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Holman Christian Standard Bible [HCSB] Now Available Offline for iPhone/iPad and Android

One of the most popular English versions of the Bible is available for offline download right now! We’re excited to announce that you can add the Holman Christian Standard Bible to your offline translations in the Bible App until January 31, 2011. That means that you can have access to the HCSB even if your phone isn’t connected to the Internet or your data provider.

A huge thanks goes out to the generous folks at Broadman & Holman for making this possible. We appreciate their partnership and generosity in providing offline access to Scripture through the addition of the HCSB, allowing even more people to spend time in God’s Word no matter where they are. You can learn more about HCSB at HCSB.org and see the new HCSB Study Bible at MyStudyBible.com.

Don’t wait, download it now and you’ll have the HCSB in the palm of your hands, even when you’re outside of your network coverage or in airplane mode. Need a refresher on downloading an offline version? It’s easy.

How to Download the HCSB

For iPhone or iPod Touch, go to More, then Settings, then Offline Translations. You’ll see a long list with HCSB among the English versions. Select the HCSB and tap Download.

For iPad, tap the Settings icon in the top bar, then tap Offline Translations. You’ll see a long list with HCSB among the English versions. Select the HCSB and tap Download.

For Android, tap the top bar when in the Bible reader, then tap the top right box with the version shortcode. This will show you a list of all Bible versions. Scroll down to the HCSB and tap the download icon on the right edge.

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Offline Bible Versions Now Available on Android!

Yes, you read the title correctly. Offline Bible versions are now available for download through our Android Bible app!

Until now, offline Bible versions were only available to our iPhone and iPad users, but today marks a new era of Bible engagement. Now millions of Android users will be able to read the Bible anywhere, anytime, whether they are connected to the Internet or not. This is a significant update for several reasons:

  1. Our awesome (and patient) Android users finally get the feature they’ve been asking for most.
  2. Offline access means more opportunities to engage in Scripture!
  3. The growth of the Android platform means hundreds of millions of people will be given the ability to interact with the Bible all over the world, even when they are offline.
  4. The YouVersion Bible app for Android is already fast, delivering Scripture with blazing speed over a web connection. But now that you can have Bible versions stored directly on the device, loading Scripture will be faster than ever.

We hope you love this update as much as we’ve enjoyed bringing it to you. The update is available in the Android Market now.

Try it now!

To download a Bible version on Android:

  • Go to the list of Bible versions by tapping the top bar, then tap the top right box.
  • In the list of Bible versions,
    offline available versions     are signified by small download icons on the right side. When you tap one of the download icons, the download will begin and a progress bar will appear.
  • Once the version has been downloaded, that Bible version will have a green and grey icon on the left side on the list so you know it’s available offline.

New Living Translation Bible Offline
ESV Bible Offline
The Passion Translation Offline
Revised Standard Bible Offline
New Revised Standard Bible Offline

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YouVersion’s Amazing Growth & Challenges

September has been a challenging month for YouVersion’s awesome users and our team. Over the past few weeks we have seen more downtime than we would want. YouVersion’s reliability is very important to us and we are working hard to make sure you can always access God’s Word through YouVersion.com or any of its mobile apps.

We’re passionate about Scripture engagement and our dream is to see YouVersion grow exponentially as people around the world gain access to the Bible. That kind of growth is accompanied by technical hurdles, and they often come in waves.

When YouVersion experienced a large spike in growth earlier this year, we gathered all of our resources to make sure YouVersion could handle the increase. We’re doing the same now, dedicating our development team to strengthen our infrastructure and handle the masses of new people discovering YouVersion for the first time.

As you may remember, our growing pains in January were the result of hitting a milestone of 4 million YouVersion users, which we celebrated in February. Just 8 months later, YouVersion is now up to almost 9 million users and we’re beginning to see the strain on our infrastructure once again. And with a growth rate of about 900,000 new users each month, fortifying YouVersion is going to be an ongoing task.

YouVersion is blessed with an amazing community of passionate users. We’re thankful for your patience and your prayers as we aim to reach the world with God’s Word. With a global population of about 6.9 billion people, we have a long way to go, but we serve a big God!

What is impossible with men is possible with God. Luke 18:23

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Bible App for Android gets updated!

We’re extremely excited to share all the details of the new Android Bible app with you today. This release (2.2) represents two months of re-imagining, redesigning, and development by our entire team and we think the investment has paid off with a one-of-a-kind Bible reading experience. In this release, you’ll find:

  • a complete redesign of the entire interface of the app
  • a brand new dashboard for quick navigation of key areas
  • dozens of small enhancements that make a big difference
Let’s jump into the fun details and take a look at some screenshots along the way.

Complete Redesign
Two months ago, we went back to the drawing board with the Android Bible app design to make reading the Bible an even more pleasing experience on your Android device. We thought through every element, menu item, and button to make sure you you could get around in the app easily and focus on Scripture.

The redesign is too extensive to detail here, so take a peek at a couple screenshots and download the 2.2 release to experience the real thing. The biggest enhancements can be found in the Bible reader and reading plans.


New Dashboard
When we released the Palm webOS Bible app, we saw the benefit for our users to have a dashboard to act as a central hub for the main components of the app. The Android Bible app’s dashboard now includes a news section where you’ll find announcements about YouVersion, warnings about scheduled server maintenance, ways to connect with the YouVersion team on Twitter and Facebook, and a few splashes of color for your visual enjoyment.

Lots of Small Tweaks
We love to enhance the little things that make your experience the best it can be. Our team made over 70 changes to the Android Bible app for this release (some seen and some unseen) including tweaks that will improve the speed of the app, better communication with the user, and small design adjustments. Here are a few samples:

  • double-tap the header to scroll to the top
  • progress bars in the reading plans list for plans you’ve started
  • sharing multiple verses at one time
  • your bookmarks sync automatically with YouVersion.com
  • donate to YouVersion inside the app
  • more helpful error messages when something goes wrong
  • lots of little bug fixes

We know you’ll enjoy the changes in release 2.2 of the Android Bible app, so download it now and engage with Scripture like never before.

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Where do you read the Bible?

We always love hearing about how YouVersion users read the Bible. Whether you find us at a conference or just send us an email, it makes us happy to know that you are finding new ways to engage Scripture with YouVersion. Today we’re curious about where you read the Bible, so let us know by answering the poll below.

Where do you read the Bible?
At home
At work
Outside
Other


Web Polls

If you have a few moments, leave a comment describing your favorite reading spot and why it’s perfect for engaging with Scripture.