YouVersion Bible App Celebrates 15th Anniversary

July 14, 2023266 views0

YouVersion Bible App Celebrates 15th Anniversary

2023-07-14T10:46:23+01:00

By Church News

YouVersion is celebrating its 15 years of success and since its launch in 2008, the Bible App has grown from 83,000 downloads to over half a billion worldwide, and it is the longest-running Bible in the App Store.What started out as an idea in an airport became a global movement that is getting Scripture to people around the world like never before.Today, people from all nations and languages are using the Bible App to draw closer to God every day.Over a decade ago, when leaders of Oklahoma-based Life Church developed the popular YouVersion app, the concept was new.“We just thought, ‘What if the Bible could be among the very first group of apps?’” said Bobby Gruenewald, pastor and innovation leader for the multisite evangelical church, which each week draws roughly 75,000 worshippers to 29 locations in nine states.“It was profound how simple it was yet how well it connected us to God’s Word in places and environments where we didn’t have physical Bibles,” added Gruenewald, a one-time technology entrepreneur who entered full-time ministry in 2001.Life Church enlisted a 19-year-old staff member named Sam Soffes, now a San Francisco-based software engineer for Lyft to create the Bible app in 2008.When Apple launched its app store over 10 years ago, YouVersion was one of the first 200 free apps available and the only Bible app as of then.Countless other Bible apps have followed, but YouVersion remains the “Gutenberg Bible” of online technology, religion researcher Scott Thumma said, referring to the first mass-produced book, printed in the 15th century.“Indeed, YouVersion is the 300-million-pound gorilla of Bible apps,” said Thumma, director of the Hartford Institute for Religion Research in Connecticut. “It is true there are many others now, but YouVersion was the early front-runner and has continued to improve and offer features that make it the best and by far most often downloaded worldwide.”In the beginning, YouVersion offered the Bible in 15 versions and two languages.Through partnerships with publishers and Bible societies, those numbers have expanded to more than 1,700 versions and over 1,200 languages.ALSO READ: Mary Ashokeji Recognised For Her Religious Photography Work