Update: iOS 16.1 beta just added a handy lock screen upgrade.
When Apple first announced iOS 16 back in June, the company drew special attention to Live Activities. This new kind of widget updates in real-time for things like timers, sports scores, ride share updates, and more.
But Live Activities did not launch with iOS 16, with Apple instead promising it in a later update following iOS 16's September release.
With the iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 14 Pro Max, Live Activities will pick up an extra feature. Whereas any other iPhone will display Live Activities as a lock screen widget, the latest Pro models will include Live Activities in the Dynamic Island, that area for alerts and notifications that takes the place of the iPhone's notch. As of the current iOS 16.1 beta, you can test this out with sports scores.
Right now, there's only support for MLB games in the U.S., Canada, Australia, U.K., Brazil, Mexico, Japan and South Korea. Live Activities also supports NBA and Premier League in the U.S. and Canada. We expect more sports leagues to get added in the future since Live Activities will work on any iPhone running iOS 16.
When a game you've followed is live, you'll see the Dynamic Island spread out to show the score in real-time, similar to the media player look on the iPhone 14 Pro. But with a long press, you can expand to see a larger scoreboard, along with the elapsed time and play-by-play breakdowns.
Dynamic Island live sports scores
To test this out for yourself, you'll first need to install the iOS 16.1 public beta, which repeats the same process as installing the iOS 16 public beta from this summer. (You have to register with Apple's public beta program, first.) As usual, we'd like to caveat this by saying that running beta software can lead you into trouble with stability and bugs. iOS point release public betas tend to be less risky, though.
With that out of the way, here's the process to see live scores in the Dynamic Island.
Head into the Apple TV app and find a supported game. Remember, it's MLB, NBA, and Premier League for now. Once you find one, click on the plus (+) icon to follow the game and keep up to date with it. Once the game starts, you should get the scores both on the lock screen and in the Dynamic Island (when your iPhone 14 Pro is unlocked).
Dynamic Island live sports scores: Outlook
If you're big into sports — and I am admittedly not — this could be a really cool feature if you're not able to watch the game. We hope to see other Live Activities features make their way to the Dynamic Island soon. From the sounds of it, we could get some really cool stuff once developers get to adding this feature.
iOS 16.1 is due to launch later this year, so expect to wait a few weeks for this update to roll out. If you're looking for more info about what the Dynamic Island can do, check out our Dynamic Island explainer. And be sure to head over to our iPhone 14 Pro review and iPhone 14 Pro Max review to see everything else that's new with the Pro handsets this year.
