BBC Sport Mobile App Offers Live Scores & News On Android & iPhone
BBC might be based in the U.K., but people from all over the world consider it a reliable news source. That is why the official BBC app is really popular in the App Store. Even if you use some other app for regional or political news, not many other networks cover sports as thoroughly as BBC does. That is why the announcement of a standalone sports app by the BBC was received favorably by many people. Somewhat disappointingly though, when the app did come out, it was only available in Britain. The situation remained unchanged for more than a month, but just today BBC Sport has been rolled out globally (Update: Now for Android as well). The app offers a customizable news feed and live text commentary for any sporting event you might be interested in.
BBC Sport displays a three-step tutorial when you launch it for the first time. The app is pretty simple, so you won’t have to spend much time in learning its usage and features. Although the main feed is configured by default, you can personalize it by heading to the main menu. To add or remove new ‘Quick Links’ to the ‘Sport Home’, hit the ‘Edit’ button in the sidebar. You can reorder links to signify their importance, or make additions to the list by accessing the ‘More Sports’ section. For now, some of the links redirect you to the BBC website (within the app), and aren’t a part of BBC Sport. A fix is promised for this in the near future. Once you have configured the main page, the most recent headline from each sport is listed there.
While on a particular sport’s page, different subsections can be accessed from the top bar. Depending on the event or sport, you’ll see live scores, fixture details, team links and gossip pages. While viewing current standing for a championship, there are interactive tables that let you sort the teams or visit their dedicated pages. For important games, the Live Score section displays text commentary from BBC editors. The sharing options for articles include email, Facebook and Twitter. There are also external links that can be viewed in the app’s own browser.
In addition to the rather British sports of Soccer, Cricket and field hockey, the app can serve you well even in the U.S since everything from Basketball to Football is listed in the More Sports section. Overall, the app could have been much better, as there are no push notifications (though these are slated for a future update), the interface is nothing to write home about, and you cannot add specific teams to your feed. For now, I’ll be sticking to 365Scores, but BBC Sports might be a good option as a secondary app.
Update: The app is now available globally for Android as well. We’ve added a link to its Play Store page below.
Download BBC Sport For Android
