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ESPN ScoreCenter finally looks like an Android app

21

When ESPN originally launched its ScoreCenter app for Android I was a bit excited. As bad of a reputation as the sports outlet has gotten over the years it is still one of my favorites for keeping up with my team. Why wouldn’t I want an official app on Android that could keep me updated on scores and league happenings? Well, the app they produced wasn’t particularly flattering. In fact, I quickly abandoned ESPN’s app for other options like Score Mobile and SportsTap, and stuck to the mobile browser whenever I wanted to catch up on the latest stories.

ESPN might have won me back with its latest upgrade, however, as ScoreCenter now looks like it belongs on an Android device. The app was updated with a brand new user interface to fit the Holo design guidelines Google set for Ice Cream Sandwich and beyond. The app properly utilizes things like swiping to change views, a slide-in menu and a pull-to-refresh function to make for a smooth experience.

The core app still offers much of the same functionality as it provides you with the latest news, video, score alerts and more for your favorite teams across many different sports. The difference is that it now looks great doing so, and doesn’t perform like an absolute hog. With Google Now delivering my sports scores rather late I have been searching for an app to send reliable, up-to-the-minute (I’ve accepted that up-to-the-second is just impossible for these companies) score updates, so the timing couldn’t be more perfect. Go ahead and download it to see if the app is back up to your standards.

[Google Play Store]

Quentyn Kennemer
The "Google Phone" sounded too awesome to pass up, so I bought a G1. The rest is history. And yes, I know my name isn't Wilson.

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21 Comments

  1. I really like the new look but there are still things they can improve on and I’m sure they will. With that being said, I am very happy with what we have now compared to the old one.

  2. It looks way better now! Functionality seems to be smoother now so I’m happy

  3. Quentyn, you say you use this for score notifications. You don’t mind that there’s no way to disable audio or vibrate notifications? What happens if a team you follow is playing at and off time? You don’t mind the espn tone going off? I’ve emailed them many times on this issue. I don’t understand why they couldn’t add some additional options like every other score notification app.

    1. No one minds that there’s no way to disable audio and vibrate notifications? I don’t see how I could possibly use this with no way to disable those.

  4. The new look seems kind of cheap to me, I’m not a big fan. I like some of the new things, but I liked the old app a little more

  5. I’d consider almost any app that doesn’t have a landscape orientation a failure. Do companies forget that tablets exist? The update looks nice but if I cant use it properly on half the android devices I own, its pretty much worthless to me.

  6. I’m very pleased with the update. Functionality has really gone up with little to no buggyness.

  7. This is a huge improvement…

    Now if only we could get Google Voice to actually look/work like an Android app. What a terrible, slow, buggy, ugly piece of garbage that thing is.

  8. Now they just need to updated fantasy football league app

  9. It’s an excellent app for us on this side of The Atlantic to keep up to date with all the goings on in the world of American sports. As the coverage of these can be patchy, at best. However, one thing that needs addressed (from a British point of view) is the inclusion of the nicknames of the Premier League football (soccer) teams. Manchester United are not called Manchester United Red Devils and so on. That’s the equivalent of calling the Green Bay Packers the Green Bay Packers Cheeseheads…

  10. Nope. It still looks like an iPhone app… because iOS got this update 1st and it looks identical.

    1. nah, it follows holo guidelines. the iOS app has the categories at the bottom and the logo at the top is more rounded on the iOS app… like iOS layout:

      https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/espn-scorecenter/id317469184?mt=8

      Too bad it feels like and probably is still html5 based. When you login you get the “do you want to save your login information” browser popup.

      1. Funny. iOS reviewers are complaining about the new layout now that it basically follows Android guidelines. ;-P

  11. It is better. But they removed the Videos widget in the update. I’d also like to see landscape support added. The existing widget is still a bit buggy and keeps telling me that it is in an irregular state and that I need to re-add it to my screen. Even after I just re-added it 15 minutes earlier. As usual with ESPN Android software… lots of bugs released to the wild due to a real quality issue with their development.

  12. “I have been searching for an app to send reliable, up-to-the-minute (I’ve accepted that up-to-the-second is just impossible for these companies) score updates, so the timing couldn’t be more perfect”

    Have you tried Score Mobile? The phone app looks a bit dated but the widget is awesome and the app performs well with your, up to the second, results.

    1. Agree. ScoreMobile has timely and detailed notifications. It also allows you to do a silent tone and no vibrate.

  13. As the coverage of these can be patchy, at best.
    CP2102

  14. Damn app isn’t compatible with my phone, lol, what a joke

  15. now we just need the NHL

  16. The ESPN app on my non-Droid device is one of my favorite one. It would be totally awesome if they can come up with an app where you can literally watch the game as it unfolds. Or have they come up with that already?

  17. I haven’t figured out how to access specific team information, but this new version is incredibly more beautiful and amazingly faster than the previous one. Completely satisfied.

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