As the Eurovision Song Contest is inching ever closer, we take a look at the main Eurovision apps and their pros and cons.
The official Eurovision Song Contest app
As expected, the official Eurovision app is more informative rather than playful. Apart from the latest news and a countdown to the shows (which supposedly will be available to watch live, unless the overloaded system crashes) we have a music shop where we can buy all the karaoke versions of the songs and the Eurovision 2015 album, a MatchMaker that matches the user with a certain ESC decade (yours truly is best suited for the current decade, thank you very much, and I could share the result on social media), and general information about the contest. In short, for the die-hard Eurofan who already knows everything there is to know about the contest, apart from the fun but quick MatchMaker, the official app leaves quite a lot to be desired.
A big issue is that the app looks better and more up-to-date on Windows gadgets than on other devices. On the other hand, developers are saying that we will be able to vote from the app during the shows, which would be amazing if indeed possible. And surely fans will appreciate that the app is available not only in English, but also in Dutch, Swedish, German, Danish, French and Spanish.
Pros: News, live shows, MatchMaker, music shop, ability to vote, multiple languages
Cons: Lack of interactivity, no sense of community, no scoreboards, outdated on some platforms
Score: 8/10
My Eurovision scoreboard
The new ESC app, developed by a Romanian fan, not only allows you to rank your favourite songs, but also to share your scoreboard with your friends, create groups and makes you feel like you are a part of a community. As I am writing this for instance, the app users are collectively placing Sweden’s song “Heroes” at the top of the list, with Estonia, Italy, Norway and Australia making up the rest of Top 5. Here is my personal scoreboard — and I like the sleek look, but why so much empty space?
Unfortunately, when I tried to share it on Instagram, only the middle part (the actual top, with no reference to the app or my name) is visible because of the square crop limitations of Instagram. Another issue was that the first time I used the app it crashed after five minutes, but I guess it was only because it has just been made available on Android and the system must have been overcrowded.
On the plus side, you can rank the songs using four different rating scales. You can also listen a snippet of each song before you rank it, just in case you forgot how it goes. Another interesting element is ranking the songs from national selections – although that’s a premium feature.
All in all, I was hooked to My Eurovision Scoreboard and I think it has a lot of potential to become the most popular app among Eurofans.
Pros: Fun, interactive, easy to use and share the results with friends, sense of community
Cons: Occasional crashes, not Instagram friendly
Score: 9/10
ESC App
ESC app is yet another application for previewing and ranking songs. Similarly to My Eurovision Scoreboard, ESC App helps you rate your top 10, with an added feature of adding comments to each of your choices. Moreover, a link to 4lyrics.eu website is at the bottom of each country page, which means that you can sing along while listening to the song from YouTube. Users can rate the songs either by traditional (1 to 10 scores) or Eurovision mode. I chose the Eurovision mode, of course. I was given the option to share the results either as image or as text. And yes!! The square shape is Instagram-friendly:
The best aspect of ESC App is that you can also rank songs of previous contests, going back to Oslo 2010, which can be fun for nostalgics. We only wish we could rank songs of even older contests.
Its most major drawback is that only Android users will have access to it. But if you have an Android device, you’ll find that the ESC App has limited but unique features, is very user friendly and if you only want to score songs, it’s perfect.
Pros: Easy to use, past contests, Instagram friendly
Cons: Only available on Android, limited usability, little sense of community
Score: 7/10
What do you think? Do you have other favourite Eurovision apps? How would you rate our top three apps?
PS: If you want to share your scoreboards with us, FB/tweet/insta and tag @wiwibloggs so we can see them as well! And don’t forget to follow us on social media!
What a useful blog. Thanks, Bogdan.
I will go to the App Store & see what is available.
Thats so cool app <3 🙂
I could use it 4 myself to see how it works 🙂
@ And about Malta's song…Its my 5th most favorite song but i really doubt if Amber will manage to even qualify from the SF alone…Her song is not doing well either on OGAE voting & the betting odds…Too many eurofans do not really like it as we do Paul unfortunately..
no malta, Amber is so underrated, i really love her Warrior song.
Good Luck Amber and Good Luck you guys on Wiwibloggs