Apple's New Sports App for iPhone Focused on Simplicity, Says Eddy Cue

[MacRumors]

Apple today released a new sports app for the iPhone that shows scores, stats, standings, upcoming games, betting odds, and more for a variety of leagues, such as the MLB, MLS, NBA, NHL, Premier League, and the NFL when its next season begins. For ongoing games, the app also displays real-time play-by-play information.

The app has a very basic interface with scoreboards, which you can personalize by following your favorite teams and leagues. Apple's services chief and noted sports enthusiast Eddy Cue said this simple design is intentional.

"We created Apple Sports to give sports fans what they want — an app that delivers incredibly fast access to scores and stats," said Cue, in Apple's press release announcing the app. "Apple Sports is available for free in the App Store, and makes it easy for users to stay up to date with their favorite teams and leagues."

Cue elaborated in an interview with Fast Company's Harry McCracken.

"We're not trying to have you spend 30 minutes on the app," said Cue. "You can spend five seconds to go look at the score, or you might spend 30 seconds, or you might spend three minutes going play-by-play because it's the end of the game. It's all about that. It's getting you in, giving you what you need, and doing it really quickly."

The Apple Sports app does not yet support Live Activities for viewing scores at a glance on the Lock Screen, or in the Dynamic Island on newer iPhones, but the Apple TV app offers this functionality for select leagues.

It remains to be seen how much the app will evolve in the future. Apple has pushed into live sports streaming over the past few years, including MLS Season Pass and MLB's Friday Night Baseball, and it is easy to envision the app becoming the ultimate hub for sports-related content. But for now, at least, Apple wants to keep things simple.

Apple Sports is available for free on the App Store in the U.S., the U.K., and Canada.

Article Link: Apple's New Sports App for iPhone Focused on Simplicity, Says Eddy Cue

 

[Morod]

Yay, Apple! Thank you for this.

 

[needsomecoffee]

Eddie is still alive. Wow.... reminder to rewatch "Weekend at Bernie's". What a great movie and somewhat prophetic. BTW: Was that comment really from Eddie ?? or did Apple WAB you ??

 

[profwafflez]

Missing a lot of teams and leagues at the moment...

 

[ProfessionalFan]

Well they nailed that then

@Djones96 I am confused with the thumbs down here. In the other thread you were crying about the lack of NFL content so shouldn't you agree with this comment?

 

[tomtad]

Everything this guy touches is a disaster

 

[mattrva]

Everything this guy touches is a disaster

Relax dude! He explained its purpose and focus on simplicity, does that not do it for you?

 

[jwhite9185]

Good start, but would be nice to get some motorsports in the future.

 

[NMBob]

If there's anyone that's simple, it's Eddy.

 

[mozumder]

could use local college/high-school/little-league game info. Anyone should be able to make an account and post official stats of their league. This would have millions of users.

Actually this would be fun with local neighborhood pick-up games, White Men Can'T Jump style..

 

[JackMac99]

Looks nice but I still prefer the app from Livesportsontv.com. It has a much wider coverage

 

[hagar]

Is it as simple as the Health and Home apps? /s

 

[jonnyb098]

It’s so simple it doesn’t have any widgets or watch app or iPad app or half of the sports people care about.

Apple released a summer intern school project. Congrats!

 

[ProfessionalFan]

Everything this guy touches is a disaster

He's accomplished a lot more in his life than you or I ever will

@crisneat Do you disagree? I see you decided to be passive aggressive with 2 dislikes in a row for my comments but zero rebuttals.

 

[dannyyankou]

But why doesn't it have Live Activities support? That's a no brainer.

I like the design of the app otherwise, but it doesn't even have Home Screen or lock screen widgets.

Edit: Before people say it was reported it has live activities, there's no toggle for it in settings. And that report wasn't coming from Apple themselves. There's currently live activities through the TV app, but that's limited to a few leagues.

 

[mrboro]

Far too focussed on American sports at the moment. For the British market it needs to cover more football leagues together with big sports like cricket and rugby….. They weren’t lying when they called it ‘simple’.

 

[flexwithmarius]

Nope.

It needs bells.

And whistles.

Lots and lots of bells and whistles.

 

[impaler]

Apple today released a new sports app for the iPhone that shows scores, stats, standings, upcoming games, betting odds, and more for a variety of leagues, such as the MLB, MLS, NBA, NHL, Premier League, and the NFL when its next season begins. For ongoing games, the app also displays real-time play-by-play information.

The app has a very basic interface with scoreboards, which you can personalize by following your favorite teams and leagues. Apple's services chief and noted sports enthusiast Eddy Cue said this simple design is intentional.

"We created Apple Sports to give sports fans what they want — an app that delivers incredibly fast access to scores and stats," said Cue, in Apple's press release announcing the app. "Apple Sports is available for free in the App Store, and makes it easy for users to stay up to date with their favorite teams and leagues."

Cue elaborated in an interview with Fast Company's Harry McCracken.

"We're not trying to have you spend 30 minutes on the app," said Cue. "You can spend five seconds to go look at the score, or you might spend 30 seconds, or you might spend three minutes going play-by-play because it's the end of the game. It's all about that. It's getting you in, giving you what you need, and doing it really quickly."

Fast Company says the app supports Live Activities, which would allow users to view scores at a glance on the Lock Screen or in the Dynamic Island on iPhone 14 Pro models and all iPhone 15 models. However, we have not been able to get the feature working in our early testing, and there is no Live Activities toggle in the app's settings.

It remains to be seen how much the app will evolve in the future. Apple has pushed into live sports streaming over the past few years, including MLS Season Pass and MLB's Friday Night Baseball, and it is easy to envision the app becoming the ultimate hub for sports-related content. But for now, at least, Apple wants to keep things simple.

Apple Sports is available for free on the App Store in the U.S., the U.K., and Canada.

Article Link: Apple's New Sports App for iPhone Focused on Simplicity, Says Eddy Cue

Nice first start. Would like to see notifications and live activities. I use my calendar .ics subs to follow my teams, which is fine, but it does clutter up my calendar. Would be cool to keep them off my calendar. Also, live activities would be sweet, along with a widget for upcoming games. Relying on Sports Alerts right now to do that, which does a great job.

 

[fw85]

Step 1: make a new sports tracking app
Step 2: include all the major european football leagues
Step 3: don't bother releasing it in Europe
👌

 

[impaler]

But why doesn't it have Live Activities support? That's a no brainer.

I like the design of the app otherwise, but it doesn't even have Home Screen or lock screen widgets.

This is what stuns me. Apple should at least release its apps as examples of how to take advantage of their iOS built in capabilities.

 

[Smoovejayy]

Good start, but would be nice to get some motorsports in the future.

or nascar

 

[ethanwa79]

Someone at Apple thought this was needed??? Is the App Store supposed to have apps that solve this?

 

[jonnyb098]

He's accomplished a lot more in his life than you or I ever will

He’s a good deal maker. He does mostly business stuff. He’s nowhere close to being a designer or developer. He cares about making deals

 

[impaler]

Someone at Apple thought this was needed??? Is the App Store supposed to have apps that solve this?

You could make that argument about nearly anything. "Oh, there are email apps...there are calendar apps...why would Apple do anything?" This is clearly a strategy about moving more into sports coverage. Rumor was they were bidding for NFL Sunday Ticket before Google won it. They clearly see monetization here.

 

[jonnyb098]

Step 1: make a new sports tracking app
Step 2: include all the major european football leagues
Step 3: don't bother releasing it in Europe
👌

Step 4: release it in America without including motor sports or NFL