I’d love to see the Companion App chat function expanded so that we can communicate with our friends and followers even when we are not in a ride ourselves.
Right now, the chat is only available when both sides are actively riding in Zwift. But there are so many moments where communication outside of an active ride would be incredibly useful:
Planning meetups or group rides without having to switch devices or platforms
Motivating friends during races or solo workouts, even if we’re not riding at the same time
Sending quick updates or last-minute coordination (“Running 10 min late”, “Let’s join this event instead!”)
Sometimes we know a friend is doing a hard effort or a race — being able to send them a quick message directly through the Companion App would add a whole new layer of social interaction and support, far more engaging than just a Ride On!
Bringing improved messaging to the Companion App would make Zwift feel even more connected, social, and fun — both on and off the bike.
If you think this would improve your Zwift experience, please upvote!
I don’t disagree, the messaging lacks a lot on Zwift (but also opens the door for lots of harassment) so maybe it isn’t a bad thing?
Options for you: start a club and ask your Zwift friends to join, club messaging would work much better for you and accommodate most of what you are asking for.
Option 2, ever heard of discord? This is also how friends voice chat during rides.
Discord is great — but I think it’s too complicated as a solution in this case. It requires everyone I want to interact with on Zwift to join the same Discord server or platform, and that’s not realistic for the whole community.
Zwift already has a built-in chat system — it just currently only works when we’re actively riding. It would be much easier and more intuitive to extend that functionality so we can message our friends or followers directly through the Companion App at any time.
And just like on every other platform, users could control who is able to message them (friends only, followers only, etc.), so privacy and comfort would still be fully maintained.
In short: No extra apps, no extra setup — just better social connectivity within Zwift.
I don’t disagree, but this isn’t the first time this has been suggested, the lack of good messaging with Zwift and the companion app is a long standing issue… I just don’t expect it to get expanded anytime soon based on how slow development is (especially development with the companion app which is even slower)
You are probably better using a non Zwift group chat solution. Easier to control and more functionality. Also won’t get other Zwift riders scolding you for chatting.
