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Notes Come to BlackBerry

We announced last Friday that you could take notes on YouVersion on the web. That same notes feature is now available on BlackBerry!

Download version 2.7 now from Blackberry App World.

Associate with a verse. Notes are pretty straightforward. When you select a verse and click Notes, you’ll see all of the public notes associated with that passage. To add your own, just click New Note.

Make a general note. You don’t have to associate a note with a specific verse. You can take one at any time. Simply go to the dashboard, select Notes, and go!

For any note: Give your note a title, and then select from the following options:

  • Draft. A note “in progress” that you’re not ready to share yet.
  • Private. Only you will see this note. (You can use this feature to journal what God’s showing you in His Word.)
  • Public. Anyone will be able to see this note.
  • Publish on: Schedule the date you want this note to become public.
TIP: You can change a note back and forth between private and public at any time.

Interact with notes. You can “Share” a note to post it to Twitter or Facebook, “Like” a note to put it in your Facebook newsfeed, or even “Report” a note to flag it as inappropriate content.

As we learn how you guys use notes in the Bible App going forward, we’ll continue modifying this feature to make sure it is as helpful as possible. Give it a try and go add some notes on your BlackBerry. And look for continuing development for the Bible App on BlackBerry over the coming months–cool things are ahead!

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YouVersion for the Web: “Notes” Now!

During our webcast this past Tuesday, one great question submitted through Twitter was, “When will we be able to take notes?” Terry Storch, our Digerati Pastor, answered that we planned to roll notes out on Friday. Happy Friday, everybody… Notes are here now!

What notes are. You can use notes to collect your thoughts, keep track of what God’s Spirit is saying to you, and even to share your insights and ideas with your friends. You can associate a note directly with a verse or passage (sort of like a bookmark with context), or you can just record your thoughts generally. As long as you’re signed in to your YouVersion account, your notes go where you go.

Notes come in two flavors:

  • Public. When you create a new note, its default setting is public. This means that anyone will be able to see it.
  • Private. You can mark any note as private at any time. That means no one can see it but you.

TIP: You can change a note back and forth between private and public at any time.

Start now. To add a note, just click the big Create New button and fill in the blanks. (Be sure to specify whether you want your note to be Private or Public.) Looking at an existing note is easy: Just click on it. Click Back to return to the list, or click the arrow buttons to scroll backwards and forwards through notes.

We’ll continue to refine the notes feature as we gain insight from how YouVersion users interact with it…and remember, notes will be rolling out to all our major mobile apps as well, so look for an update to your Bible App soon!

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Brand New: The YouVersion Facebook Bible App

By the time you read this, we will have already launched the all-new, from-scratch YouVersion Bible App for Facebook. From entirely within Facebook, the Bible App makes it easy to:

  • Read the Bible
  • Switch between different Bible translations
  • Jump directly to specific books, chapters, or verses
  • Select verses or passages and share them, publishing them to your Wall and to your Friends’ home pages

Here’s a quick look at what you can already do in the Bible App (click to enlarge):

We know many of you enjoy spending time in Facebook. And we’d be happy for you to spend even more, especially if that means you’re connecting with God’s Word—and sharing it with others. Eventually, we even hope to bring most of the same features inside our Facebook app that you’ve come to know and love on other platforms. Go check it out and let us know what you think!

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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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Bookmarks for BlackBerrys

With version 2.5 of the YouVersion Bible app for BlackBerry, we’ve added the ability to bookmark verses for quick access later. Bookmarking is a popular feature on iPhone, iPad, Android and our other mobile apps, and we’re excited to deliver this feature to more than 2 million BlackBerry users.

Bookmarking a verse is simple. Just select a verse, hit the menu button, and choose “Bookmark Verse” from the menu. Now that verse will be listed among your bookmarks, which you can reach from the app dashboard.

And, since many of our mobile app users also enjoy engaging Scripture on their computer at YouVersion.com, your bookmarks will also sync with your YouVersion account so you’ll have them anywhere you use YouVersion to read the Bible.

Coming Soon
We have lots of new features coming down the pipeline for all of our mobile apps, so keep an eye out for great updates rolling out fast and furious. You’ll see things like the ability to share Bible verses via SMS (text message) and inside BlackBerry Messenger as well as faster load times and an updated dashboard design.

Also on the horizon is a revamp of YouVersion Contributions and Journals. We have big plans for them and can’t wait roll those changes out to you. Of course, that’s all we can say right now, but we know you’ll love the changes and what you’ll be able to do within your Bible app in the coming weeks.