Publish Tracks to the Feed & Connect Your Device

This article will walk through how to create a post and how to publish tracks that you wish to share on the Home (Activity) feed. We will also walk through how to connect your device and upload activities automatically to your Gaia GPS account and to the feed.  

Create a Post

You can create a post on the feed by accessing the Home tab on the Gaia GPS Android or iOS app, and tapping on 'Share your adventure.' You can add photos to your post, and choose the privacy level that you wish your post to be set at. For more information on privacy settings, please visit this article. 

At this time, we are not supporting video content for posts on the feed. 

Publish a Track 

You can publish a recorded track to the feed by first recording a track on the Gaia GPS app here. If you are having issues with recording a track, please see this article. 

When you finish your track, you will have the option to save your track and set the visibility level. By default, your tracks will be set to PUBLIC, unless you change your privacy settings. At this time, waypoints and routes are not publishable to the feed. 

If you have selected, 'Everyone,' your activity will be publicly viewable to all users on the feed. 

If you have selected, 'Followers only,' your followers alone will be able to see your ride or activity. 

If you have selected, 'Only Me,' your activity will only appear under your activity log for you to view. 

You can learn more about your default privacy settings here.

Note: it is important to remember that if you wish to only let your followers see your activities, you should keep your default privacy settings set to 'Private' for your profile and your activity settings set to 'Followers Only.' If you wish to keep all of your tracks 'Private' to you alone, you should set your privacy settings to 'Private' for your profile and your activity settings to 'Only You.' 

Connect Your Device to Upload Your Activities 

You also have the option to connect a device, such as your Garmin or Strava, to automatically upload your activities to the feed.

On iOS and Android: 

To connect a device via the app, go to 'Settings'->Device Connection Hub. 

On Web: 

To connect a device via gaiagps.com, go to 'Settings' -> Device Connection Hub. 

You will be able to connect a device, such as a Garmin or Wahoo device. When you walk through the steps to connect your device, you will have the option to choose a brand affiliation that your device is connected with: Gaia GPS, Trailforks, or Outside. 

Brand Affiliation 

Depending on the brand affiliation you choose, activities automatically ingested into the feed from connecting your device will be published under that brand. 

If you choose Gaia GPS as your brand affiliation for your device, activities recorded via the Garmin device and published to the feed will show as Gaia GPS tracks. 

Garmin/Terra Connections: 

If you choose Gaia GPS as your brand affiliation, and ALSO Sync Activities to Gaia GPS, your tracks or activities via your Garmin device will appear as Gaia GPS affiliated and will appear in your Gaia GPS device as tracks. 

However, if you choose Trailforks as your brand affiliation, but also sync activities to Gaia GPS, you may see duplication in what uploads to your feed. You may see ridelogs or tracks appear twice in your feed and across platforms. To avoid duplication, choose one mapping app affiliation and syncing status per device you sync. 

Publishing to the Home Feed 

For any synced activities through a connected device, those activities will be automatically ingested into the feed pending your synced device settings. 

The privacy settings for synced devices are DIFFERENT from the privacy settings through your Outside profile and your Gaia GPS Profile. To access the privacy settings for your synced device, please visit the 'Device Connection Hub' and go to 'Manage Connections.' 

Under your synced device settings (example: Garmin below), you will have the option to change the privacy of your synced activities. If you have enabled 'Followers' or 'Everyone' to see your synced activities, these tracks will publish to the feed. 

If others are not seeing your tracks publish to the feed, it may be because your individual track settings are set to Visibility: Only You. You can change each individual track's visibility by clicking on the track directly and seeing the statistics page below each track. 

You can view your activity log through your connected device via Manage Your Data. Your most recent tracks or activities should appear here for your connected devices as long as you have successfully connected your device or account. 

Synced activities can take time to upload into the feed and your activity log. If you are not seeing your most recent rides or activities show up in your activity log or in the feed, please ensure that your connection is correctly set-up via the external device platform (example: Garmin Connect app). 

FAQ

How do I change the privacy of my tracks? 

If you recorded a track and had previously set it to 'everyone' or 'followers only,' you can alter the visibility of the track by going to your Saved folder, clicking on the track, and then changing the visibility under 'Visibility,' under 'Activity.' 

If I post a public track but then make the track private, is it removed from the feed? 

Yes, if you change your privacy settings for a track, it should update to align with the privacy setting you have chosen. 

If you change the visibility of your track to 'everyone,' this will make the track public, but it may not re-publish to the feed. 

Why are others seeing my synced activities in my feed even when my default privacy settings are set to 'Only You'? 

Your synced activities through the Device Hub have DIFFERENT privacy settings than your default settings. When you sync your device, you have the option to set the privacy of your synced activities under 'Manage Connections.' 

The device sync settings will control what activities are ingested into the feed automatically and visible publicly. 

Why am I seeing synced activities published twice in my feed? 

In your device sync settings, under 'Manage Connections,' you will have the option to choose a brand affiliation for your synced activities. If you choose Gaia GPS as your brand affiliation, and ALSO Sync Activities to Gaia GPS, your tracks or activities via your Garmin device will appear as Gaia GPS affiliated and will appear in your Gaia GPS account as tracks. 

However, if you choose Trailforks as your brand affiliation, but also sync activities to Gaia GPS, you may see duplication in what uploads to your feed and appears in the Gaia GPS app. You may see ridelogs or tracks appear twice in your feed and across platforms. To avoid duplication, choose one mapping app affiliation and syncing status per device you sync.