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Time’s Almost Up for Free NIV Offline from YouVersion

Download IconWe just wanted to remind you: Our special promotion celebrating the 400th anniversary of the King James Bible with Biblica and Zondervan is almost over. If you haven’t already downloaded the New International Version (NIV) to your iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, Android, or BlackBerry device, don’t miss your chance!

This limited offer ends next Tuesday, March 1,
at 12:00 PM noon U.S. ET (GMT-5)

That’s when you’ll also be able to pick up the NIV in print at retailers everywhere. We’d like to thank Biblica and Zondervan once again for making the NIV available offline. You can follow the NIV on Twitter or Facebook, or learn more about it at NIV’s website.

Just to be clear, even when this promotion is over, you’ll still be able to access the NIV you downloaded, just as long as you don’t remove it from your device. If any of your friends has one of these devices, please let them know about this special offer too—but hurry!

Here are instructions for how you can download offline versions:

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German and Portuguese Now on YouVersion.com

Thanks to our awesome YouVersion community of volunteers, German and Portuguese are now available as interface options at www.youversion.com. Select the language you’d like from the lower left corner of the reader, or go directly to de.youversion.com for German or pt.youversion.com for Portuguese.

What this means is that you can interact with our Bible tools completely in German, directly from our website, or in the Bible App™ on iPhone/iPad/iPod touch, Android, or BlackBerry. In the same way, you can use Portuguese on our website and also in the Bible App on Android and BlackBerry. Of course we already offer the Luther Bible 1912 (DELUT) in German and the Almeida Atualizada (AA) in Portuguese, with more versions in more languages coming.

If you have friends or loved ones who might enjoy engaging with God’s Word in German or Portuguese, please share this exciting news with them. If you’d like to help us get our interface into your language, let us know what you can do at our volunteer sign up. The YouVersion volunteer community truly is changing the world.

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Audio Bibles Now in Beta from YouVersion in the Bible App for Android

Android Audio Now in BETA!The Bible App™ for Android can now read select translations to you. As soon as you’ve visited the App Market and updated the Bible App on your device to version 3.0, you’ll be able to listen to the English Standard Version (ESV), the New International Version (NIV), the New American Standard Bible (NASB), and La Biblia de Las Americas (LBLA). Hear the Word of God spoken to you as you’re driving or exercising—or even just listen as you read along.

When the version you’re using has an audio option available, the Bible App displays the speaker icon next to the menu icon in the Reader. Simply tap it to start listening. Our audio Bibles use streaming sound files, so you’ll need to be connected to your service provider or to the Internet when you listen.

Because we’re still developing the audio tools and working to add more versions, we consider these features to be in Beta. So even if you don’t see audio for your favorite translation yet, keep checking back; more audio versions will be coming in the days and weeks ahead. (By the way, we’re working to bring this same functionality to our other platforms too; more announcements are coming.)

Also in this release: For the first time—and once again thanks to the hard work of incredible YouVersion volunteers—we now have the Bible App interface translated into Slovak and Polish on Android. If you’d like to see it in your language too, and you can help us translate it, please complete our volunteer form.

Please share the news with your friends!

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Featured in “The App List” from The Sunday Times: The Bible App by YouVersion!

YouVersion is honored that the Bible App™ has been recognized by The Sunday Times in their definitive guide to the world’s best 500 apps (subscription required). The Sunday Times online is one of the most popular national newspaper sites in the UK. Regular Sunday Times app reviewers and experts in relevant fields selected their favorite apps, based on their practicality, their usefulness, or even just how fun and addictive they are. And the Bible App made the list!

From the very beginning, our primary goal with the Bible App has always been to make it as easy as possible for people to engage with the Bible as part of their everyday lives. Whether you’re using a reading plan to make the most of your time in Scripture, connecting with your friends online about your experiences reading the Bible, or using notes to journal and share how God’s Word is speaking into your life, the Bible App is always as close as your mobile device.

It means a lot to us at YouVersion to be included on The Sunday Times’  list. We love the Bible, and we’re always excited when more people will have the opportunity to discover God’s story for their lives.

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The Bible App: 1 Billion Minutes Reached

1 Billion MinutesA couple of weeks ago, we updated you on our progress toward our goal for the YouVersion community to read the Bible for 1 billion minutes in 1 month. We also promised we’d let you know as soon as we reached that billion, so we could celebrate together. Yesterday, February 15, we just passed 1 billion minutes of engaging with Scripture using the Bible App™. While it took 46 days instead of the 31 we had hoped for, it’s still nothing short of extraordinary. Going all the way back to the Bible App’s launch in July 2008, this period represents the most people reading the most minutes in the shortest amount of time that we’ve ever seen. It’s reason to rejoice.

We celebrate big numbers when they happen because they’re exciting, and because they can help us establish some perspective. But of course what’s important to us is not numbers—it’s you. Every download, every account created, every status update and tweet, every reading plan subscribed to, each represents a person, a human being, connecting with the Scriptures. We love the Bible, and our single-minded goal is now, as it has always been, to help as many people as possible engage with God’s Word as a natural part of their everyday lives. Thank you for reading in the Bible App. Thank you for being a part of what God is doing.

The best thing about a billion more minutes…is that it’s only the beginning.