Did Apple just create the perfect sports app for me?
A first look at Apple Sports, the new sports scores and stats app released by Apple this week.
There are some app categories that I’m really picky about. As I’ve shared before, I’m seemingly always on the hunt for the perfect weather app. And for just as long as the App Store has existed, I’ve been on the hunt for the perfect sports scores app. Apple Sports, released by Apple on Wednesday, isn’t there yet. But it shows a lot of promise that it’s going to be as close as humanly possible to my perfect ideal for a sports app.
Where almost every sports app goes wrong, in my opinion, is in putting sports news front and center, and relegating scores to another tab within the app. I don’t need a sports news app though. I get nearly all the sports news and commentary I need from X (formerly Twitter) and podcasts. I just want a sports app that gives me sports news and in-game stats in as clean and clear a way as possible. Why does almost no one make that app?
Heck, in the ESPN app they even have a setting where you can choose which tab you want the app to open to. So what do I choose? Scores. What does the app give me almost every time it launches? News! 😡 So it’s super refreshing to have a sports app from Apple that just shows sports scores and in-game data like stats, play-by-play, and lineup.
So far it’s limited. They clearly prioritized adding only the sports that are in season or starting soon. There’s not NFL or college football yet, for example, though Apple says those are coming. (And I’d be remiss if I didn’t pass along a friend’s lamentation that there’s no NASCAR. Just in case someone at Apple is reading this.)
You can pick your favorite teams and leagues and choose to show all of the games from either of those categories, or pick a sport like MLS and see all of the current and upcoming games plus yesterday’s games. Within the broad categories of men’s and women’s basketball you can choose to see all of the games from any specific conference. I’m sure they’ll do the same for college football this fall. What they definitely need to add is the ability to see all AP top 25 games within men’s and women’s basketball (and later NCAA football).
I also see no mention of Live Activities in version 1.0 of Apple Sports. Live Activities is that iOS feature that lets you follow a game (or any other type of live activity) from your iPhone’s Lock Screen or the Dynamic Island. It’s an absolute killer feature for following a sports game when you can’t give it your full attention or are away from a TV, and it’s honestly shocking it didn’t make the first version. Hopefully that’s one of the first additions they make. For now, you can tap on the “Open Apple TV” button on the page of a live game, and can then launch a Live Activity for that game from the Apple TV app. That’s functional, but clunky.
This was an app I had long hoped Apple would launch. It’s incomplete, but shows a lot of promise. I can’t wait to see how Apple develops it going forward. And Apple? If you do incorporate sports news into this app, just make sure I can launch the app straight into scores. Thx.
I’m exactly the same way with weather and sports. I don’t like using Tech companies for anything, their news is God awful, written by children. However, I have been trying to replace my yahoo sports app for years. Have been unable, it launch’s right to scores. Hopefully the Apple app will evolve like this. Because even though Apple is tech, they don’t push their news propaganda.