A Popular iPhone App Just Got a Simple Yet Significant New Feature
If you don't use Apple Sports as your default sports app, I'd highly recommend trying it.
Unlike other popular sports apps, like ESPN, Apple Sports cuts out the bloat — advertisements, news and rumor articles — and just gives you quick access to real-time game scores and stats. It's a minimalist app that's incredibly easy to navigate.
But the coolest thing about Apple Sports is that it makes using Live Activities — the feature where your favorite team's games appear right on your Lock Screen — super easy. And, if you find a one-off game that you want to keep track of, a quick tap of the Live Activity icon will get it to show up on your Lock Screen, too.
That said, as somebody who uses Apple Sports every day, I'll admit the app isn't perfect. It's pretty barebones and, most significantly, some popular sports haven't been supported. Off the top of my head, tennis and golf, as well as some important competitions, such as FIFA's current Club World Cup, have been notable omissions.
But that looks set to change. Today, Apple is adding a simple yet neat new feature to Apple Sports, as well as rolling out support for a new sport.
Apple has introduced a new 'Home' section to the Apple Sports app, which will allow you to customize and better organize your favorite teams, leagues and competitions to appear in the app based on your preferences.
The press release states: 'Events and matchups are now grouped by league, with intuitive controls for fans to set their preferred order, ensuring their top leagues appear first. Favorite teams always appear at the top, giving fans instant access to the scores and updates they care about the most.'
Those who have favorited several teams or competitions can now edit which of them appears at the top of the new Home section. To do this, select Home in the top-right > select Edit > and drag and reorder as you see fit.
The other big update is that Apple is finally adding support for Men's and Women's tennis, which had been one of the biggest omissions (along with golf) to date.
The addition of tennis comes at an opportune time — Wimbledon begins next week. According to Apple, its sports app will have support for over 1,000 tennis tournaments, including the Grand Slams.
The updated app will allow users to track specific players' progress throughout the tournament, just like you've been able to do so with other sports teams — yes, each of their matchups will appear as a Live Activity on your iPhone's Lock Screen.
Apple is rolling out this update — technically 'version 3.0' — to Apple Sports right now.
Your app will update automatically in the coming days, but you can initiate it manually by following these steps:
Open the App Store app on your iPhone.
Select your profile icon.
Tap Apps.
Tap My Apps.
Scroll down to Apple Sports and select 'Update.'
To learn more about the new features coming to Apple Sports, check out Apple's press release.
Tucker Bowe has been on Gear Patrol's editorial team since 2014. As a Tech Staff Writer, he tracks everything in the consumer tech space, from headphones to smartphones, wearables to home theater systems. If it lights up or makes noise, he probably covers it.
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