PaddlePal.

What’s new.

Every update, from launch to your next paddle.
New features, improvements and fixes for iPhone, iPad and Apple Watch.

2026.24

Latest release Release page
22 changes in this release

Improvements

  • The app is faster and more responsive, with fewer freezes when you open it, switch tabs, or finish a paddle.
  • The live map updates more smoothly while you record a paddle.
  • Maps and shared workout images load more smoothly throughout the app.
  • Heart rate graphs now scroll more smoothly.
  • When you end a paddle shorter than a minute, the app offers to discard it first.

Bug Fixes

  • Workouts you delete now stay deleted and no longer reappear in your Log Book.
  • Challenges no longer briefly disappear while they refresh.
  • A prepared emergency SOS is no longer lost if you leave the app before it is sent.
  • Auto-pause now works reliably, even while you are scrolling.
  • Importing workouts from Apple Health no longer creates duplicates.
  • Trimming a workout no longer loses its calorie total.
  • Distance and live split feedback are more accurate during races.
  • Race setup again shows your current personal best before you start.
  • Exported workout files now show the correct activity type instead of always Stand-Up Paddleboarding.
  • The Motion-Based GPS Control setting now correctly turns motion-based GPS switching on and off.
  • Corrected wind condition wording that was mistranslated in around 25 languages.
  • Corrected the French label for pace.
  • Empty days in the calendar heatmap are visible again.
  • Challenge progress now appears only after you join the challenge.
  • Starting and finishing workouts on Apple Watch is more reliable.
  • Buttons now fit correctly on smaller screens and with larger text sizes.
  • SOS banners now respect the Reduce Motion setting, and charts have clearer VoiceOver descriptions.

2026.23

Release page
14 changes in this release

Improvements

  • A saving screen now appears while your workout finishes on iPhone, so you know your paddle is being stored.
  • Your full data export now includes your planned routes.
  • The export now tells you when a resumed export had to start again from the beginning.
  • Exporting your data no longer slows the app down while it runs.
  • Your workout history is better protected when you update from older versions of the app.
  • Workouts sent from your Apple Watch keep any edits you have made to them since.

Bug Fixes

  • An emergency alert sent from your Apple Watch no longer sends a second message from your iPhone.
  • A workout now saves normally even if its GPS route cannot be saved.
  • Challenge celebrations now wait until your workout has been saved successfully.
  • The Off and Done buttons are back in Race Mode setup on Apple Watch.
  • Opening the app while a race is ready to start now takes you back to the race instead of the Log Book.
  • Resuming an interrupted export no longer adds the same files twice.
  • Tapping a route editor toolbar button twice in quick succession no longer causes problems.
  • Workouts that appear more than once in your history now always open the same copy.

2026.22

Release page
23 changes in this release

New Features

  • You can now export all of your PaddlePal data including photos, notes and GPX files. Find it in settings.
  • A redesigned forecast gives you a clear go or no-go verdict, the best time to paddle, and an hour-by-hour timeline.
  • Workouts can pause automatically when you stop paddling, on both iPhone and Apple Watch.
  • You can colour your route map by heart rate zone to see where you worked hardest.
  • Completing a challenge now brings a celebration and a shareable achievement card showing the route you paddled.
  • You can plan and follow routes straight from the Home screen.
  • A new Feedback and Ideas page lets you suggest features, vote on ideas, and follow the roadmap.
  • A new setting lets you choose the quality of the animated weather backgrounds.

Improvements

  • Route planning happens right on the map: tap to add waypoints, drag to move them, and undo any change.
  • Race Mode on iPhone has a simpler setup and shows the distance remaining while you race.
  • Severe weather alerts now appear alongside a spot's difficulty rating.
  • The Home screen now shows a summary of current conditions.
  • Choosing equipment and adding photos when saving a workout is quicker and clearer.
  • The safety hub has a clearer emergency quick reference and shows which contact will receive your alerts.
  • Maps and route previews load faster.

Bug Fixes

  • Workout routes now save to Apple Health reliably from both iPhone and Apple Watch.
  • A workout recovered after the app closes unexpectedly now keeps its distance and route.
  • Cropping a workout no longer loses its thumbnail, heart rate chart, or the workout itself.
  • Interval splits are recorded accurately again.
  • Weather backgrounds now display correctly.
  • Route edits are saved safely if you leave the editor unexpectedly.
  • Chart averages always sit within the range shown, and VoiceOver reads the correct dates on time-based charts.
  • Recording a workout uses much less storage on your phone.

