eBible Launches a Voice-Navigated Bible

Seattle-based company eBible today launched the world's first voice-navigated Bible app for Android mobile devices.

"What sets our eBible mobile app apart from others is, you can actually tell your Bible what you want to read and our app instantly takes you there. For example, say 'John 3:16', and our app will open up John chapter 3, verse 16 and read it back to you," said Colin Wong, CEO of eBible, in a statement.

Traditional mobile Bible apps require selecting the book, chapter, and verse by traversing a list of all available books, and then its respective chapters and verses. With the eBible Voice Edition on Android, the user speaks the location and the app takes care of the rest. Early beta users have been especially thrilled with this new functionality.

The most often quoted situation is a user driving a car. Instead of looking at a small screen and being distracted, a user simply speaks the scripture location. eBible searches for the passage and starts up the audio Bible component. The scripture is then read out loud through the mobile device's speakers. With Bluetooth enabled to a car's speaker system, the eBible app allows for listening to the Bible on the road.

The eBible Voice Edition is now available for free for a limited time at the Google Play store.

"With Apple's recent launch of SIRI on the iPhone, the industry is beginning to recognize voice-recognition as the next generation UI (user interface) enabler for smartphones and tablets. eBible plans to release voice-recognition for its iPhone and iPad apps very soon as well," Wong added.

eBible offers a suite of Bible products and services, including VerseLink, a Web tool that instantly transforms any scripture references on a Web page into a link to the Bible, and Embedded Bible, a service that enables any church, ministry, or publisher to have a custom Bible on its Web site.