You can get version 3.7 of the Bible App™ for BlackBerry right now in BlackBerry App World, or by directly downloading it to your device. We’ve done a lot of tweaking to improve performance in this release, as well as adding several convenient new features:
Label Your Bookmarks. Now you can add labels to your bookmarks, so you can categorize them however you want. For example, you might create labels for topics like “Faith” or “Parenting,” or reminder labels like “Memorize” or “Share.”
Sort Your Bookmarks by Label. Quickly find just the passage you’re looking for. Once you’ve created labels for your bookmarks, you can easily list them in label order.
Select Multiple Bookmarks. Managing your bookmarks on BlackBerry has never been easier. With this release, now you can select more than one bookmark at a time, so you can highlight them, apply labels to them—and even remove several at once.
Easier Reading. The Bible App for BlackBerry previously allowed you to choose from one of three preset font sizes. But now you can specify the precise font size you want so you can make the most of your device’s screen resolution.
More Connection Tweaks. Sometimes when your network coverage is unreliable, if you try to do several things at once, your BlackBerry may drop requests and then never complete them. New in this release, the Bible App now saves each request in a queue and monitors for a clean connection. And when you get a strong signal, it sends just one request at a time—rather than several at once. What this means is that now, when you can connect, more of your tasks will actually be completed, and in the order you initiated them.
If you love the BlackBerry universe as much we do, then you’re probably aware of some of the unique challenges presented by the diversity of its devices’ capabilities and the network’s complexities. We’re committed to constantly improving the Bible App’s performance on as many BlackBerry devices as we realistically can, whether that means simplifying code to make functions faster or applying technical workarounds to address common network connection issues.
Please share the news of this Bible App for BlackBerry release with your friends. To truly get the most from the Bible App for BlackBerry, you’ll need a free YouVersion account, which takes just a couple of minutes. In exchange, you’ll get immediate access to more than 200 Reading Plans (in 10 languages!), Notes, Bookmarks, and so much more. And we’d love to hear your stories about the Bible App for BlackBerry on Facebook and Twitter!
2011 was another wild, wonderful year for the YouVersion community. At the beginning of January, the Bible App™ had been installed on almost 13 million unique devices. But by the end of 2011, it had well over 37 million installs. It’s clear that—together—we’re each part of a revolution in Bible engagement happening all over the world.
Even as we look forward to all that God will do through the YouVersion community during 2012, first we’d like to pause and look back on all we shared during 2011…
February: Although it took 46 days for us to hit one billion minutes, the YouVersion community saw a remarkable 172% reading increase during that time—and also reached more than 5 billion minutes read overall. Volunteers translated the YouVersion experience completely into Chinese, just in time for Chinese Lunar New Year, and the Bible App appeared on the prestigious The Sunday Times’ definitive The App List.
October: The Bible App had been installed on more than 30 million unique devices. The Bible App for Java was completely rewritten, bringing its features more in line with YouVersion’s other platforms, and German became the next complete language launch.
Thank you for your part in the YouVersion community’s success during 2011. If you compare this year to last year, it’s immediately apparent that the Bible App and the YouVersion community are healthier than ever. And we’re convinced that it’s still just the beginning.
It’s a joy and an honor to get to do what we love… making God’s Word freely available to as many people as possible, no matter where they live or what language they prefer.
Brand-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.
Release 3.7 of the Bible App™ for iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch is available now in the iTunes App Store. We’re introducing two convenient new features in this latest release:
User Profile View. Now for the first time, you’ll be able to review and change your account settings all in one place—like your name, your avatar image, your contact information, and more. You can even browse your Friends’ profiles, and the profiles of people who are following you.
Sign Up With Google. If you already have a Google account, you can sign up for your free YouVersion account using your Google login, right inside the Bible App. This makes creating your account one simple step, since you won’t need to verify your email address.
We value your feedback! When the YouVersion community reports issues to us—whether through our Support website, Facebook, or Twitter—we try to investigate each one, prioritizing them according to which ones are affecting the most users. For example, here are the main challenges we’ve fixed in release 3.7 of the Bible App for iOS:
Language Change. When you changed languages in your Bible App Settings before, it could cause the app to crash.
Residual Popups. Sometimes on iOS 5, when a message popped up (such as from a launcher notification), you couldn’t make it go away.
Long Book or Chapter Display (iPad). When trying to select from books with more than 30 chapters, or from chapters with more than 30 verses, the iPad wasn’t correctly displaying all of them.
Main Reader View Distorted (iPhone). When you received a call or if you used your iPhone as a Wi-Fi hotspot, the notification slide-in was compressing the main Bible Reader view.
Get Your Update Now:
If you already have the Bible App installed:
On your Apple device, tap the App Store icon.
When the App Store opens, tap the Updates icon.
Tap Update for the Bible App.
OR
Tap Update All.
