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New Reading Plan Exclusive to YouVersion: Rick Warren’s Daily Devotional

Reading Plans from YouVersionIf you have used any of the more than 130 Reading Plans from YouVersion, then you already know that they are a terrific way to help you engage with the Bible, providing an easy schedule where you read just a little each day. As you begin to apply the things you feel God speaking to you through His Word, your life is transformed as He draws you closer. Now, Rick Warren, founding pastor of Saddleback Church and author of the best-selling book, The Purpose-Driven Life, has developed a reading plan exclusively for YouVersion—designed to help you accomplish just that.

Featuring 365 unique daily devotionals, the brand new “Rick Warren’s Daily Devotional” leads you through practical steps each day that can help you discover (and answer) God’s unique calling for your life. In just one year, Warren will help you chart a path to the place where God ultimately wants to lead you—spiritually, financially, emotionally, relationally and physically.

Rick Warren’s Daily Devotional is available now on all YouVersion platforms. All you need to start is a free YouVersion account. You can find it under the Devotional category of Reading Plans, whether you will be reading on your mobile device or at YouVersion.com. Today is a great day to start with that first step toward the fulfilled life Jesus has in store for you.

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Dear YouVersion Volunteer Community: THANK YOU!

The Bible App™ by YouVersionThis is National Volunteer Week, but the truth is, YouVersion’s amazing community of volunteers—1200+ of you so far (and counting)—deserve honor and recognition every single day. Your passionate work helps get God’s Word into the hands and inside the hearts of people around the world. It’s only through your many contributions that together our YouVersion team serves literally millions of people, helping them engage with the Bible easily every day.

YouVersion volunteers are regular people—people just like you—who serve in all kinds of big and small ways, offering abilities as unique as they are: design, testing, formatting text, social media… the list goes on and on. Renee is a stay-at-home mom who responds to issues reported through the Bible App™ on different platforms. Chris performs data entry. During his downtime, Russ, a police officer, leads a team of other volunteers responding to help requests online. Dan is a guy who develops software. And here are just a few other examples of the “typical” YouVersion volunteer: David is a Genius at an Apple retail store, Brian is an IT manager at a prominent U.S. university, Nicole is a woman in Jamaica who manages a retail store, Dean is a senior executive at a major telecommunications network, Drewe is another IT manager (this one for a major motorcycle manufacturer in Australia), and college students Craig, Will, and Brian.

One volunteer, Jerry, has translated (and led other volunteers in translating) significant portions of our interfaces into traditional and simplified Chinese. In fact, just since January 1 of this year, 160 volunteers have helped with translation into other languages. These incredible people were instrumental in preparing the imminent, all-new iOS release (for iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch), translating its interface into 16 different languages! While some volunteers may only be able to offer an hour or two, others spend several hours a week. It all matters.

You are part of a movement, a revolution of millions of people reading (and hearing!) God’s Word in their heart language. Of course, the more people who join us, the more we can reach together. We have many places you can serve, including some that don’t require a lot of your time. Let us know how you can help at our volunteer sign-up.

We cannot say “thank you” sincerely or often enough. You are literally changing this world. You guys are impacting millions. And millions…can impact billions.

Thank you.

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Soon from YouVersion: All New Bible App for iPhone!

For almost three years now, our dedicated iOS YouVersion community (iPhone, iPod touch, and more recently, iPad) has been engaging with and sharing God’s Word through their Apple devices. And during that time, regular app updates have debuted new languages and features like social connections, offline versions, notes, and of course reading plans. Today we’re thrilled to share the dawn of the all-new, next generation of the Bible App­™ for iOS: VERSION 3.0.
V. 3.0 of the Bible App™ for iOS is almost here!
This complete overhaul makes connecting with the Bible simpler and more flexible than ever before. You can find a complete feature list at the end of this post, but here are just a few highlights (click the images to enlarge):

  • Audio Bibles. From the main Bible Reader, you’ll be able to have the Bible read to you (a full list of the audio versions available at launch is below). Although not in this release, audio Bibles will even be coming soon to the reader in your Reading Plan!
  • Easier Reading. With the words of Christ in red (in participating versions) and adjustable brightness, contrast, and fonts, you’ll be able to read clearly in any light, making your text the size and look that’s most comfortable for your eyes.
  • Dashboard Launcher. You’ll be able to directly access the most commonly used features from the newly designed welcome screen. (Many of these features will just be one click away on most other screens too.)
  • Recent Activity. A quick chronological list helps you see everything you’ve done while you’ve been using the Bible App, with each item just one tap away from jumping right back to it.

 

As soon as Version 3.0 hits the iTunes App Store, you can be sure we’ll announce it here and on Facebook and Twitter. But even more great tools are on the horizon. Besides everything you see here, still to come in a future release…

  • Audio for reading plans
  • Improved Bookmarks with addition of Highlighting
  • All-new, easier navigation for books, chapters and verses

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Brand New at YouVersion.com: Korean and Russian!

Selecting a Language at YouVersion.comYouVersion.com just added Korean and Russian as interface options, once again all thanks to YouVersion’s amazing, dedicated volunteer community. To switch to one of these languages, click in the lower left corner of the reader, or go directly to http://ko.youversion.com/ for Korean or http://ru.youversion.com/ for Russian.

The ability to choose your interface in Korean or Russian means you can enjoy your entire connection with the Bible in the language of your choice, whether you’re on the website or using the Bible App™ on your iPhone/iPad/iPod touch, Android, or BlackBerry device (referenced here and here). If you’d like to read the Bible in Korean, you can choose from the Korean Living Bible (KLB) and the 개역한글 (KORVB). For Russian, you can read in the Русский Синодальный перевод (RURSV). And of course we’re constantly working to bring you more versions in other languages.

Do you know anyone who might enjoy engaging with God’s Word in Korean or Russian? Please let them know about these exciting new options, and spread the word on Facebook and Twitter. If you’d like to help out as a volunteer translator, please let us know through volunteer sign up what you can do. Participating in the global YouVersion volunteer community offers truly unique opportunities for you to share your faith—with literally millions of people all over the world.

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The Bible App for Android: 5 Million Devices

When the YouVersion user community reaches huge milestones, we love to share them so we can celebrate together. As of today:

The Bible App™ for Android has been
installed on more than 5 million devices!

The Bible App™ for Android at 5 Million DownloadsWhat that means is that more people are now engaging with God’s Word through the Bible App—just on Android devices—than were even using the Bible App on every platform at this same time last year. And of course, they’re participating with the millions of others also using the Bible App on iPhone/iPad/iPod touch, BlackBerry, Windows Phone and other platforms. In fact, the YouVersion community has been connecting with the Bible through the Bible App collectively for more than 6 billion minutes!

Launched in August of 2009, the Bible App for Android has continued adding and improving features, like offline Bibles, a reading plan widget, and most recently, even audio Bibles. And of course all of these cutting edge tools are in addition to the multiple languages and same great features on our other platforms: reading plans, notes, bookmarks, social connections and more.

Hopefully you know by now that at YouVersion, we love the Bible. So it’s thrilling when Bible App users continue to share with others how they too can easily, freely connect with it every day on their mobile devices. Please keep telling friends and loved ones about the Bible App for Android, available free from the Android App Market. And let’s connect on Facebook and Twitter!