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Partnership to Reach Spanish Speakers

Recently we told you about the Bible App passing 11 million downloads. We’ve also shared how, so far, YouVersion users have spent more than 3.5 billion minutes reading the Bible. Of course we couldn’t be happier to see numbers like these. But there are some other numbers you should also know about. Recent polls indicated most people (more than 70%) felt it was important to know more about the Bible. But even among those people who said they thought they ought to read the Bible, most also admitted that they rarely do—with many even saying they didn’t read it at all.

Clearly, we need to make it even easier for people to engage with God’s Word. We need to get it into more hands. Today we’re pleased to announce a new partnership intended to do just that. The American Bible Society (ABS) is introducing an exciting campaign, called Descubre La Biblia, to promote Bible engagement within the Spanish-speaking community. As part of that plan, ABS is joining with YouVersion to launch the Bible App in Spanish, which will feature several of the world’s best-known Spanish Bible translations including the Reina Valera 1960.

If you have any friends who speak Spanish, we’d love for you to share the Bible App with them. To access YouVersion.com in Spanish, simply visit http://es.youversion.com/, or choose “Español” from the language selection box in the lower left corner of the site. (Users who already have Spanish (Español) selected as their language of choice on their device will automatically see the Bible App in Spanish.)

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You’re on a Roll!

Thank you. In the two weeks since we shared the huge goal of reaching 1 billion minutes of Bible engagement in January 2011, YouVersion users have proven what we’ve known all along: you guys rock! You’ve gone above and beyond in responding to each of the ways you could help, and it is working as we see momentum building toward January.

11 million devices. Last week we passed another significant milestone: the Bible App has been installed on more than 11 million mobile devices! When you let others know about the Bible App, you’re introducing them to something that can help them hear from God no matter where they are.

Please keep voting for us at Mashable. We just got word about some more exciting news: your votes in the 4th Annual Mashable Awards propelled us into the final round! We are one of five finalists in our category: Best Mobile User Experience. Now the fun really starts 🙂 We’re facing some stiff competition and the next round of voting lasts just two weeks, so we have until December 15 to stack up the votes. It would be awesome to see God’s Word take home the trophy at one of the top awards events in the tech community. We’d love for you to join us in voting daily!

Christmas Reading Plan starts today. Finally, we’ve got lots of things rolling out to make your Bible reading experience better and better. One we’re particularly excited about today is the launch of a Christmas Reading Plan. It’s a 25-day plan that will help you stay focused on what’s important this season. You can read through it on your own or share it with your family or small group.

We’re so thankful to share this season with you. The YouVersion community is the tops, and we appreciate your partnership in helping more and more people become captivated by God’s Word.

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Your Stories: How can YouVersion help your youth?

Here at YouVersion, we talk all the time about how much we love the Bible. You know what else we love? Hearing your stories about how much you love the Bible, and about what it’s meant in your lives. Today we’re going to hear from a Youth Pastor who wants to help his students connect with the Bible. He even installed more Wi-Fi hotspots around his church to make sure students there can always access it!

Our favorite quote: “Having it all accessible in one place, it’s like we’ve brought the Bible to them.”
Have a YouVersion story of your own? We’d love to hear it at Facebook.com/youversion
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Notice Anything…Different?

If you haven’t noticed it already, you might soon see your icon for the Bible App just a little…differently. That’s because the next time a new update is available for your app, you’ll get our updated icon. Of course, YouVersion is still the same Bible App you know and, we hope, love.

Because of platform differences (like BlackBerry vs. say, iPad) our icons evolved slightly differently in different places. However, with the Bible App’s growing momentum, we thought it was perfect timing to unify the icon across all platforms.

Some people have asked why we didn’t go with a YouVersion icon. The answer is simple: to help people focus on the Bible instead of a brand. We wanted people to easily recognize the Bible when they see it in the app store and, more importantly, on their phone.

So, in the coming weeks and months, wherever you experience YouVersion—whether iPhone, iPad, BlackBerry, Windows Phone 7, webOS, or even in Facebook — you’ll see the new Bible App logo. It’s one small tweak that we hope will help even more people open up God’s Word.

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Notes Come to BlackBerry

We announced last Friday that you could take notes on YouVersion on the web. That same notes feature is now available on BlackBerry!

Download version 2.7 now from Blackberry App World.

Associate with a verse. Notes are pretty straightforward. When you select a verse and click Notes, you’ll see all of the public notes associated with that passage. To add your own, just click New Note.

Make a general note. You don’t have to associate a note with a specific verse. You can take one at any time. Simply go to the dashboard, select Notes, and go!

For any note: Give your note a title, and then select from the following options:

  • Draft. A note “in progress” that you’re not ready to share yet.
  • Private. Only you will see this note. (You can use this feature to journal what God’s showing you in His Word.)
  • Public. Anyone will be able to see this note.
  • Publish on: Schedule the date you want this note to become public.
TIP: You can change a note back and forth between private and public at any time.

Interact with notes. You can “Share” a note to post it to Twitter or Facebook, “Like” a note to put it in your Facebook newsfeed, or even “Report” a note to flag it as inappropriate content.

As we learn how you guys use notes in the Bible App going forward, we’ll continue modifying this feature to make sure it is as helpful as possible. Give it a try and go add some notes on your BlackBerry. And look for continuing development for the Bible App on BlackBerry over the coming months–cool things are ahead!