Apple Sports app gets four new features, including Live Activity scheduling

Apple Sports launched earlier this year as a dedicated sports tracking app for iPhone users. It has been updated regularly throughout the year, and today a new version is available that adds four key new features.

Four New Features in the Latest Apple Sports Update

Apple today released Apple Sports version 2.3, arguably the last noteworthy update of the year. And that's especially nice.

Here are the release notes from Apple:

The league standings now have ways to track which teams have advanced to the postseason and which have been eliminated.
Quickly see the big plays and big moments in a game with the new Key Plays tab.
Where available, football and baseball game pages now include pre-game lineups.
Schedule a live stream for any game in the Today tab to automatically get a live scoreboard on your lock screen when the action starts.

None of these additions are game-changing, but each offers meaningful utility for sports fans and makes the Apple Sports app better than ever.

9to5Mac's Take

I'm a particular fan of the live stream scheduling feature. The ability to open the app at any time of day and decide in advance which games I want to follow via live stream is a nice upgrade.

The other changes are great, too. Knowing whether a team is in or out of the postseason is a common question for fans, and Key Plays sounds like a great way to quickly digest the biggest moments of a game while trying to catch up.

I wonder if Key Plays are in any way related to the Apple TV app's Catch Up feature that debuted not too long ago. It wouldn't surprise me if both apps use the same underlying data.

What do you think of these changes to Apple Sports? Let us know in the comments.