There are few apps that I would give a five-star rating. As a 24-year-old, I’m a little embarrassed to admit the names of a few of them (*cough* Emoji Blitz *cough*), but one that I’m proud to shout to the world is the Gospel Library App.
In this October’s General Conference, President Dieter F. Uchtdorf spoke about the benefits of technology. One of the greatest benefits, no doubt, is having endless gospel resources at our fingertips.
And those resources? Thanks to the Gospel Library Update, they just got even better.
The New Features
The updated Gospel Library app has a variety of new features, but we’re especially excited about the following improvements:
- New video tutorials
Did you know there’s a Tips section at the bottom of the Gospel Library app? If you click on that, you’ll find tutorials informing you about new updates and how to get the most out of your experience with the Gospel Library app.
- It’s more user-friendly
To be honest, I didn’t think the Gospel Library app could really get more user-friendly. But maybe that’s just because I’ve never owned a set of scriptures that includes tabs, so being able to find any scripture in two seconds flat always gives me a little bit of an adrenaline rush.
In any case, the new update allows you to “turn study sessions into revelatory learning experiences.” The new, more user-friendly features include rich text formatting (e.g. Bold, italics, etc.); easier-to-use custom notebooks; sharable notes; and more thorough cross-referencing.
Footnotes have also been updated. In the past, when you clicked on a footnote, you would have to scroll and scroll to find the particular note you were looking for (all the while wondering exactly what life with carpel tunnel would be like). Now, when you click on a footnote, it streamlines you directly to it, pulling it up in the app’s new redesigned side bar.
Oh, and another cool tidbit? The app will be the same across the board, regardless of your phone’s platform. This means that your experience on your iOS-running phone will be the same as someone with an Android.
- Everything can be annotated
Have you ever wondered what the most frequent complaint about the Gospel Library app was? Maybe not, but we’ll tell you anyway: not all content could be annotated.
Thankfully, the new update allows users to highlight, link, tag, and even add comments to all content found within the LDS Library app. That includes chapter headings, lists in manuals, and hymns, to name just a few… Which essentially just means that my scriptures in this app may or may not soon look like a rainbow exploded in them. ?
Sharing What You Know
Remember all the times you were annoyed as a kid when someone chanted, “Secret secrets are no fun/Unless you share with everyone!”
Irksome as that chant may have been, and as much as it might make you inwardly cringe when you hear it even now, there’s actually some truth to that all-too-catchy rhyme. What’s the point of having all of this awesome information if you don’t share it?!
“Research among members showed that many members would use the app’s study tools if they were shown how to use them by a family member or friend,” said General Authority Seventy Elder Larry R. Lawrence. “Showing others how you use Gospel Library for personal study and teaching is a great way to help strengthen others in their efforts to become self-sufficient in having meaningful study experiences.”
Sharing what we know about the Gospel, including how to use the Gospel Library app in a more meaningful way, will increase our own testimonies in addition to those of the people around us.
Watch your testimony grow as you use the enhanced features in the new Gospel Library App update, and be sure to comment and tell us what YOU think of it!
For more information regarding the update, visit LDS.org.
