Why can I only watch “random” rider in watch mode and not select friends?
It would be nice to select and watch friends riding…
If you have the companion app you can select your friend and watch him/her. You have to be on the same wifi and have Zwift running on your pc.
it work 80% of the time.
Yeah this seems to be a significant oversight. “Just watch” is an awesome feature made ridiculous by the fact that we can’t easily watch our friends when we get the notification that they’re riding.
Surely there is an update coming? Because why would we want to watch strangers who we cannot interact with when the design language is already in place for us to watch our friends.
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The idea that I need two devices - the companion app on my phone and a pc app running Zwift seems unnecessarily complicated.
Here’s what should happen. I receive a notification on my phone (phones are the proper place for push notifications) that a friend is riding, I click on their profile in the Companion app, and I click on “fan view.” That action launches the full size Zwift app on the phone and starts to auto-execute things like login, “just watch” and then loads the fan view of the friend.
Another option is to build out the “Just Watch” button on the full size app in such as way as to rank order friends in a separate queue and not just the regular viewer list. There is some extra space on the left side of the game screen that could accommodate a selection box.
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Is it not possible, after you receive a notice that a friend is Zwifting, to open Zwift and click on the name of the person who you want to view as someone to ‘ride with’? Zwift should then place you in the proximity of that person and you can just click on their name in the rider list on the right and be watching them (while your avatar stops on the side of the road). When you get tired of this just select ‘Back to me’ and then end and trash your ‘ride’. This should work on PC/Mac/iOS devices, I think, but not TV OS.
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Thanks Nigel. That works. Not that intuitive but at least possible.
Hello,
Tried it this morning. So I’ll leave this in case someone is searching for an answer.
You can do it without the Companion App as Nigel said but it is better with it because if you join a Zwifter, you’ll only have a few seconds to spot him and click on his name. And sometime, if there’s too many people, you might even not see him at all. So I won’t bother explaining that.
With the Companion app
Do what Shaun says. Keep in mind that if you want to be notified, your friend must be in your favorite. Either way you’ll still be able to see who is Zwifting now from the companion app.
- Zwift app must be open.
- Open Zwift companion app and you should see who is Zwifting now.
- Click on your friend’s profile then “Fan View”.
- Back in the Zwift app, it will immediately switch the view to your friend
If you are Zwifting in the same world or event, and your friend is in your favorite, you will see your friend as a little star instead of a dot in the map. That way you’ll know where he/she is if you decide to join him/her.
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This does not always work and is “flakey” at best…
Trying all evening to follow my TT Team and not working, but it worked perfect on Tuesday night…
It would allow me to watch nearby riders, but not anyone in my Friend list…
Another patchy Zwift experience…
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How is it in 2020 nearly 2021 it is impossible to follow a friend on Zwift. The lack of ingenuity on Swift is quite shocking especially as you have to pay monthly. Tech guys stop sitting around twiddling your thumbs i’m counting your money… get on it!!!
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If you open Zwift you can go to the companion app and fan view your friend. (This wont work if he is in a event, you will have to be in the same event)
It’s also worth noting that you have to be in the same world as you’re friend or the Fan View button won’t work.
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Why is it so insanely hard. Can’t you just insert a button simple but effective
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I. too, am stunned that this isn’t made easier. I’ve found the “best” way for me is to log in to Zwift, click the different worlds until I confirm which one my friend is in, then select them and “ride with” them. Make sure to start watching the quickly and don’t bother pedaling (usually not on my bike anyway).
But this is cumbersome. How tough would it be to have a “Watch this person” button on the list of people you follow?
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This is really terrible. Tried to watch a friend on an epic ride today and maybe drop them a message. Realized that it’s virtually impossible to do so. LAME
What world were they doing their ride on?
You have to enter the same world but after that it’s easy to fan view any rider (using companion app).
To get into the same world to start with, either enter an event, or set up a meetup with a random friend (who doesn’t have to attend or even respond to the invitation).
Yes it’s clunky and tedious to have to do this but at least it does work reliably IME. Most often I just enter the same event as the riders I want to view, but this isn’t always possible when it’s a women’s race or private event.
On PC, there should be an option to just select a friend or search for a rider to watch. All you need is a search option in “Join a Zwifter”.
1 Like