YouVersion

A new update to the YouVersion Bible app for Android is available in the Android Market. You can download it by going to http://youversion.com/download from your Android-powered device. This update includes some great new features, speed enhancements, and a more polished user experience (UX). Here are the details:

• ~ Now you can sign in with your YouVersion account. This is the first step toward full integration with all the power of YouVersion.com. The first feature-specific integration is reading plans, but many more syncing options are planned for future releases.
• ~ The reading plans feature-set is robust. It was the first of its kind when we released it for YouVersion.com, the mobile website, the iPhone app and the Blackberry app, and we’re excited to now offer the same functionality to YouVersion’s awesome Android users. You’ll be able to follow any of the 20+ YouVersion reading plans, track your reading progress, and share your readings with your friends through Twitter and email. (Facebook integration is on our roadmap.)
• ~ We've added the sharing capabilities of Android to scripture and reading plans, which means you can now share from the other apps you have installed on your phone like Email, SMS, Twitter or Evernote for example.
• ~ We spent some time on this release rethinking the UX and working to make your experience reading the Bible on your Android device as smooth and enjoyable as possible. We think you’ll like the subtle (and some not-so-subtle) improvements.
• ~ Android users are used to crisp experiences with Google’s native applications like the Browser, Gmail, Maps, etc. We want to make your experience with the YouVersion Bible app just as snappy and responsive, so we made it a point to speed up the app with this update. If you’re a long-time user of the YouVersion Android app, you’ll notice a significant improvement in response time for core actions like selecting a verse, changing versions, scrolling through text, moving to the next chapter in the Bible, etc.

This release has been highly anticipated within the YouVersion team and we’re confident that you’ll enjoy all the changes we’ve made. To download this release, and any future updates, go to http://youversion.com/download on your mobile phone. And, if you have feedback for us regarding this update, go to http://support.youversion.com and let us know about it.Here are a few screen shots for your viewing pleasure!New Low Light Reading ViewReading PlansSign In via Setting page Long press now included Share and Copy Share with your favorite applications

We’re launching a new Bible application today that’s compatible with most Java-enabled phones and it’s available for download now. This app will give you access to the entire Bible (41 translations in 22 languages) on any phone that can run Java apps with a screen resolution of 240×320 or 320×240.

This release is significant for many reasons, but the most important reason is that the Java Bible app will be targeting hundreds of millions of people around the world that live in less developed countries and don’t have good mobile data connections or powerful smartphones. This includes India, China, Africa, South America, Eastern Europe, and the Middle East. We’re most excited about the possibility of giving away millions of free Bibles in places where the Bible isn’t readily available.

Why is this app different?

Since most people associate mobile applications with smartphones like the iPhone, we thought it would help if we explained why this app is different.

Because of the basic nature of Java phones and the limited availability of mobile data connections, we’ve intentionally kept the Java Bible app simple. To accommodate as many phones as possible, we built two versions: (1) a “bundled” version that includes the ASV Bible and doesn’t need a data connection to read the Bible and (2) a “lite” version that necessitates a data connection to read the Bible.

Both the “bundled” and the “lite” versions can be downloaded directly to your computer and then transferred to your Java phone manually to allow people with zero mobile data connection the chance to have the Bible on their phone. But, of course, if you do have a data connection you will still be able to download the app from http://youversion.com/download just like all of our other Bible apps.

What is a “Java-enabled phone”?

Java (J2ME or Java ME) is the most ubiquitous application platform for mobile devices. Motorola, Samsung, HTC, Sony, Nokia, and others offer handsets that run Java applications. For example, if you have a Motorola Razor or a Nokia E63 (two of the most popular phones in the world), you can run Java apps. Even Windows Mobile devices can use this app.

How to Download

The easiest way to download the YouVersion Bible app for Java is to visit http://youversion.com/download from your Java-enabled mobile phone. From there you’ll be taken to the Java application store where you’ll be able to download the right version for your phone.

