Why does every youth sports league insist that I download some crappy app for messaging?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:coaches get paid to sign up.

No they do not. Team managers sign up and add the coach. Teamsnap is the better one.

Your league can purchase it and use it to administer most of the payments and communication. I like it a lot better than demosphere. Your team managers also get a much better version than the free one

[Anonymous]

3 kids in multiple travel sports. Interestingly, all of them use TeamSnap. I love the multi calendar view in TeamSnap!
I like being able to go to one place to find any communications.

[Anonymous]

The apps streamline the messaging process for the coaches (who are often volunteers). If you want to change your contact info or add another parent, you can do it yourself without having to have the coach update their lists. And throw in multiple coaches and it's even more a pain in the a**.

[Anonymous]

I don’t mind the apps. Better than email or text threads.

[Anonymous]

I can't stand them either.

I can usually configure them to send a consolidated email or I opt out of the notifications.

Haven't missed any updates. If it looks like bad weather I will log in and check messages in real time. The rest can wait.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:These apps use up my phone's resources. More importantly, they use up MY resources because they bombard me constantly with pointless messages, they don't let me search, they don't let me organize the messages in any way, and they don't let me see the messages in a queue with other messages that create a to-do list for me. I also have no confidence that these app developers are creating apps that properly protect my privacy and phone security.

Yes, I’ve just had to accept this new world. People want to text and want a platform to feel connected and important through these apps. Soccer texts were a lot but swim team was hands down the most crazy. Literally long messages and at one point chastising us parents for not volunteer more. It was bad.


Email does all that. Email is free. Email is on every phone and computer.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:coaches get paid to sign up.

No, we don't. Although I suppose it's possible the leagues do?

Relax, OP. There's only like two or three of them out there. They're useful for things like scheduling AND communications. And it helps prevent communications and messages get lost among your other e-mails and text messages.

Yeah, but it's amazing how despite only having a few options they really know how to strech you thin over them.

I think the real answer is that it's a way to make sure everyone is on the same page with communicating. No worries about the coach having everyone's cell number for texts or every email getting through spam catchers. It's on parents to sign up to the app, it's on the coach to put into the app.

It's one of the many things in our lives that are ostensibly about using technology to simplify things but instead have created a complicated set of irritating problems and compatibility issues. And it costs someone a lot of money. I think teams actually pay to get on them, but I'm sure some teams and coaches get a kickback or something for picking one app over the other.

No. No coach gets paid for using the app. We moved to mostly app messaging because:
1. Parents gave us fake email addresses or one they Don check them would scream when they didn't know what was going on.
2. Parents blocked texts and screamed when they didn't know what was going on.
3. We went old school and sent paper with the kids. They tossed it before leaving and screamed when they didn't know what was going on.
4. We put everything on the website and sent the kids home with a sticker qr code. They didn't check it and screamed when they didn't know what was going on.

Now we are trying apps to see if that helps us coaches not get screamed at.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:coaches get paid to sign up.

No, we don't. Although I suppose it's possible the leagues do?

Relax, OP. There's only like two or three of them out there. They're useful for things like scheduling AND communications. And it helps prevent communications and messages get lost among your other e-mails and text messages.

NP — I like to keep a small digital footprint. Schools are the same way. There are official apps and then there a teacher app faves of the moment. Why do we spend taxpayer dollars when teachers each of their own favorites. It is ridiculous.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:coaches get paid to sign up.

No, we don't. Although I suppose it's possible the leagues do?

Relax, OP. There's only like two or three of them out there. They're useful for things like scheduling AND communications. And it helps prevent communications and messages get lost among your other e-mails and text messages.

NP — I like to keep a small digital footprint. Schools are the same way. There are official apps and then there a teacher app faves of the moment. Why do we spend taxpayer dollars when teachers each of their own favorites. It is ridiculous.

For one team we have several apps:

GameChanger which includes a messaging feature.

TeamSnap for coaches and parents

Some other communication app just for the parents to communicate about carpool / event coordination (eg, team meals)

Then there is the booster’app

And the app for general sports admin (turning in health and permission forms), communicating with the AD and trainers



for travel season, there are the tournaments that have their own apps for getting updates on tournament results, schedule or field chamges, etc.

[Anonymous]

My kid is in MS and we have to use TeamSnap. I don’t feel constantly bombarded.
Our rec soccer league and club swim just use email.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:coaches get paid to sign up.

No, we don't. Although I suppose it's possible the leagues do?

Relax, OP. There's only like two or three of them out there. They're useful for things like scheduling AND communications. And it helps prevent communications and messages get lost among your other e-mails and text messages.

NP — I like to keep a small digital footprint. Schools are the same way. There are official apps and then there a teacher app faves of the moment. Why do we spend taxpayer dollars when teachers each of their own favorites. It is ridiculous.

For one team we have several apps:

GameChanger which includes a messaging feature.

TeamSnap for coaches and parents

Some other communication app just for the parents to communicate about carpool / event coordination (eg, team meals)

Then there is the booster’app

And the app for general sports admin (turning in health and permission forms), communicating with the AD and trainers



for travel season, there are the tournaments that have their own apps for getting updates on tournament results, schedule or field chamges, etc.

For 1 team! That’s miserable. Why does the team use team snap and gamechanger? I’ve used both and think with the exception of the game tracking feature in GC they do the same thing.

I have kids in multiple sports. I currently have 2 teams using SportsEngine, 2 teams using GC and 1 using TeamSnap. Then the occasional tournament site and school registration site. TeamSnap is my least favorite because of the pop up ads. I have had other teams use text message groups which was by far the most annoying. I’d get so many notifications and my messages would get clogged with “larla will miss the game,” “Larlo is running late” and then “great game team” messages. At least the app notifications are separate.

I wish managers/coaches would instruct parents to message individual player info (running late, sick etc) to just them and not the whole team chat. That would cut out most of my notifications. I try to notify individually, but other parents seem to want everyone to know.

[Anonymous]

I actually like them in theory, but I think they could be better and I wish all teams used the same one. Right now I have SSU, GC, TeamSnap, and Sports Engine on my phone. It is … a lot.

[Anonymous]

Just change your settings so you stop getting notifications. Log in and look for messages if you need to.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Just change your settings so you stop getting notifications. Log in and look for messages if you need to.

I tried this and ended up missing things because the coach added them fairly last minute and I didn’t check.

The same would happen with emails as I don’t get alerts each time I get an email.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Just change your settings so you stop getting notifications. Log in and look for messages if you need to.

I tried this and ended up missing things because the coach added them fairly last minute and I didn’t check.

The same would happen with emails as I don’t get alerts each time I get an email.

I keep notifications off.

I will check the app a few hours before a game or practice and then right before we leave the house.

I keep all possible uniforms and gear in a separate bag that gets packed along with our chairs.

I am never the first one to respond to a team inquiry and I don't care.