USA Today Sports last month introduced a new app intended to deliver topical sports news and live scores. The experience is simple, yet effective, combining many of the basic elements that sports fans crave in a smooth interface. Content is curated by a dedicated editorial team, and the offering includes short and long form articles, in-feed video and what the company calls the “Best. Scoreboard. Ever.” With ample room to grow, it is apparent that this is only the beginning for the USA Today Sports app, but the product is off to a solid start. USA Today Sports is an ad-supported free download developed by Tavant Technologies in conjunction with USA Today technology teams. It is available for handsets on iOS and Android platforms. There is no tablet version at this point in time. This review was conducted on an iPhone 5 version 8.1.3, with AT&T LTE service.
BROKE THE STORY: The flow of the news feed just feels right. Articles, video, images, quotes, ads and sharing features share the same space comfortably. While the app does not offer the “ever scroll” functionality seen in other apps, USA Today got this right. Each piece of content can be shared to Facebook, Twitter, Google+, e-mail or SMS directly from the news feed without any transition hiccups. Headlines include both images and luring sub-headers. Tapping a content item opens the full story, image galleries and related content. Rory McIlroy’s three-iron toss at last week's Cadillac Championship was covered from all angles in a single location, with video of Donald Trump returning it to him. The scoreboard feature showcases the top five matchups of the day. It can be filtered by sport, and scores are accompanied by standings, game previews, recaps and… drumroll please… programming information! How useful. Thank you, USA Today.
GOT SCOOPED: There is no way to filter the app's news feed, nor is there an option to select favorite teams or sports. This means that all users are stuck with, well, everything. But the app does not overwhelm. Rather it creates an effective replacement for the national sports page. Because the feed is finite, only top stories will surface. The sport-by-sport scoreboard makes this easier to tolerate. In the scores section, the app does not always bring users to the current date. A ticketing integration should be considered for future launches. From a technical standpoint, tapping from story to story results in some stumbling and I experienced a crash or two, but the app is quick to recover.
BOTTOM LINE: The laser focus of USA Today Sports for iPhone makes it exceedingly clear that the app was produced by a news organization. Despite the (extremely) late entrance to the app race, this product may just make an impact on sports fans looking to -- quite simply -- consume and share news and scores. Integrating sharing tools into the main feed was a smart move and all of these tools work, which is a win in and of itself. The app does lack in customization features, so at present, the layout is geared toward universal news seekers. A smart search function would also be a nice addition. I give the app 3 stars with lack of customization in mind. Despite some complaints about an issue with iPhone 6/6+ screen optimization, iTunes users give it 4 stars.
Amie Sheridan (amie.sheridan31@gmail.com) is a freelance writer in Philadelphia.
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