Keep score from the wrist: tennis, padel and pickleball on your Wear OS watch

What you need

An Android 11 or later phone with TennisScore and a Wear OS 3 or later watch paired to it: Galaxy Watch from the Watch4 on, Pixel Watch and the other Wear OS watches. The watch app installs from the Play Store on the watch: it is the same app and costs nothing.

• On the phone pick the watch as the source of points, from the icon on the scoreboard
• On the first launch the watch asks for what it needs: notifications, to stay in view on the dimmed screen, and the sensors if you want them
• Apple Watch, Garmin, Fitbit and Huawei do not run Wear OS: they are not compatible

One tap, one point

Tap the bottom half for your point and the top half for your opponent’s: the watch vibrates and shows the new score at once. Match point is confirmed with a long press, so a match never ends by mistake. To go back, scroll the history with the crown or a finger, hold on the point you want to return to and confirm. Away from match point, a long press on the current point opens “Who serves?” to fix the server.

• Tolerant taps: a finger that slips a little still scores
• After each point both halves stay grey for two seconds: a double tap does not count
• In doubles the pair names are on the scoreboard, with who serves and from which side

Phone in your pocket, score in view

The phone can stay in a pocket or a bag: even with the phone app closed, the point from the wrist still arrives and the match goes on. With Bluetooth on, a tap makes the round trip in under half a second; with Bluetooth off the watch goes through the network, slower, and tells you. On the dimmed screen the scoreboard stays in view, and the first tap only wakes it.

• Always-on display is a watch setting: the app guides you to turn it on
• After an hour without points the watch app closes by itself, to save battery: when you resume, open it again from the app list

Heart rate and steps, if you want

If you turn the sensors on, the watch records heart rate and steps during the match and the phone ties them to the points: in the match detail you get the average heart rate and the heart rate on the big points, recovery between points, steps and estimated distance, game by game, and records across your matches. The data stays on the phone and the watch: it goes to no one, not even to those following the match. Sport hints, not medical assessments.

• The sensors stop by themselves at the end of the match, and from the notification whenever you want
• Without sensors the watch is just a remote: nothing to grant

Pickleball too

From version 1.4 the watch also scores pickleball rallies: the points of the two sides, the games, the ball with the server number. Game point is confirmed with a long press, like match point, and the history counts rallies.