A digital ecosystem offering the world’s largest media-rich scripture library to everyone on the planet.

For Faith Comes By Hearing

Bible.is and the Digital Bible Platform

Sectors Served

Faith, Linguistics

Challenge

Faith Comes By Hearing has a mission to record and distribute audio translations of scripture in all 6,800+ languages of the world. How might we use technology to scale the impact of a 35 year old ministry that has been using audio cassette tapes and CDs as their main tool for worldwide scripture distribution?

Solution

CauseLabs helped develop a digital ecosystem with a robust API library (the Digital Bible Platform) as the cornerstone of a network supporting distribution of digitized content to reach people with tools they already use on a daily basis: Android, iOS and Smart TV apps, ePub, internet and satellite radio, and web streaming.

What We Did

  • An icon depicting an arrow hitting the bullseye.
    Growth Strategy
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    Digital Strategy
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    Brand Strategy
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    Product Management
  • An icon representing code on a screen.
    API Development
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    Mobile App Design & Development
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    Data Reporting & Analysis
  • An icon depicting responsive web design.
    Responsive Web Design

Results

1970-2005
50million
Users reached

2005-2009
100million
Users reached

2009-Now
250million
Users reached

Our partnership with Faith Comes by Hearing, which began in 2008, has culminated in the creation of the world’s largest repository of scripture text, audio, and video, accessed through a simple, intuitive suite of apps for the Web, iPhone, iPad, Android, Radio and Smart TV.

The organization’s reach of 50 million people during its first 35 years of operations was extended to over 100 million in the first four years partnering with CauseLabs on their digital strategy and now exceeds 250 million. Their reach continued to grow with a vast ecosystem of apps served by the robust capacity of the Digital Bible Platform API that allowed all apps to be connected through one developer portal and deliver a simple user experience to reach people with devices they already used on a daily basis. In 2015, Faith Comes By Hearing was trained and transitioned to manage and support their digital ecosystem.

Responsive web design of the Digital Bible Platform.

A Seven Year Partnership

CauseLabs and Faith Comes By Hearing achieved a lot of amazing things together over our 7 year partnership. These are just a few of the highlights.

December 2014

Bible.is for Smart TV

Smart TV technology was still in its infancy when FCBH asked CauseLabs to create and launch the very first native Bible application for use on Smart TV platforms, even further broadening the reach of Scripture.

A TV displaying the Bible.is smart tv app
An iPad displaying the Bible.is Kidz app
June 2014

Bible.is Kidz iOS App

Recognizing a unique opportunity to reach children with Scripture in new and engaging ways, FCBH partnered with CauseLabs to create Bible.is Kidz. The application includes unique interactive games, rich audio stories, and an exciting gamification layer.

January 2014

Digital Bible Platform Developer-Ready API

How do you exponentially increase the availability of Scripture when you have the world’s largest Digital Bible repository at your fingertips? FCBH asked CauseLabs to help open the Digital Bible Platform API to any developer who wants to make an innovative Scripture based app. The result? A growing community of developers creating niche media-rich scripture apps for people all around the world.

A laptop displaying the Digital Bible Platform website.
The Deaf Bible iOS, Android & Web Apps.
December 2013

Deaf Bible iOS, Android & Web Apps

FCBH turned their attention to some of the most underserved people in the world, as they sought new ways of getting the Bible into Deaf user’s hands. Offering multiple sign languages and an innovative human centered design, the result of workshops facilitated by CauseLabs, the Deaf Bible app has been well received by the deaf community around the world.

June 2013

Bible.is 2.0 Redesign

Smart TV technology was still in its infancy when FCBH asked CauseLabs to create and launch the very first native Bible application for use on Smart TV platforms, even further broadening the reach of Scripture.

Bible.is 2.0 responsive redesign
2 mobile devices and a tablet displaying the Bible.is app.
May 2013

Bible.is + Jesus Film Media

In 2012, our efforts focused on improving the Bible.is user experience. While FCBH added more languages to the content library, CauseLabs worked with the team at Jesus Film Media to integrate rich video content into the apps. For our team of designers and developers, it was a puzzle to piece together, pulling content from two different APIs. For users of the app, it was a seamless experience, delivering video content inline with their reading or listening experience tied to the selected Language, Book and Chapter.

December 2011

Bible.is Stats

How might we evaluate the cost per touch when developing a digital ecosystem? With millions of users downloading the Bible.is apps and hundreds of thousands of users streaming audio at any given time, FCBH wanted the ability to see their impact in near-real time. CauseLabs enhanced all of the apps to include custom event tracking tied to Google Analytics, which then allowed the Stats dashboards to display a grid of user profile images, the active number of users in the app, the languages that were being accessed and a map of activity displayed in the FCBH offices as an interactive 3D globe where users could zoom in and out to display ministry data.

pictures of people with text "The Bible Touches Today 271,802 people"
A map with many pointers showing how many people are using the bible app.
A device showing the Bible.is Android App.
June 2010

Bible.is Android App

As soon as the Google Play Store was announced, CauseLabs and FCBH partnered to create one of the first Bible Apps in the market. The app was quickly well received and remains a staple app for millions of Android users.

March 2010

Bible.is iOS

As soon as the App Store was announced, CauseLabs and FCBH partnered to create one of the first Bible Apps in the market. The app was quickly well received and remains a staple app for millions of iOS users.

A device showing the original version of the Bible.is iOS app.
Several men and women collaborating at a table with many laptops on it.
December 2009

Digital Strategy & Roadmap

CauseLabs learned a lot in partnership with FCBH. We learned to adopt new technologies, innovate, iterate and we learned that it’s easier to change the plans when there are first a solid set of plans in place. In 2011, after the native mobile apps of Bible.is 1.0 were completed, we focused on fixes and enhancements. As we did so, we learned a lot from our users, which created a healthy feature backlog. With so many ideas on the docket, we took a step back and reassessed the ecosystem, the data architecture, the API delivery, and the ways in which the different apps and systems all connected and synced with one another. It was at this time, that we created our first extensive roadmap as part of a larger digital strategy for FCBH.

June 2008

FCBH Website Redesign

In 2008, when organizations approached a tech company they were primarily searching for two things, a website redesign or IT networking assistance. FCBH contacted CauseLabs to update their website and from this point on, we were ambassadors for their mission and became partners that would help them reimagine their organization forever.

A laptop displaying the FCBH website redesign.

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