During every minute of the day, people around the globe are actively using the Bible App to engage with Scripture. This infographic shares a quick look at what happens in just one minute in the YouVersion Community.
(View the infographic at full size.)
For a limited time, you’ll be able to download the New International Version (NIV) for offline use in the Bible App:
Starting 12:00 AM Thursday, December 1 Central Time U.S. (GMT -6)
Ending 11:59 PM Monday, December 12 Central Time U.S. (GMT -6)
Once again, you’ll be able to download the NIV. If you missed your chance last time, or if you know someone who did, spread the word and make sure you take advantage of this opportunity. Special thanks go to Biblica and Zondervan for making the NIV available to the YouVersion community!
Note: When you look at the available versions on your device, remember to hit the “Refresh” button, to ensure that the list you’re seeing is the most current.
What does offline mean? Many versions in the Bible App™ are available to download to your mobile device, generously provided by Bible publishers free to the YouVersion community. (And several of these are available all the time—not just during promotions.) When you download a version, you can read it literally anytime, anyplace, even when you can’t connect to your service provider or to the Internet.
Below are links to detailed instructions on how you can download your free copy once the NIV becomes available again on Thursday, December 1. Mark your calendar, and be sure you don’t miss this opportunity!
Do you use the Bible App for BlackBerry? If so we want to give you a heads up about a problem that is popping up for a small segment of our BlackBerry community.
We’re very sorry for the frustration some of you have experienced with an unstable app. We have been battling a tricky error that causes the app to freeze for some people, but not for everyone. This bug has been challenging to find, but it appears to be related to how we have integrated BlackBerry Messenger into the Bible App.
To get this fixed, we are pushing as hard as we can to get a new release out to you. This new release will not have the BBM integration, but there is a lot to look forward to: highlights, improved bookmarking, and a few other speed enhancements that should really improve your experience within the app. We look to bring back BBM integration as soon as we are able to solve these issues.
We are finishing up the app and will be testing it rigorously before it gets submitted to RIM for approval. That means the new build with improved features should be in your hand in about two weeks. That really does seem like a long time given how long you’ve had to wait, but it is 100% necessary to give everyone the stable release you’ve been waiting for.
Again, our apologies for the problems you’ve encountered in using the Bible App for BlackBerry. Thank you for your patience and for working with us to troubleshoot the issue. We¹ll keep you informed as much as possible and we’ll certainly have a post here on the blog when the new update is available!
Of course, the YouVersion experience is much more than Bibles. Our amazing volunteers are literally changing the world, working together to provide Korean speakers with all that YouVersion has to offer. This comprehensive set of tools is designed to help Korean speakers engage with God’s Word as easily as possible—entirely in their own language—including menus, email exchanges, conversations on social networks like Facebook and Twitter, reading plans—and even technical support!
Korean readers were already one of YouVersion’s largest, most active segments, with an average of 150,000 people a month installing the Korean version of the Bible App onto their devices. And with the announcement now of our complete Korean launch, we only expect that number to grow.
Koreans in North and South Korea. Koreans represent a huge, ever-growing segment of the overall YouVersion community. Wikipedia says that Korean is the official language of both North and South Korea, encompassing about 78 million speakers worldwide. And according to The World Factbook, South Korea (known officially as the Republic of Korea) is the 26th most populous nation in the world, home to just under 49 million people. North Korea is 48th, claiming about 24 and a half million people.
Koreans Elsewhere. Of course, Koreans don’t live only in South and North Korea. Another Wikipedia article estimates that an additional 7 million Koreans live outside the two Koreas, with some of the largest concentrations settling in China (2.3 million), the United States (2.1 million), and Japan (just under 1 million). The remaining number are dispersed literally all over the world.
If you speak or read Korean, the YouVersion community is excited to officially welcome you into our global community of brothers and sisters. We’d love to connect with you. It’s our sincere desire to see the life-changing story of God’s love reach more people than ever before—no matter what language you speak, or where you live.
For this release of the Bible App™ for Windows Phone—Version 2.0—we wanted to give you the best app experience possible. And we decided the best way to do that was to rewrite it from the ground up! So the Bible App for Windows Phone is all-new, ready for you right now at Windows Marketplace for Mobile. The Bible App’s functionality on Windows Phone now much more closely matches that of our other major platforms, including several practical improvements, like these:
Get your update to the Bible App for Windows Phone now, and be sure to let us know on Facebook and Twitter what you think!
