Apple’s iOS 16 update added a new feature called Live Activity that is part of an overall update to notifications and lockscreen. Live Activities offer apps a way to display real-time data in a persistent notification on your lockscreen. These are especially helpful for keeping track of sports scores, since there are 162 baseball games per season. If you own an iPhone 14 Pro, or Pro Max, then you can see the live scores displayed in The Dynamic Island while you follow a game.
It’s not difficult to enable Live Activities on your lockscreen, but it isn’t intuitive either. You don’t need to download any additional apps to start using Live Activities. These steps were tested on two iPhone 14 Pros, each running iOS 16.4.1.
Enable Live Activity
You’ll first need to ensure that Live Activities has access to your lockscreen. To do this, you’ll need to:
- Enter your passcode in Settings > FaceID & Passcode.
- Scroll down to the Live Activity section and toggle it on.
Apple TV comes pre-installed on the majority of iPhones, so you only need to open it and find it to begin following a match. Apple TV Plus is also free. Apple’s app allows you to watch MLB, NBA and Premier League matches. Other sports will be added in the future, but for now, these are all available. How it works is as follows:
- Apple TV App Open
- Enable notifications if prompted
- Click the Watch Now button at the bottom left of the screen
- Scroll down and tap Live Sports
- Tap on the game to get more information.
If the game you wish to follow is already in progress, you will see an option called Follow. When you exit the Apple TV application, this icon will appear in your lock screen. The score and two team logos will appear in the Dynamic island if you are using an iPhone 14 Pro, Pro Max or Pro. If you’d like to see the entire game, long-pressing on the Dynamic island will expand the view.
You can also check an option to ensure you see the most current information, but it may drain your battery faster.
You can enable this by clicking on the following:
- Apple TV > Live Activity on your iPhone
- Make sure More frequent updates is toggled on
Some third-party apps like The MLB App also offer Live Activities sports scores. It is likely that more developers will start to take advantage of this feature.
