Apple Sports Apps of the Year – iPhone and Watch 2023

Apple has just announced the finalists for its apps of the year. The categories are varied, covering an App and a Game for most of the company’s platforms ie Mac, Watch, iPhone, iPad, Arcade, and TV. Then there are 3 finalists in each category.

There is not a sports award per se. In fact, there are only 3 sports/adventure app finalists, so let’s just pretend those are the winners and I’ll share them with you now!

SmartGym: Gym & Home Workouts

What it does: supports a comprehensive fitness program covering HIIT, Home, Gym and Weight Lifting.

Link: App Store

This multi-platform app was an app store favourite in 2018 and 2019, and the number one Health & Fitness app download in over 30 countries.

The Mac and iPad platforms offer planning and feedback favourites including muscle heatmaps.

The iPhone app adds rich content and guidance around the workouts themselves; perhaps ideal for those who workout only with their iPhone.

Then, the Watch app looks particularly good with excellent graphics for execution and a good take on applying the standard Apple Watch look to a weights-and-class environment. Whilst the app follows pre-built routines and the rep still needs to manually progress through, the whole piece looks to be accomplished with a highly polished and intuitive interface.

Take out: If you are contemplating releasing a killer sports app for Apple Watch, this would be a good place to get inspiration.

AllTrails: Hike, Bike & Run

What it does: All things route-related for biking and hiking

Link: App Store

Next up are the hiking and biking trails provided by Alltrails. The Watch and iPhone app interfaces are very cleanly executed and lacking in any form of modern visual novelty. However, the app gets the job done by packaging a good set of related features around the basic act of ‘going for a walk’ (hiking 😉 ). This includes route discovery and planning, driving directions to the trailhead and social experience sharing once you’re done. The contour maps look decent

Tide Guide

What it does: All things related to coastal, environmental conditions

Link: App Store

This app is great for all things related to tides, NOAA Surf, Weather and Alerts. I confess to regularly using a Watch Tides app and researching a few similar ones. I don’t remember coming across this one though. The screen images on the app store look excellent with some superb complications for the Watch, especially the Modular complication.

I use the ‘Tide Charts Near Me’ app and, after having downloaded Tide Guide, I realised why I don’t use the latter: it’s not free! £1.79/mo or £100/lifetime with family share. Great if you’re a sailor or surfer…I just want to know when it’s low tide when I take the dog for a walk to the (tidal) river once a week.