[Editor’s Note: This post was part of our April Fool’s 2014 lineup. Have fun, enjoy!]
Today Life Church, the organization behind the incredibly popular YouVersion suit of Bible apps announced a dramatic shake up to their app. Up to now they have given away their app for free, including theKJV and built in social services. However, in a dramatic change of direction, YouVersion has decided to start charging for their app.
The woman in charge of the app, April Nabal, explained the move.
“There were a host of reasons that lead to our decision and I hope you’ll understand that it wasn’t an easy decision. Ultimately we want to keep YouVersion as the best Bible app out there and unfortunately development and the running of the app costs. We considered adding adverts to help finance the app, but we took the verses about not adding or subtracting to Gods word seriously. The social side excepted. As such we were left with the only option of charging for the app.”
The financial model of the app is a strange mix with a move to a small price of $9.99 (as April pointed out, the price of most paper Bibles without all the social and study features backed in) and a switch of charging for extra versions in various amounts.
By default, anyone who downloaded the old version of the app will be left with “the fools version” a version of the Bible containing only the verses in Proverbs about fools. It also had a Bible reading plan set to remind you ever 1st of April.
To get a useful version of the Bible, you’ll have to pay.
While it’s understandable that it is a financial strain to support an app which has been downloaded more than 1 million times, the changes that YouVersion seems to be about to undergo leave us scratching outer heads here at ChurchMag. I imagine this move will deeply upset many of their users and harm their aim in making the Bible available for everyone and anyone.
[Editor’s Note: In case anyone is confused — ahem — nothing on the Internet today is real. Not even this. Or this.]
@MrChrisJWilson Hey Chris – saw your post on @ChurchMag. We appreciate a good joke, but it may be confusing to users. Can it be taken down?
— Adam Bouse (@adambouse) April 1, 2014
[Editor’s Note: Also, no, this post cannot be taken down. We can, however, make it even MORE obvious that this was a special post for April Fools Day. If anyone is still unsure, just ask April Nabal…]
KC says
NOOO! Say it ain’t so!
Matt Irvine says
April Nabal? Really. smh
Chris Wilson says
The first draft actually went “John Doe” but as I was trying to come up with a name inspiration hit me…or rather than google search for biblical names for fools. I was pretty pleased with that one though. Plus I didn’t want people to start complaining to YouVersion! I love what those guys are doing!
Tade says
Lol! You almost got me 🙂 the name April Nabal should have put out the red flag. Nice one!
Eric Dye says
Great job, Chris. 😀