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It’s been four months since developers were given access to the Actions on Google platform. In that time third-parties have already released over 150 commands for devices and services for our favorite smart speaker, Google Home. A lot of these actions help to assimilate your smart-home while others corral all of your entertainment options into one voice-activated helper. A few of these features are simply geared towards down-right silly fun.
Then, there are a small number of actions for Google Home that intend to enrich you as a person and not with technological enhancements or total media immersion.
YouVersion
YouVersion isn’t the first Bible-reading service to come to Google Home but it will most assuredly be the most influential. The Bible application, developed by Life.Church, is one of the most extensive and interactive mobile apps for Scripture out there. Personally, I use YouVersion on a daily basis on mobile as well as desktop. With over 250 million downloads as of 2016, it has become the most popular app of its kind in the mobile market and rightfully so. Oh yeah, did I mention YouVersion is 100% free? Well, it is.
Developers from Life.Church have now released Actions of Google for use with Google Home. However, this is more than just a simple way to listen to your favorite Bible verses. In conjunction with the mobile app, Google Home will be able to offer up customized reading(or listening in this case) plans based user input. You will be able to chose plans that cover specific books of the Bible, themes or just a daily Scripture.
Listeners can even ask Home to share verses based on mood or a specific subject from Scripture. Feeling angry? Ask Google Home and the YouVersion action will offer up some encouraging words straight from the Bible.
Presumably, you will be able to chose which translation of the Bible Google Home uses. (I’m an NLT guy myslef) The YouVersion mobile app has hundreds, if not thousands of reading plans from countless leader, artists, musicians and more. The app keeps track of your progress in the plan and sends you friendly reminders to keep track of your progress. With Actions on Google you will be able to ask Home and get a quick report of where you are in your plan.
This new Action for Google Home is very exciting to me. I use this app all the time and often times enjoy listening to plans or scripture while doing other tasks around my house. Being able to call upon it at anytime with just the sound of my voice is comforting to me and it is my hope that many will benefit from this new addition to the Google Home lineup of services.
YouVersion was introduced in 2008 and in the following years has grown to be the most popular and most downloaded mobile Bible application in the world. It offers almost 1500 versions of the Holy Bible in over 1000 languages. You can check out the YouVersion app for yourself in the iOS App Store or at Google Play.
Source: Venture Beat
