YouVersion Bible app has been downloaded over 800 million times worldwide.
Bobby Gruenewald is the founder of YouVersion. It had very humble beginnings before becoming one of the most downloaded apps in the world.
“I wish I could have told you that it just took off and was such a huge success,” Grunewald said in an interview. “The reality is that after a lot of hard work, a lot of doors opened, and a lot of people working together, the website failed.”
YouVersion began as a website that attempted to solve language barriers and use technology to read the Bible.
“And Steve Jobs announced in early 2008 that we would be able to develop apps for the iPhone and create a whole new thing called an app store.”
At the time, Grunewald didn’t even know what an app was. But he had a vision, so Grunewald hired an intelligent 19-year-old who helped create the app that many know and love today.
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The app is opened 270 times per second. People will also have access to the Bible in over 70 different languages.
“The theory that people stopped reading the Bible is simply not true. We have evidence and empirical data, real data, not just a study done by someone somewhere. “It shows that there is momentum globally in addressing this,” he says. “So we should be encouraged to know that God’s Word is alive and, if anything, more relevant to today’s culture than perhaps ever before in human history.”
This app not only allows people to read the Bible on their phones, but also provides Bible reading plans. There are currently three versions available: the main version, the kids version, and the lite version for better access in places with poor internet connectivity.
Grünewald and his team are currently developing a tween version and testing it in India.
While carefully using AI to improve the app, the team hopes to translate the Bible into every language by 2033.
“We believe it is essential to be able to hear God’s Word in every heart language, so that everyone hears God’s voice and hears the words of Jesus in their own language. You can even benefit from being able to do so.”
