UEFA Euro 2016 is one of Europe's biggest sporting events, with 24 teams clashing over the next month in France. As with all major sporting events, your phone can be an invaluable resource for helping you not only watch matches themselves, but stay up-to-date when you're away from the sofa, the desk or the pub.
We've rounded up a few top choices for following Euro 2016 in the coming weeks.
Google App and Google Now
The Google App — preloaded on just about every Android device in the UK — is about way more than just search. The ability to track sports scores and fixtures has been part of Google Now, Google's predictive search feature, since the very beginning. And this can be a great way to make sure you don't miss an important game. Just search for "Euro 2016" or your home team to start receiving card updates for upcoming fixtures and live scores. This is even more powerful if you're using the Google Now Launcher.
Of course Google is also smart enough to directly answer a lot of Euro 2016-related questions, like "when is France's next game," or "group B fixtures," if you've already searched for Euro 2016.
BBC iPlayer + iPlayer Radio
The BBC has broadcast rights to a good chunk of the tournament, and the BBC iPlayer app is the best way to watch the Beeb's output live. Alternatively, matches in their entirety are available to watch after the fact, if you're unable to tune in at the time — though downloads are unavailable, so you'll need to stream over Wifi or mobile data.
If you're not able to watch, or just prefer a different style of commentary, the iPlayer Radio app gives you a high-quality audio stream of 5 Live's Euro 2016 coverage.
ITV Hub
ITV's Android offerings have improved significantly of late, and the ITV Hub gives you all the corporation's channels wrapped an attractive, responsive UI. Games can be streamed live from ITV1, and you can also find matches you've missed later on by scrolling back through the listings.
As you'd expect from ITV, the app is ad-supported, including pre-roll ads when watching catch-up content.
ToView
ToView isn't quite as elegant as the BBC or ITV's first-party apps, but this ad-supported app does let you stream just about all free-to-air UK TV channels for free, provided you're using a supported ISP and have a UK TV license. There's no catch-up option, and the picture quality isn't always as good as the official streams, but you'll be able to hop between BBC and ITV coverage within a single app.
BBC Sport
The BBC's dedicated Sport app gives you access to the BBC's live streams and text updates, along with useful features for keeping track of developments around key games. By adding Euro 2016 to "My Sport" and selecting your teams, you can receive updates for kick-off times, half-time scores, goals and full-time results. And if you really want to keep on top of things, you can enable notifications when specific team line-ups are announced too.
And if you're out and about and unable to watch live video, 5 Live's radio stream is just a tap away.
FM Radio
Video and audio streaming and text-based updates are all well and good. But if you find yourself somewhere with patchy or non-existent data coverage, FM Radio is a good backup option, tuning into broadcasts using your headphones as a radio antenna. Even if your phone doesn't have a radio app preinstalled, the Play Store has a number of decent options to choose from, including RadioFM.
How are you following Euro 2016 on your phone? Shout out in the comments!
