How to make a GPS route video of your run or ride
Updated November 6, 2026 · 4 min read · By Joao Silva
A still photo shows one moment. A GPS route video shows the whole effort: your line animating across the map, your photos appearing exactly where you took them. Here is how to make one from an activity you already recorded, rendered entirely on your phone.
A real example: 145 km in the mountains
The video above is a 145 km gran fondo made in the app as a 3D Map Video. The route flies over satellite imagery, the photos from the start pen, a viewpoint and a mountain road appear where they were taken, and the distance, time and speed count up in the bar along the bottom. Nothing was edited after the app made it.
What you need
A recorded activity that has GPS data, a run, ride, hike, or anything with a route. ActivArt reads activities from Strava, Intervals.icu, Apple Health, and Health Connect, so as long as your watch or phone tracked the route, you are set.
You also need a few photos from the activity in your camera roll. They do not have to be perfect; ActivArt finds the ones taken during the activity window automatically.
Step 1: Connect your activity
Open ActivArt and connect your source once. If you train with a Garmin, Wahoo, or COROS device, the smoothest path is to link it to Intervals.icu, then connect ActivArt to Intervals.icu, that gives ActivArt the richest route and stats data.
Once connected, your recent activities appear in the app. New ones show up on their own, and you can get a notification the moment one is detected.
Step 2: Generate the route video
Open the activity and choose to create a GPS route video. ActivArt animates your route across the map and traces the line as it goes.
Your activity photos are placed on the timeline at the exact point they were taken. ActivArt uses both the photo location and the recorded time to position each one, so a photo from the halfway climb appears at the halfway climb, not at the start.
Step 3: Review and share
The finished video is vertical, framed for Stories, Reels, and TikTok. Preview it, then share straight to Instagram, TikTok, or send it to your group chat. The MP4 stays on your device until you choose to share it; nothing about the video is uploaded during generation.
Tips to make it stand out
Prefer climbs to flat routes for the most dramatic line. A loop or an out-and-back with elevation reads beautifully as it builds.
The 3D Map Video goes further: your route runs over the real terrain in satellite imagery, the camera flies along behind you, and the stats you picked for your images count up in a bar at the bottom.
If your activity is more about the climb than the map, try an elevation profile video instead, it builds your ascent frame by frame.
Turn your next route into a video