The Official Magic: The Gathering Companion App is Now Available on iOS and Android

Wizards of the Coast has finally released the official MTG mobile app called Magic: The Gathering Companion, in Open Beta, and it's now available in iOS and Android devices in all languages that Magic is currently published in. For iOS users, note that you will need to download the TestFlight app first to access this Magic app.

While the official companion app doesn't have all the features Wizards of the Coast promised with last year's announcement of the Portal app, the early version comes with one feature: a home tournament organizer.

Here's how Wizards of the Coast described that particular feature when they first announced the Portal app in 2018:

Create, manage, and track home tournaments complete with pairings, invitations for friends, brackets, and playgroup stats. Want to run a massive Commander play-day at home? We've got you covered. Itching to test out eight Modern or Standard decks with friends? Set up a tournament, invite friends, and keep track of the results. All from your phone.

Bill Stark, Digital Product Manager for Companion, recently talked to Hipsters of the Coast about the app's only feature right now.

"The first set of functionality is admittedly narrow, and that's by design," Stark said. "Our research in the marketplace indicated that being able to run an event was a problem players faced that they felt there wasn't already a good solution for."

"Compare that to life trackers, which have millions of downloads online," he added "I knew we wanted to start by solving a unique problem instead of trying to break into a crowded marketplace."

Stark went on to talk about how they are planning to add more features in the Companion that are aimed for tabletop Magic players: "After we get the tournament experience really dialed in for Magic: The Gathering Companion, we're going to shift to something I call the ‘daily engagement features,'" Stark told Hipsters "I'm not ready to go in too much detail on those just yet, but our current trajectory would have us start delivering some of those later this year."

According to Wizards, today's launch of the Companion does not mean the app is complete. The development team wants to deliver an "MVP" (minimum viable product) and iterate on its features in public so that they can collect community feedback and let that feedback guide the development process of the app.

"[Companion has] been through an internal alpha playtest at Wizards with the hundreds of gamers on staff providing feedback. Now we want to see what thousands of Magic players around the world can offer up as feedback to broaden our perspective," Stark said.

Related: Top 16 MTGA Players Get Invites For Mythic Championship V