Apple's Sports app is now ready for the NBA and NHL playoffs, gaining other enhancements along the way

News
By Oliver Haslam
published

It's playoff time, and Apple's getting ready.

Apple Sports app on iPhone 15 Pro Max
(Image credit: Future / Apple)

The Apple Sports app has its problems, but it's also a pretty solid option if you want a simple, clean app to see how your favorite team has ruined your weekend this time around. Apple has been steadily updating and improving the iPhone-only app in recent months and now it has another update ready to go, aimed specifically at a couple of sports.

Those sports are NBA and NHL, with Apple's App Store release notes saying that the update is all about the upcoming playoffs. The notes say that fans of the two sports will be able to follow "every matchup with added details on each series and more."

With the playoff series set to begin on April 20, this update arrived in the nick of time, but the playoff support isn't the only reason Sports fans should consider downloading this update.

It's game on

According to those release notes this Sports update also includes "stability and performance enhancements," although we don't yet know what that actually means. We'll be putting the app through its paces to see if those changes address any of the issues we've found with the app to date, though.

As for existing support, the Sports app offers scores and more across the MLS, MLB, NBA, WNBA, NHL, Premier League, NCAA basketball, and many more and is of course free.

Want to take the Sports app for a spin? You can grab it from the App Store right now. Those who already have the app installed can download the update as well, while anyone with automatic updates enabled might already be using it.

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Oliver Haslam
Oliver Haslam
Contributor

Oliver Haslam has written about Apple and the wider technology business for more than a decade with bylines on How-To Geek, PC Mag, iDownloadBlog, and many more. He has also been published in print for Macworld, including cover stories. At iMore, Oliver is involved in daily news coverage and, not being short of opinions, has been known to 'explain' those thoughts in more detail, too. Having grown up using PCs and spending far too much money on graphics card and flashy RAM, Oliver switched to the Mac with a G5 iMac and hasn't looked back. Since then he's seen the growth of the smartphone world, backed by iPhone, and new product categories come and go. Current expertise includes iOS, macOS, streaming services, and pretty much anything that has a battery or plugs into a wall. Oliver also covers mobile gaming for iMore, with Apple Arcade a particular focus. He's been gaming since the Atari 2600 days and still struggles to comprehend the fact he can play console quality titles on his pocket computer.

4 Comments Comment from the forums
  • Just_Me_D
    Finally, the app now has live activities that display the score on the Lock Screen and in the Dynamic Island.
    Reply
  • Ledsteplin
    Just_Me_D said:
    Finally, the app now has live activities that display the score on the Lock Screen and in the Dynamic Island.

    I guess when August 31st gets here, they'll show college football scores. I don't follow much else. I'm a fair weather Braves fan, so we'll see. It just doesn't offer enough for me. I can get scores with my ESPN app. And then some.
    Reply
  • Just_Me_D
    Ledsteplin said:
    I guess when August 31st gets here, they'll show college football scores. I don't follow much else. I'm a fair weather Braves fan, so we'll see. It just doesn't offer enough for me. I can get scores with my ESPN app. And then some.

    This is an error on my part. The Sports app does not have live activities. It was theScore app that now has live activities. theScore app has been my go-to app for scores and stats for years and it’s even better with live activities.

    With that being said, the Sports app is really good at reporting live scores. Its sports clock is really on-point and the best I’ve seen thus far. Still, the app needs live activities in my opinion.
    Reply
  • Annie_M
    And it needs Motorsports!
    Reply