Apple Sports app will give real-time NFL and CFB updates on your iPhone and Apple Watch
Apple wants to be the hub for all your football updates. With Twitter's slow degradation as X and an overwhelming number of competing sports apps, it doesn't seem like the worst idea.
The tech giant announced new features in its free Apple Sports app to help users access real-time updates to their favorite teams and games. This announcement comes as the all-important NFL and college football seasons kick off next week.
Apple Sports is intended to serve as a hub for checking scores, stats, and basic info about the games. The app features a play-by-play for each game, live score updates, and a new drive tracker that shows where the ball is. Because it's 2024 and everyone is now gambling on sports, betting odds are also displayed.
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With iOS 18 and watchOS 11, you can now get live updates straight to your Apple Watch — that's clutch if you want to follow the play-by-play while not looking rude at an event during NFL season.
The Apple Sports app will let you follow your favorite teams and conferences. That way, you'll get all the updates you won't, but not the scores of games that don't matter to you.
Apple also said in a press release that it's planning a new drop-down menu that'll allow users to switch between different teams and leagues to check scores easily. Of course, the app has more than just football in it.
While the Apple Sports app has been around since February, this marks its first full football season. It also dropped at a time when X, FKA Twitter, doesn't work as well as it once did. As a sports fan, I used to use Twitter's Sports tab to follow scores and conversations around a game.
However, since Elon Musk bought the platform, that experience has degraded. Speaking from personal experience, it is no longer a reliable way to check a score. Apple Sports might not have funny tweets, but it could fill that void as a reliable, one-stop-shop for scores and updates.
Tim Marcin is an Associate Editor on the culture team at Mashable, where he mostly digs into the weird parts of the internet. You'll also see some coverage of memes, tech, sports, trends, and the occasional hot take. You can find him on Bluesky (sometimes), Instagram (infrequently), or eating Buffalo wings (as often as possible).
