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The Bible App Made iTunes’ 2010 Top Ten!

Every year, Apple announces the top 10 apps for the year in each category in the iTunes Store. This year, we’re thrilled to announce that the Bible App from YouVersion made the top 10 in the free Reference category! On both iPhone and iPad!

Apple’s lists don’t indicate rank. The above iPhone apps view shows the winners sorted by name. We’d also like to draw your attention to the Paul Avery Holy Bible app and Logos for iPad. Paul Avery’s Holy Bible made both lists, and Logos made the iPad list—and both are free Bible apps! How awesome is it that God’s Word claimed three of the top spots for free Reference apps in 2010?! (To discover more free Bible resources, check out this page we added to our website to highlight them.)

To see more of the lists, simply go to the iTunes Store and click the iTunes Rewind banner:

Look under the Apps section, and click on the “Check Out the Hot Trends in 2010 Apps” link for either iPhone or iPad, whichever one you’re interested in. Click the “Top Free” link, and then scroll to the Reference section and click “See All.”

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Notes: Finally, It’s iPhone’s Turn!

If you use the Bible App from YouVersion on your iPhone, then we imagine you might have watched with just the slightest twinge of envy as you’ve seen notes come to some of our other platforms. Your wait is over! As long as you’re signed in to your free YouVersion account, you’re ready to start adding notes:

  • General notes. You can add a note at any time, and it can be about anything. Simply tap the Notes tab.
  • Connected to a passage. Of course, you can link a note directly to a single verse. Just tap the verse you want to comment on, then tap Notes on the options menu that displays. To add yours, tap Create New. (You can even add additional verses—and remove verses—from their association with a note.)
  • Connect with community. “Share” any note to post it to Twitter or Facebook, “Like” a note to display it in a list of your favorite Notes on your profile on YouVersion.com, even “Report” a note to flag it as inappropriate.

Important! For any note you make: Give it a title, then mark whether you want to share it:

  • Draft. A note “in progress”—one that’s not quite ready for prime time.
  • Private. Only you will see this note. This is a great way to journal for yourself about the things that God is showing you in His Word.
  • Public. Your note will be visible by anyone. One of the greatest benefits of notes, public notes allow others to share in your journey through the Scriptures—and you in theirs.
  • Publish on: The note will be Private for now, but it will become Public on the date you specify.

TIP: You can change a note back and forth between the different sharing options at any time.

Many of you have been asking us to bring notes to the iPhone for a long time now, so of course we’re thrilled to be able to provide it for you. But this is still just the beginning. We’re really excited about all the continued advancements and improvements still to come. In the meantime, enjoy your Bible! And please share your experience with others!

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Brand New Update Available for Your iPhone!

Today we have a brand-new version of the Bible app for you, Update 2.5! As soon as you can, we’d love for you to update your iPhone YouVersion Bible app through the App Store. [iTunes Update Link] And be sure you let us know what you think. You can connect with us in the comments below, on our Facebook page, or on Twitter.

Major Highlights

  • Bookmark syncing. In the past, your bookmarks were stored directly in the app on the device you were using. Now, as long as you’re signed in to YouVersion, you’ll be able to jump to any of your bookmarks, regardless of where you are: iPhone, iPad, Android, Blackberry, or web. Your bookmarks go where you go!
  • Easier offline downloads. It was already really easy to download an offline translation of the Bible. But now we’ve made all tasks related to offline versions easier: Finding, downloading, seeing your existing downloaded versions…even removing versions you no longer use.

Here’s a sneak peek of what you can expect:

Everything we’re working on right now is focused on helping you engage with the Bible in the easiest, most natural way. We’re making it available on as many devices as we can, in as many ways as we can, so that you can fit it seamlessly into your life. Wherever you are in the world, we want you to have God’s Word close by.

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New Update for iPhone/iPad & More Coming Soon

Apple recently approved version 2.4 of the Bible app for iPhone/iPad. This release includes better search, additional support for high-resolution Retina displays, better Chinese localization, bug fixes, and a lot of under the hood updates that prepare us for future features. [Notice: this release also seems to have a bug effecting some users. If you experience the app crashing when attempting to access your reading plan, a quick fix is go to Settings and sign-out and then sign-in again.]

Coming Soon
We’re especially excited about some great features we’ll be rolling out in the next couple releases. Soon, you can expect to be able to sync your bookmarks between your Bible app and your YouVersion account . That means you’ll have access to the same bookmarks on your iPhone, iPad, and online at YouVersion.com.

Also on the horizon is a major update to Contributions and Journals. We can’t spill all the beans just yet, but we can say that you’ll love the changes and you’ll love what you’ll be able to do through your Bible app in the coming weeks.

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New for iPhone/iPad: Verse History, Copy, & SMS Sharing

The newest update to the YouVersion Bible app for iPhone/iPad (2.3.3) is ready and waiting in the App Store. Download it now by going to http://youversion.com/download from your device or search for “Bible” in the App Store. If you’re a fan of the app, please take a moment to rate it and leave a comment in the App Store.

This release includes some long-awaited feature additions that I can’t wait to tell you about, so let’s jump in.

Verse History
The new History feature is cool. It’ll help you navigate more quickly to verses you were reading recently. It’s great for when you want to share a verse with a friend, but can’t remember where it was. Or use it to keep up with your pastor when he’s jumping back-and-forth between two or more verses during a sermon.

To start using the History feature, go to the More section and tap “Edit” in the top right corner. Drag the “History” icon into the dock at the bottom to replace one of the icons that are already there. Now, after you’ve navigated to a verse using the Search function, the reference for that verse will show up in your History. (You can also access History directly inside the More section if the History icon isn’t in your dock. History only works with verses you’ve navigated to via Search right now. We’ll expand it in the future as we get feedback from you, our awesome users.)

Copy Bible Verses
You’ve been asking for the ability to copy Bible verses to your phone’s clipboard for a while. While it seems like a simple feature, actually executing that feature properly was not so simple. Now when you select a verse in the Bible reader you’ll have the choice to copy it to your clipboard, along with the other options to share or see contributions.

SMS Sharing (iPhone Only)
SMS (text messaging) is the #1 form of communication for an entire generation. It’s a great way to share quick thoughts through small snippets of text. Now you can easily share Bible verses via text message with anyone in your phone’s Contacts. Just select a verse and choose SMS from the list of sharing options that appear.

We also redesigned the UI when you interact with a verse.

Bug Fixes
We fixed the issue that some folks were having enabling the connection between their YouVersion account and Twitter or Facebook. We also squashed a few bugs related to network connectivity.

We’d love to hear your thoughts about this release so connect with us on Twitter (@youversion) or on our Facebook page (facebook.com/youversion) and let us know what you think.