The ESPN app on Android is notorious for sluggish performance and feeling like a web wrapper. Good news: an update today vastly improves performance and gives it a Material Design refresh. Version 4.7.1 also brings support for Marshmallow’s permission model for users on 6.0 devices.
Replacing the Holo hamburger button and tabs are Material Design conventions and a matching red top bar. Performance and scrolling is much snappier, as is loading game information and articles. An update earlier this month added the ability for subscribers to log in and use WatchESPN from the main app, rather than downloading a separate one.
ESPN is one of the few apps that has a good tablet UI and that also receives a refresh with this update. Besides the usual bug fixes, the app now recommends more articles to read when you finish one.
Older version compared to current one
The full release notes are below:
- Optimized for Marshmallow. We overhauled the look and feel of the entire app, with smoother scrolling, faster load times, and fewer crashes.
- Consume more news than ever before. When you get to the bottom of an article, grab the next headline and drag it up to read more.
- Improved logic to sort top events on your home screen.
- Bug fixes.
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