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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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New for iPhone/iPad: Verse History, Copy, & SMS Sharing

The newest update to the YouVersion Bible app for iPhone/iPad (2.3.3) is ready and waiting in the App Store. Download it now by going to http://youversion.com/download from your device or search for “Bible” in the App Store. If you’re a fan of the app, please take a moment to rate it and leave a comment in the App Store.

This release includes some long-awaited feature additions that I can’t wait to tell you about, so let’s jump in.

Verse History
The new History feature is cool. It’ll help you navigate more quickly to verses you were reading recently. It’s great for when you want to share a verse with a friend, but can’t remember where it was. Or use it to keep up with your pastor when he’s jumping back-and-forth between two or more verses during a sermon.

To start using the History feature, go to the More section and tap “Edit” in the top right corner. Drag the “History” icon into the dock at the bottom to replace one of the icons that are already there. Now, after you’ve navigated to a verse using the Search function, the reference for that verse will show up in your History. (You can also access History directly inside the More section if the History icon isn’t in your dock. History only works with verses you’ve navigated to via Search right now. We’ll expand it in the future as we get feedback from you, our awesome users.)

Copy Bible Verses
You’ve been asking for the ability to copy Bible verses to your phone’s clipboard for a while. While it seems like a simple feature, actually executing that feature properly was not so simple. Now when you select a verse in the Bible reader you’ll have the choice to copy it to your clipboard, along with the other options to share or see contributions.

SMS Sharing (iPhone Only)
SMS (text messaging) is the #1 form of communication for an entire generation. It’s a great way to share quick thoughts through small snippets of text. Now you can easily share Bible verses via text message with anyone in your phone’s Contacts. Just select a verse and choose SMS from the list of sharing options that appear.

We also redesigned the UI when you interact with a verse.

Bug Fixes
We fixed the issue that some folks were having enabling the connection between their YouVersion account and Twitter or Facebook. We also squashed a few bugs related to network connectivity.

We’d love to hear your thoughts about this release so connect with us on Twitter (@youversion) or on our Facebook page (facebook.com/youversion) and let us know what you think.

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Big News! New Bible App for Symbian Phones

We’ve been working hard to bring you a new Bible app for the Symbian platform and we’re excited to announce that it’s ready and available for download now in the Opera mobile store and on GetJar.com. Many Americans aren’t familiar with the Symbian mobile platform, so we’ll take a moment to explain why we believe this is a big deal.First, Symbian accounts for about 40% of smartphones in the world. There are hundreds of millions of people carrying a Symbian-powered device in hundreds of countries. Second, because Symbian is so ubiquitous outside the United States, we’re excited to see how God uses this step to reach the world with the Bible, helping millions more engage with Scripture.

Like the first version of our mobile Bible app on other new platforms, the Symbian app is currently a basic Bible reader that accomplishes our foundational purpose of increasing Bible engagement around the world. Future development will bring more features you’ve come to love on other mobile platforms, like Reading Plans, social sharing with Twitter and Facebook, YouVersion Live, and more.

Have fun with the new Symbian app and don’t forget to tell your friends to download the YouVersion Bible app on their phones. It’s the easiest way to give someone a free Bible!

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NEW! Introducing Profiles on Palm Pre/Pixi

A new version of the YouVersion Bible app for Palm Pre/Pixi was made available last week in the Palm App Catalog and brings lots of brand new features that I’m really excited to tell you about. Because of the speed of development for WebOS, Palm has turned into the proving grounds for great features for YouVersion. That means that our Palm app is likely to be a preview of what you’ll see very soon in all of our other apps.

Introducing Profiles
The biggest new component in the Palm app is the section called “Profiles”. The Profiles component is a full experience where you can interact with all of your YouVersion friends, information (Contributions, Likes, Tags, etc.), and activity streams. The best explanation of Profiles is that it puts the entire YouVersion community in the palm of your hand.

It’s such a big update that all it would take too long to explain all of the capabilities of the Profiles component here. You’ll just have to download it and check it out for yourself to get a complete idea of how it works. If you don’t have a Palm Pre/Pixi, take a look at a few screenshots below to whet your appetite for this amazing new feature.

YouVersion Live

Also included in this release for Palm Pre/Pixi is the addition of YouVersion Live. Now you can interact with church services and other live events right on your Palm WebOS device. This addition means that YouVersion Live is now available on four major mobile platforms including iPhone, Blackberry, and Android.

We hope you enjoy this update to the Palm Pre/Pixi. If there’s something missing or if you think we could improve something, please let us know at http://youversion.com/support.

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New for iPhone/iPad: Facebook Sharing & Universal App

The latest version of the YouVersion iPhone & iPad app is available now in the iTunes App Store. This update (2.3.1), along with the previous update (2.3), brings several niceties and one big feature update to Apple’s mobile platform. Here’s the breakdown by version.

2.3
With the 2.3 update, we joined our popular iPhone Bible app with our iPad app to create a single application that runs on both devices. This means you’ll only need to stay up-to-date with one app for your favorite Bible application on both iPhone and iPad. We also moved the “sign-in” to the Settings menu to prepare the way for the biggest update coming in 2.3.1.

2.3.1
We went one step further with 2.3.1 and completely changed how the app handles sharing to Twitter, plus we added the ability to share to Facebook. With the new sharing structure, you can share seamlessly to Twitter and Facebook at the same time through YouVersion Connections (which was also added recently to the YouVersion website, as well as the Palm Pre/Pixi and Blackberry apps). Once you’ve connected your YouVersion account, sharing the Bible with your friends on Twitter & Facebook will be easier than ever.

We have big plans for the iPhone & iPad (iOS) platform in the coming months, but we wanted to get these updates out to you as soon as possible. Let us know what you think by rating the app in the App Store and leaving a comment. Don’t forget that issues can be reported on our support site at http://youversion.com/support.

Connect with us on Facebook at http://facebook.com/youversion or Twitter at http://twitter.com/youversion.