Chilena

Why it exists

Chilena was born to follow football from your phone without the noise: live scores, line-ups and statistics in a single app, and notifications only for the teams and players you really care about. No endless lists to scroll: the match you are looking for is right there.

How it works

The Matches screen shows Serie A and Champions League games by matchday, with the score and the minute updating live. Opening a match gives you the timeline of events, a running commentary in Italian of what is happening, the line-ups laid out on the pitch together with the coaches, the statistics and, if you want, the odds for information only.

Tapping a player opens their card, with statistics, profile and next match; tapping a team shows the squad and results. You can follow teams and up to five players: you manage them from Favourites, and the Matches screen has a “Followed” filter to see only their games. For the teams and players you follow, the app sends a notification at kick-off and one hour earlier, when the line-ups come out. Notifications for goals, red cards and full time will come later.

You sign in with Apple or Google, or try the app as a guest without creating an account. The account can be deleted directly from the Profile.

What I learned

Chilena taught me how different it is to show live data compared with any other data: every score and every minute must arrive on time and stay consistent, even when the network slows down or the data provider changes format.

With notifications I learned the limits of iOS: local ones, scheduled on the phone, are enough for kick-off and line-ups, while goals and cards with the app closed need a server to send them. I learned to tell apart what can be promised to the user from what is not ready yet, and to say so clearly in the app.

Finally, preparing the release reminded me that the product doesn’t end with the code: a privacy policy, a support page, certificates and notification keys are as much part of the work as the screens.