Sneak Preview Of ZenSports New Player And Social Features

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We’re excited for our official launch in a few weeks, but prior to that happening, we thought it would be great if we could give our existing users a sneak preview of what’s to come.

That’s why today, we’ve pushed approximately 50% of the new features that we’re launching to the App Store and Google Play Store. Of course, this comes with the caveat that the App Store takes 2–4 business days to approve all new changes, so iOS users will have to wait. Android users can dive into the new features right away. This also means that if you’re on iOS, you won’t be able to use ZenSports at all until the App Store gives the approval, since the previous version is obsolete. If you’re on Android, just update to the latest version, and you’ll be all set.

Our hope with pushing half of these new features live today is that our existing users will give everything a test drive, and let us know what they like, love, and hate about the direction that we’re heading. However, we do ask that everyone who begins using these new features right now to keep in mind that while some things are done now, some things are not, and to be patient with us over the coming weeks as we continue to push the remaining features live. By the time we “officially” announce our launch in a few weeks, everything will be ready, polished up, and accessible for all of our users.

The rest of this blog post lays out what we currently have ready today, what we’ll be pushing live over the coming weeks (and the target date for each of those upcoming features), and then some notable mentions of features that we know that we still need, but won’t be ready for awhile.

Without further adieu, let’s get started with the list of everything that’s ready today:

1. Facebook login and profile synchronization. As discussed in a previous blog post, we’re now requiring all accounts to use Facebook login to both sign up and log in. This means if you previously had a ZenSports account under an email address, that login will no longer work, and you’ll need to create a new account using Facebook login. But don’t fret — we’ve made this process even easier than signing up before. All you have to do is tap the “Continue with Facebook” button (Android) or the “Log in with Facebook” button (iOS) when you open up the app, and you’ll be all set.
2. Set up all of the sports, skill levels, what you’re interested in, and availability in your profile. After you tap on the Facebook button mentioned above, we’ll ask you a few questions about which sports you like to play, what your skill level is in each sport, what you’re looking for with each sport (i.e. practice, competitive matches, etc.), and when you’re available to play. This information will be used to customize and show you only other players, teams, leagues, and tournaments in the system that best match your profile. From there, you’ll be able to request matches, join teams, register for leagues/tournaments, etc. And other players and teams will be able to find you as well, and request you to play, join, etc. See the rest of this list for how these features will work.
3. Search for and request to play matches with other individual players and teams. This is one of our biggest new features, and the one that we’re most excited about. Previously in ZenSports, you could only search and register for leagues/tournaments. Now, you can actually find other players and teams to play with. By default, we show you all players who match up to any of the sports that you’ve selected when creating your profile, who have the same availability as you, and who are within 50 miles of your location. We sort these players and teams by distance, so that you first see the players/teams that are closest to you. If you want to narrow your search results even further, simply type what you’re looking for in the Search box at the top. Or if you want to look for something completely different, use the filter in the upper right corner to search for players in other sports, other parts of the country, other availability days/times, etc.
4. Request to play other players/teams. You can tap on any player or team from the Search screen, and it will take you to that player’s/team’s “Details” screen. From that screen, you’ll be able to see their skill level for each sport, and also what they’re looking for with regards to each sport. You can tap on the green “Play” button to request to play with that person. ZenSports will then prompt you to select a sport and which times/locations work best for you, and we’ll take care of submitting the match request to that player/team on your behalf. You’ll be notified of which time/location the other player/team chooses, and you’ll both receive confirmations with all of the details so that you can meet up and play!
5. Find players to join your team and find teams to join. Do you have a team ready to go for a particular sport, and you’re just looking for one or two more players? Or are you trying to form a brand new team? Well our teams feature is perfect for you then! With this new feature, you can create a team, and have other individual players find you and request to join your team. And if you’re an individual looking to join a team, you can do that as well. You can create a new team by tapping on the + button on the Home screen. When searching for players/teams on the Search screen, just tap on that team to go to their “Details” screen. From there, tap the “Join Team” button and a request will be sent to that team captain, letting them know that you’re interested in joining. We’ll confirm with both sides once the captain accepts the request to join. Please note — the search portion for teams capability is not on Android as of now (only creating a team is). Both creating and searching for teams are available on iOS.
6. Following Players. In addition to being able to request to play with or join other players/teams, you can now also follow other players. What does following a player do? If two players are mutually following each other, they’ll be able to send each other a message within ZenSports (see below regarding our new Messaging feature). If both people are not following each other, then messaging with that other player won’t be turned on, so as to respect that player’s privacy. We’ll notify other players when you follow them so that they can view your profile and hopefully follow you back. From there, you’ll both be able to message each other. In addition, any players you follow will soon be displayed on the Home screen activity feed (see below for the launch of the activity feed feature).
7. Changes to display of Leagues/Tournaments on Search screen. You’ll notice on the Search screen that it’s now divided into 2 tabs: Players and Leagues/Tournaments. The default tab of the Search screen is the Player’s tab (discussed above), so to access leagues and tournaments, just tap on the Leagues/Tournaments tab. We now just show you the leagues/tournaments that match the sports you selected when creating your profile, and we limit the default results to leagues/tournaments that are within a 50 mile radius of where you’re located. Want to change these default settings? No problem, just tap the filter icon in the upper right corner, and you can search for anything.
8. In-Product Notifications. ZenSports now gives you notification alerts within the app about anything important that you need to know, such as when a player requests to play a match with you, when a match or join team request has been accepted, when a player registers for your tournament, etc. This new notifications center can be found on the “Notifs” screen (where the “Help” screen used to be). A red badge showing you the number of new notifications that you’ve received will be displayed above the notifications bell, and from there, you can view the notifications, tap on them to perform requested functions, etc. (Important Note: all match/team requests must be approved from the Notifs screen for now. Just tap on a notification and you’ll be prompted to perform what’s requested).
9. Removal of Z Ratings. We decided that it was much more important to focus on all of the above (and below) features that people truly cared about, instead of being in the ratings game. We may come back to offering a ratings system at some later point, but for now, we’ve removed all mentions of the Z Rating from our app. There are lots of other great rating systems out there for all sports, and we’d prefer to let those league/tournament directors focus on those, and for us to focus on building great sports technology.