If you’d rather download the app to your computer and transfer it manually, go to http://www.getjar.com/mobile/29005/bible-from-youversion to grab it now.

Phase one of YouVersion’s scaling process was completed a little over a week ago. It involved both hardware and software upgrades to help handle the increased traffic from both website visitors and mobile application users. You can read more about that process here, but we’re already seeing drastic improvements in up-time and reliability.

While the engineering side of YouVersion’s scaling was under way, we quietly started a project to scale our support infrastructure to better serve the millions of new users that are being added to the YouVersion community. With YouVersion adding more than 10,000 new users every day, it was apparent that our former support setup wasn’t going to work.

Nearing the end of 2009, we set out to overhaul our user support infrastructure so that it could scale to serve tens of millions of users efficiently and effectively.

First, we moved from GetSatisfaction to Zendesk (http://support.youversion.com). Zendesk allows us to support users one-on-one through a private ticketing system while maintaining an open forum environment where the YouVersion community can help each other find answers. Second, we assigned a single person to be responsible for ongoing support. This doesn’t mean that one person has to answer every support request. Rather, this person is responsible for making sure the YouVersion community is cared for, heard, and helped. It’s more of a leadership role than a “customer service representative” role.

The most important change has been who supports the YouVersion community. While we have a dedicated support manager to guide and lead in this area, we’re going to start leaning on volunteers to provide answers and troubleshoot problems for other YouVersion users. The volunteers we’re trusting with this role are handpicked to join this team; the YouVersion Community Champions.

If you’re interested in being a YouVersion Community Champion, here’s what we’re looking for:

- Used YouVersion for at least 4 months on a very regular basis
- Very familiar with the main website and at least one YouVersion mobile application
- Displayed the ability and willingness to meaningfully help other YouVersion users in the public support forums by answering questions or providing guidance

We’re excited about how this new approach to user support will provide value to the entire YouVersion community. If you’d like to know more about volunteering for YouVersion support or in other areas, go to http://goo.gl/9CkB. If you’d like to sign up immediately, go to http://goo.gl/XixQ.

With the new system in place, we’re confident that we’ll be able to continue to effectively support the ballooning YouVersion user-base as it grows into the tens of millions. And what’s more, we’re prepared to make constant adjustments and improvements as necessary to make sure the YouVersion community is always well cared for.

In our continued efforts to keep up with the growth of YouVersion in recent months, we're scheduling some downtime tomorrow morning to spend some time upgrading our hardware. YouVersion will be down for an hour (or less) between 9am and noon CST. We'll post from the @YouVersion Twitter account when maintenance begins and again when we're finished.

Sorry for the inconvenience. We promise to work as quickly as possible.

For the past few weeks our team has been focused on bringing stability and reliability to the YouVersion infrastructure. You can read a few posts about the process here and here. I am pleased to announce we have completed the first phase of that process, and had a very successful and stable weekend...more here and here.

As you are aware, YouVersion is growing at an amazing rate - over 1/2 million new mobile users added in the last 30 days, and over 250,000 new registered web users this month alone! We are not seeing growth slow down, so we are also preparing for continual scaling (phase 2, 3, etc.) to be able to handle the additional users.

Finally, with all this scaling and infrastructure talk you might be thinking we have stopped ongoing development...well, that is not the case! Look for some fun and exciting releases and announcements in the coming weeks.

As you may know, YouVersion grew by leaps and bounds in 2009, and 2010 is already shaping up to be a record-setting year for Scripture engagement on the web and on mobile phones. January is on track to see more new accounts, more new Bible app downloads, more YouVersion.com unique views, and more time reading the Bible than we’ve ever seen before.

But with growth comes the challenge of scaling to accommodate it. God has brought together an amazing team of talented developers and engineers that have made it their single focus to stabilize and expand YouVersion’s infrastructure to handle the current load and prepare it for the increasing demands of new user-accounts, hits, downloads, and minutes reading the Bible.

