New offline YouVersion Bible app launched for use in countries with poor internet access

by Karen Faulkner, Worthy News Correspondent

(Worthy News) – Responding to the needs of Christians in parts of the world where it is difficult to access the internet, the developers of the popular YouVersion Bible app have launched a new version of it which can be used offline, Christianity Today (CT) reports. App developers from Life.Church in Oklahoma joined with the global Bible ministry Biblica in creating the offline YouVersion Bible App Lite.

The Alliance for Affordable Internet group has reported that more one billion people around the world still do not have access to affordable broadband internet, CT said.

The YouVersion lite app was therefore designed for use in rural areas of sub-Saharan Africa and Southeast Asia which have little or no internet connectivity. The YouVersion lite app retains the original app’s Bible reader, audio Bibles, verses of the day, and prayers, CT said.

According to YouVersion, over four million people have downloaded the offline version, and it has reached the top 10 in the Google Play store in 17 African countries and ranked Number One in Kenya, Uganda, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, CT reports.

“For most of us in the developed world, always-on data is a fact of life. We barely think about how much data a particular app consumes, or if we will have a reliable cell phone connection,” Mark Finzel, Biblica’s vice president of digital innovation, told CT. “This is not the reality for much of the developing world. Internet speeds and costs vary significantly from one country to another.The freedom of offline functionality is key,” Finzel said.

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