THE Football App

Summary

Football is the most watched sport in the entire world and will be the reigning over the media in the next few days in the UK during the 2012/13 Barclays Premier League campaign, which will get started soon and run from May 4th to 19th. Kick off is at 3pm. Thousands of fans for Chelsea, Arsenal, Man City, Swansea and more will get on the edge of their seats.

Today are testing THE Football App that will surely hold a permanent spot on most football fans' smartphones.  

As described above, football in the UK is approaching several suspenseful days, where you can expect a few interesting turn of events. In order to stay on top of what's going on in the past season, this season and the one to come, every football enthusiast needs the proper tool in their pocket. What this app has to offer isn’t just general information, but a comprehensive package of messages. Whether it be the preliminary reports, the live ticker during the game (in best case scenario: instant notifications) or a post-match analysis. A good application of this genre must capture exactly what the fans wants: to know each detail every step of the way.

THE Football App was able to impress me during the course of the test with its overwhelming wealth of information. The UK isn't the only place, for which it will broadcast live information. It has follows football in Germany, Italy, France, Spain and other countries, be it Latin American leagues from Brazil and Argentina or the little-known tournaments such as the Ukrainian league. Kudos to THE Football App for not only posting men's Football, but women's as well (in the case of Germany).

In addition to the various national competitions, THE Football App also offers news and videos. These are usually very timely and promptly inform the user of events in global football. You'll also be able to decide whether you get all notifications or choose articles for just certain leagues where only specific countries are competing. Unfortunately, it states that you cannot switch between SD and HD quality for the videos. This isn't too bad, since a 720p display is sufficient for the quality of the media.

THE Football App did a really good job in the detailed view for each league. By using a practical side bar, you're able to select the various competing countries. When you start up the app for the first time, there's a lot of information to absorb. Fortunately, you’re able to hide some of the ads and choose favourites. This is particularly usefully when searching for highly-viewed leagues in Barclays Premier League.

Using Barclays Premier League as an example really illustrates the variety of information that this app brings to the table. A game overview allows the user to quickly navigate through past and upcoming games. Statistics regarding to score graphs are available, though we would have appreciated graphs for the preliminaries and second leg, in addition to the ones for the home and visiting teams. I starts getting really interesting when it comes to the detailed statistics and team information. For those who love getting all the facts, your heart will skip a beat in this section. It's fun to get such an extensive amount of key information. Not only will you be getting blow-by-blow goals and scores, you'll also get to know individual players and teams. Such a wealth of information isn't really necessary, but for fans, knowing more than just the basic stats is what makes everything that much more captivating.

Another very important component that THE Football App integrates is the live ticker, which gives the fans an opportunity to follow the game while on the go in text form. Commentaries during a game aren’t just made up of facts and numbers, but also of humour and showmanship. This live ticker is the same and can be set up as a push notification. On the other hand, this will only work when you've chosen your favourite teams. It forces the user to choose every country playing in a tournament, if you want to be notified of every goal. A method to quickly select teams or to individually adjust the notifications would have been a good addition to this. I had no complaints in regards to the live and prompt results for the higher leagues, but the results for the lower ones were a little delayed.

Bottom Line

THE Football App outshines all other football apps on my smartphone. The app offers many different aspects and impressed me with its statistics and wealth of information.

The Live Ticker also does a stand-up job and the notifications can be trusted. I can really only recommend all the integral elements that form THE Football App, which should really become the first choice for users who are football enthusiasts.

THE Football App was also above and beyond in terms of graphics. The application worked well with the operating system's conditions and was seamlessly integrated into the overall picture, all the while maintaining its own individual identity.

The new navigation bar on the left side, similar to the ones on Facebook or Spotify, is a great improvement. My sole point of criticism pertains to the occasional stutters, though this belongs in the next section.

The graphic presentation and controls were above average. Using this app was really fun!

THE Football App had a few stutters here and there.

THE Football App is free and financed by advertisements.