And here is a list of what’s coming soon, along with the expected push date for each feature:

1. Messaging. Target roll-out date of June 13th. This feature will allow you to send individual or group messages to players that you’re mutually following. This will be a great feature that will allow you to have focused, sports-centric conversations with other players within the app. It will work similar to Messenger on Facebook, and you’ll be able to upload pictures, videos, see as people are typing, see when recipients have read your message, etc. The location of this screen will replace the Settings screen that is currently on the far right of the app (Settings and Help will be moving to the new You screen — see below). A red badge icon will show how many new messages that you have, and you’ll also receive an email with any new messages received.
2. Changes to You screen. Target roll-out date of June 20th. There will be significant, upcoming changes to the You screen. First, everything that is currently on the Home screen, including your upcoming/past leagues/tournaments, as well as all of your upcoming/past player matches will now be here. You will also be able to edit all of your sports, skill levels, etc. that you chose when originally signing up. All of your individual activity feed items (photos, videos, etc.) will be on this screen. The ability to invite friends/contacts from outside of ZenSports will be added here (see below). Lastly, the Profile Settings and Help screens will be moved to within the new You screen.
3. Invite people from your Facebook friends list and your phone contacts to join ZenSports, mass follow your friends, etc. Target roll-out date of June 27th. This feature will be nested within the new You screen. These features will make it easier to connect/follow/interact with your Facebook friends, phone contacts, etc. The goal here is to allow you to interact with all of your friends on ZenSports like you do on other social networks, but with the sole focus being on sports (see below for more on this).
4. Activity feed of everyone you’re following, live stream your matches, upload pictures, and post content. Target roll-out date of July11th. Sports should be social. Your friends should be able to see all of the winning that you’re doing and share your special athletic accomplishments with you. You’ll be able to use your phone’s video recorder to live stream your matches for all of your friends to see, upload photos of you holding the big trophy, post tips on how to improve, and like, comment, and engage with those you follow. Most importantly, this will all be done strictly within the context of sports. If you’re tired of political posts and pictures of food cluttering up your other social network news feeds, then you’ve come to the right place. At ZenSports, we feel that sports should be a reprieve from everything else going on in life, and we want you to be able to experience just sports and tune everything else out. All of these features will be on the new Home screen (current Home screen features are being moved to the You screen).

Honorable mentions of other features to come after July 11th:

1. Create “Pickup Games”
2. Push notifications
3. Groups
4. Leagues for Android
5. Searching teams for Android
6. Improvements to our league and tournament software (i.e. brackets, match play results, scoring, etc.)
7. Stats database of your overall and specific match results
8. And much more

As always, we’d love to hear your feedback. Email us at support@zensports.com or chat with us in the lower-right corner of the ZenSports website at http://zensports.com/