The app had 83,000 installs in its first three days, and the team realised they were on to something. After 330 million downloads – 2 million of which are in Australia – even the app’s founder says he underestimated the impact of an accessible digital Bible you can carry in your pocket.

“We never could have predicted the results we’ve seen as millions of people around the world have read, listened to, shared, and interacted with the Bible and each other in new ways,” said Bobby Gruenewald, a pastor at US megachurch Life.Church and YouVersion founder.

Over the past ten years, users of the Bible app have:

– Read 70 billion chapters of the Bible
– Listened to 12 billion audio chapters of the Bible
– Made 4 billion Highlights, Bookmarks, and Notes
– Completed 2.4 billion Bible Plan days

“Beyond shaping the way we interact with Scripture and each other, the Bible App has introduced a way for the Bible to reach us in our everyday lives,” says YouVersion in a statement today to celebrate its birthday.

It points to features such as Verse of the Day notifications, reading reminders, and daily Streaks, which it says have helped people develop new Bible reading habits.

“These last 10 years have been more than we could ask, think, or imagine, and we believe this is only the beginning,” said Gruenewald. “As we look ahead, we’re excited about the new ways God is using technology to help people make even more connections between the Bible and their daily lives.”

YouVersion will soon launch Bible Lens, a new app that analyses the objects in a photo and detects biblical themes to suggest the Bible verse that best fits the photo. Then, it automatically designs a high-quality Verse Image that can be shared with friends. Additionally, the app will have the ability to create Verse Images from photos saved in a person’s camera roll to help them rediscover every moment of their life through the lens of the Bible.