Do you know which APP existed on the first day of Apple’s Apple Store opening, has been in operation for 15 years, and is still vigorous today, with more than 95 installations per minute, and a total of more than 590 million devices in total? is used on the Internet, and there are nearly 2,000 languages for users to choose from in the APP? That's right, it is the YouVersion Bible APP (named "Bible - Audio" in Chinese Google Play) launched by the American Life Church (Life.Church).
July 10, 2023 will be the 15th anniversary of the launch of the YouVersion Bible APP. Back on the same day 15 years ago, Apple officially launched the App Store, among which there were hundreds of free apps for users to download, and the YouVersion Bible APP was one of them. The founder, Bobby Gruenewald, mentioned in an interview that they didn’t have much expectations for the Bible app at the beginning, thinking that it would be good if thousands of people downloaded it within a year. As a result, in just three days after it was put on the shelves, it has been downloaded more than 83,000 times in the App Store, and more than 100,000 people downloaded it in a week. This response led them to immediately decide to put more resources and support into this plan, and to do continuous ministry development, including translating the Bible text in the App into different languages, designing an App corresponding to the Android system, and collecting different versions Bible, and contact groups interested in this project, etc. Now, after 15 years of development, it has become an application that affects hundreds of millions of Christians around the world, as introduced in the opening text. The point is that over the years, this bible app has been free and non-profit, and there will be no advertising or income for the team in the app. The operating expenses for many years have been borne by the life church and external donations.
YouVersion Bible APP is not just an application for users to read the Bible, but also provides countless devotional plans with different durations and themes for users to choose; it has a community function, which can interact and share with friends who also use YouVersion; The various Bible translations and reading function provided free of charge also allow Christians to contact God's word according to their needs. In addition to written materials, there are also many Bible videos in the APP for users to watch, and there are also guidelines for teaching people how to pray. In order to cater to the characteristics of social media in this generation, there is even a "Today's Scripture Picture" in the APP, which can quickly make scriptures into square pictures, which are convenient for uploading to IG and sharing scriptures that touch you. The built-in points (they call it "constant flow") and badge programs are also used to encourage users to keep opening the Bible app every day and get closer to God.
Dear Christian readers, there are hundreds of Bible apps in the two camps of Apple and Android. Which one do you like most? Or do you still choose to use the traditional physical version of the Bible?