What Meet Mobile actually is
Meet Mobile is Hy-Tek’s live balcony app — ACTIVE Network’s product, fed by Meet Manager, the same software that prints most Irish start lists. When a host publishes a meet, you get psych sheets, heat sheets, and results on your phone, one heat at a time. That is the whole job: a window onto Saturday. It is not a training log, a lifetime PB diary, or a ranking site. The job comparison is best swimming apps 2026. The archive argument is never lose a PB. This page is how to use the window without losing the race in front of you.
Hy-Tek does not control, and cannot guarantee, that a host will post the programme or the results. The operator has to turn publishing on, keep an internet connection, and send the session. Until they do, “Meets Near Me” in a NAC car park will not conjure Leinster. A Sunday Level 1 searched by leisure-centre name will often return nothing, because nothing was ever sent.
Why many Irish Level 1 galas never appear
Parents type “Meet Mobile not updating” after a first gala and assume the phone is the problem. Often the meet was never in the app. Swim Ireland’s licence levels explain why. Level 1 is a fun club or inter-club gala: often 25s, no electronic timing required. Times stay with the club and are not entered onto the national database. The public Rank tab is Level 3 and higher. A Sunday splash in a leisure centre has a stopwatch, a laptop, and WhatsApp. It does not have a timing console talking to a server. There is nothing to publish.
Bigger weekends are different. Leinster, Connacht Open, Irish Open, McCullagh, Irish Age — those usually run Hy-Tek properly and often publish: psych sheet, then heats, then unofficial live results. Common. Not a law. If the meet pack never mentioned Meet Mobile, do not spend warm-up hunting for it. The start-list PDF in the squad chat is the heat sheet. Event, heat, and lane: how to read a heat sheet.
Search by meet name, not only the map pin. If it is not there after a proper search, it is not hiding. Ask the Team Manager once. Then use the PDF. That is Irish club swimming, not a broken phone.
Meet Mobile displays results as data arrives from the timer, one heat at a time. A Level 1 with hand timing has no timer feed. The app cannot invent one. The child still raced. Write the time the club recorded.
Why it lags — and why it wants a subscription
When the meet is listed and still says nothing, the panic-refresh starts. The chain is longer than people think: touchpad, timing console, Meet Manager laptop, venue internet, ACTIVE’s servers, your phone. Leisure-centre Wi-Fi is a rumour. The laptop may be on a hotspot that dies every third heat. The operator may have turned automatic upload off so they can verify an event first. Hy-Tek lets them do that. You cannot upload from the balcony.
ACTIVE’s help text is blunt. Not started means the host has not uploaded. Pending means they have not finished. You only see completed events. Place rankings often wait until every heat in the round is in. A 50 free with eight heats can look empty after heat 2 even though two heats have already raced. That is the system sorting, not your child being deleted.
Meet Mobile gets one heat at a time from the timer, only while the host has publishing on and an internet connection. Automatic activation typically runs from the first day until about a week after the meet ends.
Then the paywall, which feels like a broken app when it is only selling. The download is free. Results — times, splits, scores — are an in-app subscription, auto-renewing unless you cancel. Heat sheets can be a separate host charge, not included in that subscription. After the meet, heat sheets often go free. None of that lists a gala the operator never published. Do not buy a month because a Sunday Level 1 is empty.
| What you see | Usually means | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| Meet not in search | Host never published, old Meet Manager, or you searched the wrong name | Use the WhatsApp start-list PDF. Ask the Team Manager once. |
| Event: Not started | Results have not been uploaded | Watch the race. Do not refresh for ten minutes. |
| Event: Pending | Host is sending; not finished | Wait. Places may wait until every heat is in. |
| Paywall / subscribe | Results (and sometimes heat sheets) are a paid extra | Pay only if this meet is actually listed. The PDF still works. |
| Spinner on venue Wi-Fi | Your phone cannot reach the server | Switch to mobile data. Or look at the board. |
Unofficial on the phone is not the official result
When a time finally pops, treat it as a first draft. The pads fire, Meet Manager shows a number, Meet Mobile repeats it, often labelled unofficial. Officials still check backups, light touches, and DQs. A time can move. A DQ can land after you have already texted PB!!!! into the parent chat. Swim Ireland championship guides say it in one line: Meet Mobile results are not official results. That is the sport.
The scoreboard is the same first look. The signed result is the seed. Level 1 times still never reach the ranking page — write them anyway, and mark the bucket. Official, unofficial, converted: how to track swimming times. Do not crown last best from a spinner.
| Clock | What it is | Use it for |
|---|---|---|
| Meet Mobile live | Unofficial first look, if the host published | Saturday on the balcony — not a seed, not an archive |
| Scoreboard | Same first look, plus a 4 in the next lane | A screenshot receipt. Then type the digits. |
| Official result | After officials finish; host PDF / Hy-Tek file | The time that can become a seed |
| Your typed list | Event, course, time, date — you own it | Last best in March, including Level 1 the database never saw |
Screenshot once. Then type it.
The Irish method is a photo of a yellow board, dropped in WhatsApp, captioned with four exclamation marks. I am not arguing with the photo. I am arguing with stopping there. Screenshots are unsearchable. Meet Mobile goes quiet when the host stops publishing — typically the meet plus about a week. After that, last October’s invite can feel like it never happened. The longer argument is never lose a PB. On the day: screenshot once as a receipt. After the last race, type event, course, time to the hundredth, date, gala.
I built Finzy as that list. It does not import from Meet Mobile, Garmin, FORM, or Hy-Tek. You type the swim. That sounds like a missing feature until you remember how many Irish Saturdays never hit a database. Typing is how a Level 1 50 free still exists in February. Live apps glitch. Your own typed PB list does not.
One screenshot when the digits appear. One row in Finzy before you unpack the wet bag. If it still says unofficial, write unofficial. Update the official later. Do not let the first draft overwrite a seed you will need.
Don't refresh into a panic on the balcony
This is the bit the store listing will never write. You cannot see the blocks from some Irish galleries. Meet Mobile becomes the race. Heat 2 is in the water and you are staring at Not started, refreshing, missing the dive. The child looks up afterwards. You have a spinner. They had a race.
Your job on the balcony is not to beat the wifi. If the meet is published, glance between events. If it is pending, wait. If it was never listed, you already have the PDF and the arm numbers — event, heat, lane. Watch them swim. After the heat, look at the board. Ask the Team Manager when they are not marshalling the next event. Screenshot once. Then stop.
Do not refresh through their 50. Do not announce a PB from an unofficial pop-up while they are still walking back. Do not pay for a subscription because a Level 1 never appeared.
A first Irish gala is mostly waiting anyway — how long a gala really is — and the phone will eat the wait if you let it. Pack a start-list photo for when signal dies. Be a parent in the gallery, not a second timing operator. You cannot do that job from Seat 14.
Finzy does not import. That is the point.
I will say it plainly so nobody hunts for a sync button. Finzy does not import from Meet Mobile, Garmin, FORM, or Hy-Tek. It will not scrape Swim Ireland rankings or pull splits off a watch. Those tools do their jobs: metres on the wrist, live heats when a host publishes, official files when a licence puts them on a database. I built Finzy for the list you still own when those three are silent — Tuesday’s main set, a Sunday Level 1, last best by event and course. You type it. Live apps glitch. Your PB list does not.
Meet Mobile is a window, not a filing cabinet. If the host never opened the blinds, look at the pool. Then write the time somewhere it still exists in March.
