Help & FAQ

Getting started

Tap New Game on the home screen to set up a match, or jump straight in with a Quick Start template — one tap pre-fills the teams and rules for common games.

Teams

Games start with two teams and you can add more with Add Team — the scoreboard automatically adapts from a head-to-head split to a grid. Names are optional (blank teams show as "Team 1", "Team 2" …). Each team gets one of ten colours, and you can also pick an icon (star, crown, lightning bolt and more) to tell teams apart.

Quick Start templates

Every rule is editable in the Settings tab before you start: points to win (up to 999), score direction (up or down), the amount each swipe adds (1–50), long-press jump scoring, draws, and the game clock. Save Defaults remembers your preferences for next time.

When you tap Start Game, the scoreboard rotates to landscape and the screen stays awake for the whole game — no dimming or auto-lock mid-match.

Scoring

Each team's coloured panel is one big control — no fiddly buttons:

• Swipe up on a panel to add points. A floating +N drifts up, the number animates, and you get a haptic tick.
• Swipe down to subtract points (scores never go below zero).
• Press and hold for a jump score — by default +5, configurable from 1 to 50 in game settings. Handy for darts, card hands, or catching up after a lost phone.

If the game is set to score downwards (like darts from 501), the gestures flip: swipe up moves you toward zero.

Fixing mistakes

• Shake your iPhone to undo the last score change — up to 50 steps per game.
• Or just swipe the other way on the panel to adjust.
• Worried about stray touches? Tap the lock button in the expanded island to freeze scoring until you unlock it.

The clock & floating island

The pill floating in the middle of the scoreboard is the island — the game's control centre. Collapsed, it shows the game clock with a live indicator. Expanded (tap the ⋯ button), it reveals the full set of controls:

• Tap the time to pause or resume the clock; hold it to reset the clock to zero.
• Reset scores — back to 0–0 without ending the game.
• Lock — disable score gestures against accidental touches.
• Swap sides — flip the two teams' positions (two-team games).
• SharePlay — start live score sharing on a FaceTime call.
• Void game — abandon the game; it won't count.
• Complete — end the game with the current scores.

The clock can count up from zero or down from a time limit of up to two hours. On a countdown, you'll hear warning ticks in the last ten seconds; when time runs out, ScoreCard asks whether to complete the game or keep playing.

Finishing a game

Games end in one of two ways:

• Automatically — if "Points to win" is on, the game completes the moment a team reaches the target.
• Manually — tap Complete in the island and confirm.

The winner gets confetti in their team colour and a victory fanfare, followed by the full story of the match: final standings, an AI match summary, a score progression chart, and a point-by-point timeline of every score. You can attach a note to the game here, too.

From the Game Over screen: Play Again resets the same game to 0–0, Rematch starts a fresh game with the same teams (sides swapped for fairness), and Share opens the QR/share options.

If both teams finish level and Allow draws is on, the game records a draw — no confetti, no hard feelings.

AI match summaries

When a game completes, ScoreCard writes a short piece of match commentary — who won and how, the MVP, and a standout stat like lead changes or a comeback. On devices with Apple Intelligence, this is generated by the on-device foundation model: nothing about your game is sent to a server. On devices without it, ScoreCard falls back to a built-in summary writer, so you always get one.

Summaries appear on the Game Over screen and are saved with the game in your history.

History & stats

Recent games live on the home screen; See All opens the full history, split into In Progress and Completed. Swipe a row for actions — delete a game, complete a live one, or reopen a finished one to keep playing.

Open any completed game to revisit its standings, AI summary, progression chart and point-by-point timeline.

Completed games are also indexed in iOS Spotlight — swipe down on your home screen and search a team's name to jump straight to that match.

Need your data elsewhere? Settings → Export Game History exports everything as CSV or JSON.

Sharing & SharePlay

QR codes & the App Clip

Tap Share on any game to show its QR code. Anyone can scan it with their iPhone camera — no app required. It opens a lightweight App Clip showing the scoreboard, team colours and results in seconds, with a one-tap link to get the full app. You can also send the game through the standard share sheet (Messages, AirDrop, Mail…).

SharePlay live scoring

On a FaceTime call, tap the SharePlay button in the expanded island to broadcast the game. Everyone on the call with ScoreCard installed sees scores update live as you swipe. Great for keeping remote friends in the match.

Apple Watch, widgets & Siri

Apple Watch

The Watch app mirrors the current game — every team, colour and score on your wrist. Tap a team to score a point without touching your phone; it syncs back instantly.

Home Screen widgets

• Quick Start (small or medium) — interactive buttons that launch a new game or jump straight into a template from your Home Screen.
• Game Status — your latest game at a glance, live score included; tap to open it.

Siri & Shortcuts

ScoreCard supports App Shortcuts out of the box. Try:

• "Start a game in ScoreCard" — or name a template: "Start a ping pong game in ScoreCard"
• "Continue my game in ScoreCard" — resumes your most recent live game
• "Show my games in ScoreCard" — opens the history

Settings

From the gear icon on the home screen:

• Sound Effects — score ticks, timer warnings and the win fanfare.
• Score Announcements — ScoreCard speaks the score after each point ("Reds lead 7 to 5"), perfect when the phone is across the room.
• Quick Start Templates — show or hide the template row on the home screen.
• Color Blind Mode — adds distinct patterns to team panels (see Accessibility).
• Theme — dark, light, or follow the system.
• Export Game History — CSV or JSON export of all your games.
• Plus support & feedback, privacy policy, terms, and app sharing/rating.

Per-game rules (scoring, clock, haptics, sounds) are set in the New Game → Settings tab, where Save Defaults makes your setup the starting point for future games.

Accessibility

• VoiceOver — each score panel is a single adjustable element announcing "Team name, score N". Swipe up or down with VoiceOver to score, exactly like the standard gesture. Every island control is labelled.
• Color Blind Mode — overlays each team colour with a distinct pattern (stripes, dots, chevrons and more) so teams are never distinguished by colour alone.
• Team icons — an extra visual marker independent of colour.
• Dynamic Type — text follows your system size settings.
• Spoken scores — turn on Score Announcements to hear the score after every change.

Data & privacy

ScoreCard has no accounts, no analytics and no tracking. Your games are stored on-device with SwiftData, and synced privately between your own devices via iCloud (Apple's CloudKit — end-to-end within your Apple account; if iCloud is unavailable, ScoreCard simply keeps everything local).

Nothing leaves your device unless you explicitly share it: a QR code, a share-sheet export, a CSV/JSON export, or a SharePlay session with people on your FaceTime call.

See the full Privacy Policy.

Frequently asked questions