Today we’d like to share with you a few specific stories, directly from people touched by the Bible during difficult times in their lives, in their own words. God is using the Bible App™ to make His Word always available to meet people’s needs–no matter where they are:
“I have really enjoyed the upgrades to the Bible App over the past two years. Recently, I was able to surprise my uncle while he was in the hospital, not just showing him Scripture and how many different versions of the Bible are available, but by allowing him to hear it actually read aloud by the software.” —George B.
“I love having the ability to look up any word in the Bible and see it display all of the associated Scriptures right away. I have a disability that prevents me from doing much typing, so I love that I can share Scriptures without having to type the words. I believe this is the best Bible application available. Thank you for the Bible App, YouVersion!” —Cherie S.
“I love having the Bible on my iPhone. I have cataracts at 73 years of age and I can see the backlit words better and read faster. I’ve read as many 19 chapters in one sitting! And it’s the only Bible I take to church now.” —Mary D.
Of course, Bibles are only one part of the YouVersion experience. Our incredible community of volunteers also mobilized to bring Russian speakers everything YouVersion has to offer, entirely in their native language, including menus, email exchanges, conversations on social networks like Facebook and Twitter, reading plans—even technical support!
Russians in Russia. Russians represent a massive new community for YouVersion. According to The World Factbook, Russia (also known as the Russian Federation) is the ninth most populous nation in the world, with almost 139 million people. Wikipedia says that although more than 100 languages are estimated to be spoken across Russia, 99% of its people understand Russian and share it as their common language.
Russians around the world. Russians living in Russia are only the beginning of this story. Russian speakers live literally everywhere in the world. According to Wikipedia, the largest concentrations of Russians living outside the country are in former Soviet States such as Ukraine (8 million) and Kazakhstan (3.8 million). But many also live in the European Union, and significant numbers have even emigrated to Canada, Australia, and the United States. As air travel and a globally connected economy have made our planet smaller, Russians have truly become citizens of the world.
We’re thrilled to welcome our Russian speaking brothers and sisters into our ever-growing global YouVersion community. And we’re excited that together we can now reach more people than ever before with the life-changing story of God’s love.
Our simple mission at YouVersion is to make it easy for everyone to freely engage with the Bible, no matter where they live or what language they speak. And of course, our connection to God through His Word is made so much richer when we share that experience with others. We love hearing stories from our YouVersion community about how you use the Bible App™ in your everyday life, and about what it means to you. Here are just a few of the things that people from all over the world have been telling us:
“The Bible App has been a true blessing! I’m able to keep the Word with me every day! I study the Bible more using the index, reading Bible chapters from start to finish…. And the daily encouraging messages are such a helpful way to start the day off right.”
—Phyllis B.
“Having the Bible with me all the time has made me fall in love with the Word of God all over again. The convenience is wonderful to have, and I appreciate that I can search and have numerous versions right in the palm of my hand.”
—Isabelle M.
“I found the Bible App on my husband’s phone a little over a year ago. I asked him about it because he was a ‘non-believer.’ He told me had been reading it, and last June he came home a NEW man! Now he’s on fire for Christ! He even uses the Bible App to witness to his friends. I promise you this app was divinely placed on his phone!”
—DeCole C.
What about you? Has the Bible App changed the way you connect with the Bible? We’d love to hear from you on Facebook, Twitter, or on the form below. What’s your story?
We’re happy to announce that the Segond 21 version of the Bible, published for the first time by the Geneva Society in 2007, is now available at YouVersion.com and in the Bible App™. We hope you’ll be as excited as we are—Segond 21 is one of the versions most requested by the YouVersion community!
The Segond 21 version took 12 years of dedicated translation work based on original Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek texts, but it also incorporates more recently available information. According to Wikipedia, this Bible’s sponsors describe it as “L’original, avec les mots d’aujourd’hui”. Segond 21 has been a top-selling Bible among French speakers, making an appearance in the top 200 books sold at Amazon France. In fact, in their category for spirituality/Christian books, it’s even number one!
At YouVersion, we’re passionate about making God’s Word freely available to as many people as possible, wherever they live. And engaging with the Bible in the language of your heart provides a deep, rich connection with God’s great story of love, and with your faith. If you have friends and loved ones who you think might enjoy reading the Segond 21, please let them know!
Last November, we added the ability for you to use your free YouVersion account to sync your bookmarks from the Bible App™ with YouVersion.com. In that short period of time, millions more people have joined our YouVersion community, creating free accounts and adding bookmarks of their own. Just recently, we reached a new milestone we wanted to share:
Together, we’ve saved more than 20 million bookmarks
in the Bible App™ and at YouVersion.com.
(Click the infographic to enlarge.)
Engage in Scripture like never before. Download the free app and enjoy regular time with the Bible, right when and where you need it.