Today we completed the first phase of infrastructure expansion and you should already start to feel the increased speed and better up-time from the changes we’ve made so far. Continued server and code-base optimization will take place over the next several weeks with ongoing evaluations and tweaks throughout the year.

As a side note to these challenges and our response to them, the YouVersion team is incredibly thankful for our users. You’ve been patient, courteous, helpful, and encouraging through this phase of growth and we don’t take that for granted. We know that God has big plans for YouVersion in the coming months and years and we’re honored to partner with you to see His plans come full circle.

(As a reminder, if you have questions, problems, ideas, or praise for the YouVersion team, you can post them to our community forum at http://youversion.com/support.)

Over the past few months YouVersion has been growing at an explosive rate, and for that we thank you! Many of you might not realize, but in the last 30 days we have added over 1/2 million new mobile users to the iPhone, Blackberry and Android Bible application and that continues to grow. In addition to those new users, we are seeing significant growth in mobile web usage as well as traditional web usage of YouVersion.com. We are excited to see so many millions of people interacting regularly with Scripture.

However, with the great news of new users...and people being able to engage in Scripture, the reality is we have had a few rough days this month, specifically on Sundays. As we see huge amounts of people using the Bible Application our core server infrastructure has not been able to handle the peak load. What we want you as our users and partners to know is we are very sorry for this issue. We are highly committed to addressing these current problems, and building a solution that will have the capacity to handle millions and millions of new Bible users each month. We have already made some major changes and improvements this afternoon, as well as initiated a plan to triple our server infrastructure.

As challenging as these past few days have been...we are excited and encouraged about the future. The idea of reaching hundreds of millions if not billions of people with the power of God's Word is unfolding as a reality! We thank you for partnering with us and ask for your continued prayers and support as we continue this exciting journey.

We’ve been looking forward to this announcement for some time and I’m glad to be able to finally tell you about a new addition to the growing list of offline-available Bible translations for the iPhone and iPod Touch Bible app. Thanks to Tyndale House Foundation, the New Living Translation is now available to download so you can enjoy it anytime and anywhere, whether you have a network connection or not.

We’re highlighting this addition specially because you’ll have a limited amount of time to take advantage of it. The NLT will be available for download for 90 days and will remain there forever (unless you delete the Bible app from your device, heaven forbid). Again, we want to thank Tyndale House Foundation for their generosity in making the NLT available offline for this time.

To download the NLT, or other offline translations, open the Bible app on your iPhone or iPod Touch (make sure you have a network connection) and tap the “More” option in the dock at the bottom. From there, go to Settings, then Offline Translations. Scroll down about half way and select New Living Translation from the list of options. Then tap Download Translation and the app will begin downloading the offline translation for you.

The download may take a few seconds or minutes depending on the speed of your connection, but once it’s finished the NLT will show at the top of the Offline Translations list. When you’re reading the Bible, to switch to an offline translation, just open the translation selector (near the top of the reader) and look for the translation that has the little icon to the left of it.

Thank you for using the YouVersion Bible app. More than 3.3 million people have installed YouVersion on their mobile device. Know anyone who could us a free Bible on their phone? Send them to http://youversion.com/download.

Just in time for the new year, we’ve launched more than 20 new Bible reading plans on YouVersion!

• 20+ plans are available online and on your mobile device, so you can keep up with your reading no matter where you are.
• You can customize each plan to match your schedule by making it shorter or longer.
• Easily track where you are by checking off each day’s reading. We’ll also show you how far along you are with a percentage of completion.
• Your online and mobile accounts will synchronize your information, including your plan and your progress.
• Soon, you’ll be able to build a support system by opting in for accountability emails to you and/or a friend.

Following a reading plan helps you stay on track with your Bible reading goals. Choose one (or several) and each day a special selection will be ready and waiting for you.

Pick the plan that’s the best fit for you:

http://www.youversion.com/about/reading-plans

See what God reveals to you when you spend time in Scripture each day!

The YouVersion Team

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