If this is your first time installing the Bible App:
It was so exciting to get together with thousands of our closest friends during our live webcast yesterday! We don’t take for granted all that God has done through YouVersion—and especially what He has done through you, the worldwide YouVersion community. It was a rare treat having the opportunity to address your great questions from #YouVersion on Twitter. (Sorry we couldn’t get to every one!) Thanks to your participation, #YouVersion even became a trending topic worldwide on Twitter!
If you missed joining with us live, we’ve put together a list of some of the high points for you, along with the complete event video:
Installs. In November of 2010, the Bible App™ was installed on 10 million unique devices. As of today’s webcast, it’s now been installed on more than 34 million. That represents 2 million installs… per month.
Bible Languages. We want to make the Bible freely available to as many people as possible, no matter where they live or what language they prefer. In November 2010, we offered Bible translations in 22 different languages. As of today’s webcast, we now have Bible translations in 61 different languages.
Bible Versions. When YouVersion first launched in 2008, we offered just 12 versions of the Bible. A year ago, YouVersion had 48 different versions of the Bible for to you to choose from. As of today’s webcast, YouVersion now brings you 187 versions. And more are on the way. Within the next few weeks, we’ll pass the 200 mark.
Reading Plans. As of today’s webcast, 52 partners are graciously providing the YouVersion community with more than 200 different reading plans, in many different languages. By the end of 2011, we expect to increase that number to 220.
Volunteers. Everything we do is accelerated through the passionate dedication of hundreds of volunteers, devoting themselves to serving the YouVersion community from literally all over the world. Our small team could never reach the numbers of people that we reach in partnership with you. If you’d like to see the many ways you can help, learn more at our brand-new volunteer website.
In a Minute. During the average minute: the Bible App is installed on 52 unique devices, 1,698 people open the Bible App to read the Bible, and people share 21 different passages on either Facebook or Twitter. And these are just a few examples. To help you really see how the Bible App serves the YouVersion community, we’ve prepared a comprehensive infographic that breaks down many of the different things that happen in the Bible App during just one minute.
Resources for Pastors and Churches. If you’d like to help the people in your church connect with the Bible more, we’ve created several tips, explanations, and tools you can use to help those in your circles better understand what the Bible App is, what it has to offer, and how easy it is to get.
Still to Come… We’re comprehensively updating YouVersion.com, working to make its feature set more consistent with what you’ve become accustomed to in the Bible App. If you have a free YouVersion account, we’d love for you to take a look at the beta version and let us know what you think. (Please understand: The beta is still very much a work in progress, and this is a limited-time offer. Don’t move all of your Bible engagement to this beta version!)
We never stop working on making the Bible App easier to use to connect with the Bible every day—more reading plans, more Bible versions, more devices, more robust tools, more of everything. Still, the most common request we hear is to make the Bible App easier to use as part of a group, so we’re adding community-oriented features to help you engage together. You should see an update to the Bible App for Android this week, and an update to the iPhone version soon. Both will allow you to view your friends’ profiles and connect more with your community.
Later we plan to add features that will allow you to set reminders to help you remember to get in your reading plan, and even to receive your reading plan selections through a daily email. As always, you’re in complete control of your YouVersion experience—you choose how you want to interact with the Bible App.
The Other 16. One in every 17 iOS devices (Apple iPhones, iPads, and iPod touches) already have the Bible App installed. And, one in 17 Android devices have also already installed the Bible App. That means that on each of these platforms, there are 16 people who still haven’t installed it on their device. But you can help! When you meet someone with a smart phone or mobile device, ask them if they have the Bible on it. And if they don’t, consider offering to help them install the Bible App. (Remember: It’s always completely free.) We’re working on a new tool that will give you an easy way to tell us about your 16. When you use it, we’ll send you a free t-shirt and some Bible App stickers.
What Can You Do?
Engage. Is the Bible a part of your everyday life? If you haven’t already been using Reading Plans, consider signing up for your free YouVersion account and trying one. Reading Plans divide up the Bible into manageable portions, making them a great way you can establish—and keep!—a daily habit of spending time in God’s Word.
Share. Share the Bible App and YouVersion with others. Help the other 16 find what you’ve already discovered for yourself!
Join. The entire YouVersion community is powered by the passion of volunteers. Join us as together we pursue the vision of reaching the entire world with God’s Word. Even with the extraordinary volunteer community already partnering with YouVersion, it’s just not enough. We need literally thousands more. Please come and share your passion with us.
Give Thanks. Look up your favorite Bible version in the Bible App. Go to any page of the Bible in the reader, scroll to the bottom, and look at the information about the organization who makes that version available. Please contact them to express your gratitude for their generosity—and perhaps even consider supporting their work financially. We couldn’t do what we do without them!
You can get version 3.7 of the Bible App™ for BlackBerry right now in BlackBerry App World, or by directly downloading it to your device. We’ve done a lot of tweaking to improve performance in this release, as well as adding several convenient new features:
Brand-new Version 3.7* of the Bible App for Android is in the 