Detroit Red Wings: App Battles
Turning to our mobile devices to get our Detroit Red Wings news is nothing new, but with the NHL.com and NHL app revamp, has the NHL app become the best place to go for all of our hockey needs? How does it compare to YinzCam’s official team app? Do we need both applications in our lives or can we settle for just one, or even none?
FYI I’m testing these using a phone running Android 5.1.1. Both apps are the most up-to-date versions available. I’ve not tested this on an iPhone yet. That little arrow thing half way down on the right hand side of each picture is a phone thing. Nothing to do with the apps.
I’ve always preferred the NHL app over the official Wings app, but since the update the two have become a lot more similar. Naturally I’ve set the Red Wings as my favourite team on the NHL’s app.
What’s new about the NHL’s app anyway? The NHL claims the app now includes support for material design (something I looked up but didn’t really understand). Perhaps more importantly, the app now allows you to ‘customize the home screen to feature your designated favourite team’, effectively ending the need for team specific apps. There are other features available if you subscribe, which I don’t.
What does this new home screen look like for us Red Wings fans?
Pretty nice actually. A lot more intuitive than the old version of the app. Across the top you’ve got tabs for next four games and the team’s schedule, colour coded for home and road games. Simple touches but nice all the same.
Each tab shows not only the time the game starts, but also the time in your local area (handy for those who support from further away). You’ve also got the season results for each team and each team’s points leaders. There’s no quick way to see the last game played, but I’ve no doubt you’ll find a match report in the news and video sections further down. These are nothing special, but then they never were.
Bizarrely the calendar thinks it’s still January. Click on a date or a game preview link and you get an error screen. Presumably because the preview hasn’t been written yet, but the NHL could do something better than an error screen, even if the GIF on it is cute.
Scrolling down; you’ve got quick stats for the team, goals first, scroll sideways for assists and points. At the bottom of the page you have the Wings’ social media links and a settings link, which lets you customise what alerts you’ll see pop up.
Overall, the new app is definitely an improvement on the older version, It’s a lot cleaner and the ability to make your team’s page the homescreen of the app is a solid move by the developers. I do feel though that there are still some small creases to iron out.
How does it compare to the official Detroit Red Wings app? Let’s take a look at it.
The home screen is fine. The image at the top changes periodically and you can either swipe right to bring up a quick overview of the Red Wing’s previous game, or swipe left for a quick preview of the next.
Below that are three tabs although annoyingly you can’t swipe between them. You’ve got news (which is taken from the team’s website), the team’s official twitter feed and finally a calendar, kinda. The calendar gives a timeline view that starts with the previous result then all of the upcoming fixtures. Rather than a traditional calendar, you have to scroll down. If you prefer to look at fixtures in the traditional view, then you can do so through the app’s main menu, accessible from any page.
While looking though the home screen, the game info at the top doesn’t go anywhere, this is a bit annoying as it easily takes up a third of the screen space. Not the end of the world, but annoying all the same.
My favourite page on the app is the Team page, this gives a quick overview of the team and division, as well as linking to the stats and roster pages.
The Fan Zone stuff is fine, useful if you’re going to games and if you’ve got kids (or are a big kid yourself) then there’s some fun to be had with the different backdrops. The alerts are customizable which is fine.
The official Red Wings app hasn’t been great in the past, but of late has definitely improved. If you had to choose one over the other, then I’d say stick with the NHL app, but unless memory becomes a real issue then I’ll keep both. Adverts happen but they’re not intrusive and are easily dismissed.
There is a third option. You could ditch both apps and just use the mobile version of NHL.com. This works fine although the NHL’s new let’s-make-everything-white design makes it a bit tricky to see where one link starts and another ends.
Do you use either app (or both) and what do you think of the new designs? Join in and comment below. Also, if you can explain ‘material design’ better than Wikipedia could, please also explain below (use small words).
LGRW