2026.21

Release page
25 changes in this release

New Features

  • The Apple Watch app has been redesigned from first run to finish, with a clearer permissions primer, a GO button that responds to your touch, your loaded route shown on the home screen, and a new workout summary with your distance front and centre
  • Race Mode on Apple Watch can now be cancelled during preparation and the countdown, and remembers your last race distance
  • A refreshed welcome on iPhone introduces PaddlePal, asks about your craft and goals, and shows the plans that fit
  • VoiceOver users can now explore every chart point by point with Audio Graphs

Improvements

  • While you paddle, the watch shows GPS status, a Water Lock reminder, your current speed, and a hold-to-end hint so a stray tap never ends your session
  • The watch taps your wrist at each split and when a session starts or ends
  • The watch weather screen shows when conditions were last updated and explains clearly when location permission is missing
  • Watch Settings now has Workout, Permissions, and About sections
  • The emergency beacon on Apple Watch now shows sending, queued, sent, and failed states with a retry option
  • Layouts adapt better on small iPhones, iPad, and at larger accessibility text sizes, with photo zoom controls and stronger button contrast
  • Live Activities and widgets now distinguish paused and stale sessions and can speak a summary
  • Spoken VoiceOver labels are now translated in every supported language
  • Home screen weather loads faster and iPad now supports pull to refresh
  • Notifications on the watch are only requested when a route arrives from your iPhone, not at launch

Bug Fixes

  • Fixed watch workouts arriving on iPhone showing zero distance and speed
  • Fixed iPhone workout totals, pause timing, and calorie estimates being inconsistent, and recovery after a failed save now keeps your route
  • Fixed cropping a workout leaving the detail screen pointing at the deleted version or leaving duplicates in your logbook
  • Fixed the watch opening the session screen before a workout had actually started; a failed start now shows an error
  • Fixed a second race on the watch sometimes not recording a workout after the first
  • Fixed cancelling a race on the watch leaving a live workout with no way back to it
  • Fixed the location permission prompt appearing unexpectedly when the watch app opened
  • Fixed premium access checks reporting a spurious error on flaky connections
  • Fixed cancelled paddle spot requests reporting success and invalid birth dates being silently accepted
  • Fixed waypoint fields in the route editor keeping a previous point's coordinates when adding a new one
  • Fixed the pace and remaining distance row wrapping onto two lines during a race

2026.20

Release page
17 changes in this release

Improvements

  • Workout routes in your logbook now load much faster, especially for long paddles
  • Sharing a very short paddle now works, with a tidy placeholder image instead of a failed map
  • Home screen weather now refreshes when you arrive somewhere new
  • Less battery used while recording: the app pauses background location checks it does not need
  • Clearer labels across the app: route waypoints, activity counts, and missing-location messages now read naturally
  • VoiceOver users can now activate the upgrade prompt on locked feature cards, with clearer spoken hints
  • Updated translations across all supported languages

Bug Fixes

  • Fixed short workouts sometimes losing their entire route from the map
  • Fixed routes showing as empty while a workout was still syncing from Apple Watch
  • Fixed the pace chart so it reflects how your pace actually changed, with the average line matching your workout totals
  • Splits now line up exactly with your workout's total distance, and pace differences show as clear plus or minus times
  • Distances and speeds now follow your chosen units consistently, including route lists and the full-screen speed summary
  • The tide ribbon and forecast detail now agree on the current height, clearly labelled Now
  • The UV summary now recognises moderate peaks and the Peak reading always shows a value
  • Fixed a rare problem that could make your workout history temporarily unavailable: the app now repairs itself and recovers your data automatically
  • Fixed workouts saved after an interruption not always reappearing correctly in your logbook
  • Fixed an error that could occur when saving a workout with no GPS points

2026.19

Release page
22 changes in this release

New Features

  • A new pace chart in every workout detail shows how your pace changed across the session
  • Live pace now appears on the iPhone recording screen, in the Live Activity, and on the Dynamic Island
  • Challenge reminders: turn on notifications and PaddlePal will tell you about new challenges and remind you before they end
  • Reviews from other paddlers now appear near the top of every paddle spot, with a one-time tip pointing them out

