.
• Does not report maximum speed achived

In short, I really like using Endomondo to map my activity as I trek across our world. I have yet to use Endomondo to track my skiing activity but that will happen this upcoming snow season. If you are curious about the particulars of your movements, it is hard to beat Endomondo!

Endomondo is available for direct download for most phone and platforms and is available via the Google Playstore for Android phones. Now, get going and get active and let me know via Twitter @wisSkier!