I favor the idea of allowing users to customize their experience. My needs are very simple. I ride solo. I don’t care about levels, clubs, races, badges, … I would like to have all routes and other things available day 1. I just want to ride the routes alone. I am fine with having my own best record bot riding with me but I don’t need all those other bells and whistles. If we could customize the UI we could get rid of the things that don’t interest us. You could always add them back later if they become of interest. Zwift will never be a community or social experience for me. I only use Zwift on days I absolutely cannot ride outdoors. I will ride in 20-degree weather so long as the roads are safe. I much prefer riding outdoors to sitting on a trainer. All these other features are fine by me just make it easier to turn all that off.
In case you are not aware of these possibilities:
- You can turn off your network connection (eg, disable WiFi or unplug ethernet) and all the other riders will disappear. Reconnect at the end of the ride if you want the ride to be saved on Zwift.
- If you’re on a Mac or PC you can use the ZwiftPref utility (from ZwiftHacks) to place yourself in an off-calendar world where there are very few riders. The workout feature can also be used to do this (you can do a 5 second custom workout in an off-calendar world and then keep riding the route more or less alone)
- You can disable the heads up display in Zwift to declutter the UI when you’re on a ride.
- You can turn off the “Game Sound Volume” in settings. This is managed independently from the “3D World Volume”.
- You can set “Show Group-Chat” to “Hide” in settings, to avoid seeing in-game chatter.
- You can set your profile to private so other users can’t follow you without your permission. By having no followers, you will get far fewer ride-ons in the game (if you find that annoying).
Thank you 
I already put my laptop in airplane mode to get rid of other riders. It would just be nice to do that all with one click or through customization.
Further to @Paul_Southworth ’s excellent post, there’s also an excellent hack for PC users courtesy of @GPLama for getting rid of the big blue thumbs and bing sound that accompanies your and other people’s Ride Ons…
Thanks for all the hacks and tips! I will keep them in mind for when I break out my indoor setup in a few months.
You could probably also use a firewall to block just Zwift if you want to keep the Internet on for emails or other stuff.
Sure. I use an old laptop for Zwift and that is its only use. I don’t really like to read while riding and I have my phone handy so access to email and such is not important.
I never use the companion app on my phone. I would rather all their functionality be found in the PC app and the mobile app just a mobile version of the same. I don’t like having to use two different devices.
Think of it as a remote control for the game. Remember when we had to get up to change the channel on the TV, that stunk right? The companion app lets you control certain aspects of the game, most of us have our phone mounted to the handlebars for ease of use.
If your laptop is too far away to use the keyboard then this is very helpful.
I have my laptop right in front of me so the keyboard is reachable. I admit I am not a power user. I have not explored what the companion app can do. I am pretty simple. I pick a route in Watopia, put the laptop in airplane mode, and ride. I don’t mess with anything else. I wear a HR monitor but don’t have anything measuring power. I don’t follow any training plans, do group rides, or any analysis of my rides. Back in my competitive days, had this stuff existed, I would have done much more with it.
I have a mild heart issue. If I ramp my HR too quickly (this happens on my mtn bike if I have to climb a short but super steep hill, or sprinting) my left side does not ramp up as quickly as my right side. The result is that blood backs up in my lungs which in turn causes an intense panic attack as my brain thinks something is wrong. Thankfully it’s not dangerous and I am in no danger of a heart attack. I just have a thick left side of my heart which can happen to hardcore endurance athletes. Because of this, I can’t do sprints or super hard intervals. Their FTP test (hope I got that right) is hard for me to do because of the sprinting. I can go hard but I have to ramp up my heart and not do any quick accelerations. So that makes racing or group rides (if more competitive) a no go for me. Same with certain types of intervals or any sprinting. When I did race, I was more of a climber and endurance guy. I never had sprint speed. So I’ve adapted but don’t have much use for a lot of the training and workout features. I will never race again so fun and fitness is my goal now. That’s why I don’t mess with power meters and the like.
I like Zwift mainly to make indoor riding less boring. At least I have something to look at a route that varies the resistance. I listen to music while I ride. I prefer to ride alone because I can best pace myself given my limitations. There are times in real life when I have to take a break on a climb simply to keep the blood from backing up in my lungs. I never stopped before this happened. It takes the fun out of group rides because I can’t always push myself to keep up with slightly faster riders. I may have to take a break halfway up a climb while they continue on. It’s easier to just ride alone and do my thing. I am very self-motivated so that helps. I greatly prefer riding outdoors though. I will head outside when it’s 20 degrees so long as the roads are clear. I don’t mind the cold. Indoor riding is my backup plan.