Improvements

  • Apple Watch widgets now respect your distance unit and show live, always-current timestamps
  • The iPhone stats widget now honours your speed unit preference
  • The statistics calendar keeps a stable five-week layout and its loading placeholder matches the real grid
  • Smoother, more responsive app: several causes of brief freezes while scrolling and viewing weather have been removed
  • Apple Watch uses less battery during GPS tracking
  • Clearer VoiceOver descriptions and better contrast in many places, including when Reduce Transparency is on
  • A friendly message now appears if saving a route fails

Bug Fixes

  • Fixed workouts stuck showing "Locating..." in the logbook, including workouts recorded on Apple Watch
  • Fixed the watch occasionally starting a session paused, with a resume button that did not respond
  • Fixed live distance, pace, and splits freezing for the rest of a session after you stopped moving for a while
  • Saving a workout on iPhone is now more resilient: a problem at the end of a workout no longer loses your session
  • Fixed the Live Activity timer not starting if you paused right at the beginning of a workout
  • Fixed the upgrade screen going blank during temporary network problems
  • Fixed exported GPX and FIT files overwriting each other when they had the same name, and you are now told if an export fails
  • Fixed the statistics calendar occasionally dropping the oldest day of the last 30 days
  • Emergency beacon messages now use your real name instead of a generic fallback if available
  • Fixed heart rate zone details missing from some older workouts
  • Fixed a crash related to Siri suggestions

2026.18

Release page

Our biggest update ever!

28 changes in this release

New Features

  • Challenges: a new dedicated tab where you can take on ready-made challenges or create your own based on distance, time, or number of sessions
  • Join and leave challenges straight from the home screen and watch your progress update as you paddle
  • Completed challenges move to their own tab so you can look back on what you have achieved
  • Export any workout as a FIT file, ready to upload to Garmin Connect
  • Helpful tips now appear around the app to introduce features like PaddleSafe, Glide Score, and creating challenges
  • Your Apple Watch now taps your wrist when a workout starts, pauses, resumes, and finishes

Improvements

  • Pace is now calculated and shown more accurately, including live pace during races
  • Distance tracking is more accurate: sudden GPS jumps are ignored, and pauses or lost signal no longer add phantom distance
  • The screen stays awake while you are recording a workout
  • Ending a workout on iPhone now asks you to confirm, so a session cannot be finished by accident
  • Deleting a route or piece of equipment now asks for confirmation first
  • Lower battery drain and memory use during workouts on both iPhone and Apple Watch
  • The live workout map now draws long routes much more smoothly
  • Your location dot now appears on the full-screen recording map
  • Searching as a free user keeps your search text and shows an upgrade prompt instead of clearing it
  • The close button on the upgrade screen now appears straight away
  • Every pop-up screen now has a clear way to dismiss it
  • Larger touch targets and clearer VoiceOver descriptions across the app
  • Clearer wording in alerts and permission requests
  • Challenge names and descriptions now appear in your language
  • The Apple Watch app has been refreshed to match the latest watchOS design

Bug Fixes

  • Fixed workouts recorded on Apple Watch occasionally never arriving on iPhone; transfers are now confirmed and retried until they get through
  • Fixed body weight not being read from the Health app, which could make calorie estimates less accurate
  • Fixed Pro features appearing locked when your device was offline
  • You are now told if a workout fails to save in the background instead of it failing silently
  • Fixed challenges not moving to the Completed tab as soon as you hit the goal
  • Fixed pause and resume occasionally triggering twice in a row
  • Fixed several animations not respecting the Reduce Motion setting

2026.15

Release page
6 changes in this release

Changes

  • PaddlePal now announces your split times out loud during paddles on iPhone and Apple Watch
  • Splits are now recorded for every workout, not just races, and appear as markers along your route.
  • Charts in Insights, Atlas weather, and workout details can now be opened full-screen, with interactive scrubbing to inspect your data more easily
  • Workout details and the Logbook have been refreshed and reorganised so your most useful stats are easier to find
  • Maps, route drawing, photo loading, live tracking, and heading updates are now smoother and more responsive, especially on longer workouts
  • This update also includes collapsible split tables, improved Apple Health route syncing, updated privacy and terms links, better accessibility support, and fixes for filters, tides, weather icons, chart rotation, iCloud photos, localisation, and minor crashes
YOUR NEXT CHAPTER STARTS OUTSIDE

Less scrolling.
More paddling.

Download on the App Store

For iPhone, iPad & Apple Watch.