YouVersion Community Shatters Christmas Day Records

What’s a great way to celebrate the birth of our Savior? According to the worldwide YouVersion community, the answer for Christmas Day 2011 was, “Share the Bible!” Together we gave away more free Bibles and helped more people connect to God’s Word through free YouVersion accounts than on any other single day in YouVersion’s history.

The November webcast was the first time we mentioned The Other 16 — that 16 out of 17 iOS and Android devices hadn’t installed the Bible App. Then together we shared the Bible on Christmas Day, telling others our favorite things about God’s Word, even helping friends and family install the Bible App™ on their devices. And the results are in:

 

December 24:

December 25:

  • Android shattered its record—set just the day before—with 130,605 new installs.
  • The Bible App for iPad set a record of 43,000 new installs, more than doubling its previous record of 20,000 (set on Christmas Day 2010).
  • Overall, the Bible App was installed on 300,877 new mobile devices, breaking its previous one-day record of approximately 165,000 (also set on Christmas Day 2010).
  • Users created 53,000 brand-new free YouVersion accounts, besting the previous record of 37,000 accounts in a single day (back in October, when we made the offline NIV available for download).
  • The Bible App for iPhone nearly reached its previous record (114,000), within just 3,000 installs.

December 24–29:

  • It took just 5 and a half days for the Bible App to be installed on 1 million new devices. (During this same Share the Bible period in 2010, it took us 11 days to reach 1 million.) By the end of December 28, we were already at 940,000, accumulating our next 60,000 in the first half of December 29—almost exactly half the time it took to reach a million during that same period in 2010.

Many apps for mobile devices won’t see 300,000 installs total — let alone on a single day. But because of you, more and more people are discovering God’s Word, joining with us in a revolution of Bible engagement. Thank you for your part in making Global Share the Bible Day such a record-breaking success!

 

The Bible App for Android: New Release Packs in Convenience, Control

The Bible App™ Dashboard Launcher on a Google NexusBrand-new Version 3.7* of the Bible App for Android is in the Android App Market now. While we’ve fixed some bugs in this update, more importantly, we’ve brought you several great new features:

  • Reading Plan Reminders. Schedule the Bible App to pop up your Reading Plan whenever it’s most convenient for you.
  • User Profile View. Coming for the first time to the Bible App for Android, now you can work with your account settings all in one place—name, profile image, contact information, and more. You can even browse your Friends’ profiles and the profiles of people who are following you.
  • More Privacy Controls. When people view your profile, you can control whether they can see the reading plan(s) you’re subscribed to.
  • Better Language Support. We’ve improved the way Bible text displays for Greek, Armenian, Khmer, and Bengali.

We’ve even integrated a few commonly-used features directly into the Bible App, previously available only through the YouVersion.com website:

  • Password Reminder. If you forget your YouVersion password, you can have the Bible App send a message to your email of record to help you reset it.
  • Password Change. Change your password from right inside in the Bible App.
  • Notification Preferences. Tell YouVersion which of your account actions you want to trigger messages to you.

Spread the word! The Bible App for Android makes it easy to share your journey through the Bible with your friends—from inside the app—whether you’re posting to Facebook or Twitter, or sending an email or text. Consider showing your friends the Bible App on your device, or even offering to help them install it on theirs. A new release of the Bible App can be a great conversation starter!


*This release supports Android version 1.6 and higher, as well as Apps2SD.

Get Bible App for Android Update Now: Improved Search, Bookmark Label View

Bookmarks Screen in the Bible App™ for Android v. 3.6Get the most out of the Bible App for Android. Release 3.6* is available for download in the Android App Market right now. In this update, we’ve added two great new features you’ll want to check out:

Improved Bible Search. For the first time on Android, now you can filter your Bible searches, limiting them to just the Old Testament, the New Testament, the Apocrypha, or to a single book. You can even sort your results to help you more easily find what you’re looking for (displaying them in book order, for example).

Label View. Bookmarks were always great for marking verses you want to quickly jump back to later, and labels made them even more useful. Now label view makes this feature handier than ever. You can see all your labels in one place, then tap a label to see which verses you applied it to. This great tool will help you organize your bookmarked verses for Bible studies, memory lists, or even sharing to encourage others. Check out the Android section of YouVersion’s Technical Support website to learn how to add your own labels.

Please share! It’s easy to start a conversation about the Bible App with your friends. Just tell them what you’re studying in the Bible right now. And if they have an Android device, maybe they’ll let you show them how it works—or even let you help them install it on their mobile. However you decide to use the Bible App, please come and tell us about it on Facebook and Twitter.


*This release supports Android version 1.6 and higher, as well as App2SD.

Brand New Features in the Bible App for Android Version 3.4: Available Now

Version 3.4, the latest release of the Bible App™ for Android, is available now in the Android App Market, for immediate download. You’ll find this updated version packed with great new features, all specifically designed to make your experience connecting with your YouVersion friends better than ever:

  • Easier, More Direct Help. Now you can access Technical Support from directly inside the Bible App. With just a couple of taps, you can email our Support team from wherever you are, a feature which will automatically include useful information that can help get your issue addressed much faster.
  • Sign up with Facebook. For the first time, now you can sign up for a free YouVersion account using your Facebook login, right inside the Bible App. This streamlines creating your account, which will save you time: You won’t need to verify your email address, and your YouVersion account will automatically connect to Facebook for you. It’s now faster and simpler than ever to share your favorite verses or Bible plans—or even the Bible App!—with your friends.
  • Create New Notes from Other Apps. Now when you connect your YouVersion account with other digital Bible platforms that use compatible technology (like Monvee), the notes you make on Bible passages in those other places can sync directly with your YouVersion account!
  • Highlights for Notes. Notes just got a whole lot richer. Adding to the Bible App’s already robust set of features for notes, now you can even label individual notes with highlight colors. This allows you to spot your notes at a glance, and even to coordinate or organize them by color if you want.
  • Faster than Ever. With every new release, we try to resolve known issues and improve performance. But in 3.4, we’ve specifically addressed speed by caching data on your notes and in YouVersion Live. What this means is that the Bible App makes smart decisions and loads things in the background, based on whatever you’re doing. This translates into much snappier performance for you.

The Bible App™ for Android 3.4 Help Launcher  The Bible App™ for Android 3.4 Help Launcher  The Bible App™ for Android 3.4 Sharing  The Bible App™ for Android 3.4 Highlights
Let your friends know! The YouVersion community is of course all about sharing your experiences connecting with God’s Word. A new Bible App update with great features like this one is a great way you can start a conversation with your friends who have Android devices. Please consider offering to help them install the Bible App on their mobiles, and even show them your favorite ways to use it. And tell us your stories! Our Facebook and Twitter communities love hearing creative ideas about how we can all share the Bible App.