The Rio 2016 app is an official and free portal into the Olympic world. It provides an unbelievable level of detail on Olympic goings-on. It doesn't just provide schedules and results, but it provides the latest news as well. Whether you want to soak in as much about the games as possible, or you're just interested in the accomplishments of a single favorite athlete, this app does it all, at least when it comes to Rio.

An Olympic app for an Olympic event

The number of things the Rio 2016 app does is dazzling, just by itself. It provides the schedules for Olympic games, naturally, and also posts the results of each game faster than any competing app could hope to. For those with their eyes on the prizes, it provides a list of medals, and where they've gone thus far. It lists everything from countries, to sports, down on to teams and athletes that's a part of the 2016 games. It ties all of these basic features together with a "favorites" feature that allows you to more easily track a few specific things you choose. As the name implies, it's best used for your own personal favorite sports, teams and athletes! The app doesn't stop there, however: it also provides Olympic news, with articles sourced from all around the Internet. It functions similarly to a news reader, but with a more specific purpose, and curated by an official source, making it better for those more interested in facts than speculation (although the news articles do include a bit of both!). Finally, you can get real-time updates on the 2016 games using the app. For a lot of people, that alone is worth more than the price of admission.

Playing favourites

The interface is well-designed, with the same sort of philosophy as you'd expect from a phone or tablet's built-in apps. The main menu is just a tap away, appearing on the left, and makes it easy to access any of the app's sections. From there, the app optimizes the text size and other features of whatever you're viewing for the device you're using it on. There is one flaw with the interface, however, and for some it's a big one: you can only select 3 favorite sports, 5 favorite teams, and 5 favorite athletes. It's a rather odd limitation, given that the app could and probably should offer more. It's fine for people who are just now watching the Olympics, but sports enthusiasts most likely will be disappointed with these limitations.

Enjoy yourself

Overall, the Rio 2016 app is well-designed and does everything an Olympics fan could hope for it to do. If you're a long-time sports fan hoping to keep up with your favorite athlete on one hand with a pint in the other, this app is for you. If you've never paid attention to the Olympics up until now and are just curious, this app is also for you.

Don't miss out. Give the Rio 2016 app a spin!