Once upon a time, The Bible was printed on paper
The title of this post doesn’t quite reflect where we are today, but I can see the day coming where the Bible printed on paper seems as ancient as writing it on a scroll.
A while back I wrote that the future is mobile. The greatest book in history appears to be proving that. The Bible made its debut on the iPhone almost two weeks ago. In just the first 12 days, we have seen over 130,000 people install the Bible App on their iPhone or iPod Touch. What has been amazing to us is that iPhone users have spent more than 6.2 million minutes reading the Bible in just the last two weeks!
Earlier this week we submitted the first update to the iPhone application to Apple. We hope that they will be releasing it soon on iTunes, but because of the backlog of applications it may take several days. This update includes several bug fixes, a few new features and design changes, and 4 additional translations (HCSB, Elberfelder Bibel (German), Louis Segond (French), and Chinese Union Version Simplified).
We are currently working on making several translations available for use when your iPhone or iPod is offline as well as more integration into the additional features of YouVersion.com
As a reminder to those of you who do not have iPhones. You can access many of the same features as you can on the iPhone on any phone with Internet access by using YouVersion.com Moble. Just go to http://m.youversion.com/ from any web enabled phone.
Additionally, there was a new update on YouVersion.com last week that included several new things. You can read more about those on the YouVersion Blog.
Thank you to all of you who downloaded the Bible App, shared it with your friends, posted about it on your blog, and wrote reviews on iTunes. All of that helped engage more people with Scripture…and that’s a great thing!
UPDATE: Version 1.1 has been released and can now be downloaded from iTunes
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THANK YOU!!! this must have been difficult yet amazing for your team to work on!!! thank you for making God’s word available in a whole new way !!!
This application is amazing! I had someone that doesn’t go to church at all say:
[...] clipped from swerve.lifechurch.tv [...]
I don’t know about all this electronic and online bible stuff. I like my bible the way God intended it. Dictated to King James, with the red letters the actual words Jesus spoke. If it ain’t Red Letter KJV, on paper like God intended it to be printed, then I think you need to be careful! What? (grin)
Thanks for making the app. I use it all the time.
WHERE IS THE NLT?
I absolutely love the app. I use it daily and I will really appreciate when you can use it offline. It will be a great feature. Keep up the good work!
Thanks for posting how to access youversion via a non-iphone mobile phone!
Very cool! I’m anxious to try it out when I get my iPhone…maybe soon! But I was wondering why it’s only available via iTunes and not (also) with the iPhone apps?
Mike,
iTunes is actually where the iPhone Apps store resides. You can access it from your computer or from your iPhone or iPod Touch.
2 votes for NLT
Thanks for the hardwork!
Guys,
We have an agreement with the NLT. We are just working through some technical challenges with the database. Hopefully very soon.
NLT available for offline would be perfect! Please?
Tim,
I’d like that too. It might take a little time though. Offline is a huge priorty for the team, but which translations will be available is a function of licensing that we are working through with the publishers.
Just an FYI, the ESV blog featured YouVersion today:
http://www.esv.org/blog/2008/07/iphone.apps
I love YouVersion! I have used it on my centro quite often. Any plans for a downloadable version for palm devices?
Dear LifeChurch.tv, you guys should check into Faith Comes By Hearing to see if you can cooperate on their Audio New Testaments in nearly 300 languages for YouVersion. Mobile is the future for delivery of God’s Word.
I’m still waiting for a way to download YouVersion on unlocked Iphone’s. We all know technology guru’s love to unlock and run on open source type networks. Apple has estimated more than 500,000 Iphones have been unlocked and used for other networks other than AT&T. That’s a lot of people that could use the word. That’s more than half the estimated participants in One Prayer. Please see if you can partner with the open source app providers to reach us non AT&T people!
[...] YouVersion app for the iPhone has been installed by 130,000 people including me! I can’t wait until they get [...]