This year, Chris, his colleague David, and a team of students have been busy developing a new output format from Scripture App Builder which will expand the reach of Bible apps. This new format is a Progressive Web App (PWA) which is a website that can be used in a web browser or downloaded to a device and used when not connected to the Internet.
Currently, users of SAB can create Android and iOS apps. We have been receiving feedback from users that they want to be able to just use the web browser on their phone or their desktop computer without having to install the app. One pastor in Thailand had an iPhone, but it was set up by a family member and they didn’t have the App Store password so they couldn’t install the app. One user didn’t have room on their phone for the app and just wanted to use the web browser to view a few chapters at a time. Other users in sensitive areas have their phones regularly scanned at checkpoints and it isn’t safe to install the app. Another user wanted to display the scripture on a projector using a desktop during a worship service and play the audio and have the text highlighted on the screen while listening.
We have researched this in the past, but have not found the right set of software tools to make it possible. At the beginning of 2022, we found a library that would handle the Scripture processing. This past summer, we had an intern from Liberty University and Micah Henny, a friend from our sending church, work with us on developing a proof-of-concept to see if it was possible. We were able to create a viable PWA template that could be used with SAB to generate contextualized PWAs.
In the fall, Chris and David worked with two separate senior capstone teams (from Gordon College and California Baptist University) to continue the work on the PWA template. The goal is to make a beta release available later this month at the EMDC conference.
Last year’s student from Liberty University suggested that Chris work with Liberty on senior capstone projects as well. When Chris went to visit the school last month, we were able to talk to all the juniors studying Computer Science. From that presentation, three students have accepted unpaid internships for this summer and will be working with Chris and David on finishing the PWA template. Please pray for team to work well together, learn, and complete the work remaining.
Archives for May 2023
Progressive Web App
Growing Number of Apps
It is encouraging to see people reading the Bible and many organizations using SAB to create apps. We intentionally do not gather analytics about its use to protect those who are creating resources for communities in sensitive areas. Below, you can see information about those we know about. Thank you for partnering with us to help make this happen!
iOS apps and offline Android apps are in addition to this.
Ukrainian Bible App Goes Viral
Scripture App Builder (SAB) was created to allow many people groups to read and listen to God’s Word in a language they know best and in formats that are accessible so that lives are changed through heart transformation. SAB is free software used by many organizations.
One of these organizations is Biblica, best known for the NIV translation. In recent years, they have initiated new digital scripture distribution goals using SAB which include: 1) Building a companion Bible app for every new Bible launch, and 2) Building a Bible app for the rest of their translation portfolio.
This strategy has been transformative in launching the New Ukrainian Translation. Biblica was finishing the process of publishing this translation when Russia invaded Ukraine. They decided to expedite the release and advertising of the SAB-created app.
Here is the timeline:
| Feb 24, 2022 | Russia invades Ukraine |
| Feb 26, 2022 | Started Google ads |
| Mar 17, 2022 | 100k downloads |
| Apr 1, 2022 | 200k downloads |
| Jul 19, 2022 | 500k downloads |
| Feb 26, 2023 | 1,078,321 downloads, 95% inside Ukraine 15,873,899 chapter engagements 5,769,017 minutes spent on app by users |
Scripture App Builder has become a key part of Biblica’s Digital Bible Engagement Strategy. It has proved to be a flexible platform enabling us to both deliver scripture, but also other Bible-engagement resources to our global languages. It is quickly becoming our go-to app development platform. We are also able to serve marginalized language communities with the tool. We have been able to reach over 500% more people in these underserved language communities than with our larger traditional Bible engagement platforms. We are grateful to SIL for their continued development of the platform.
Joshua Seale, Biblica, Director of Digital Products
