A short guide

Ten minutes, start to finish. Everything is on one screen.

What this app is

A Bible reader built for someone who finds ordinary apps hard: large buttons, one screen, nothing to set up. It reads aloud, it listens, and it answers questions about what you are reading. Nothing you read, say or ask leaves the device.

The screen

The page is the Bible. Along the top is the toolbar: the chapter with arrows either side, then Speak, Search, Ask (and Margin, on the Reference and Ask – Tell Me More profiles), text size (Aa) and Settings (⚙). Every button is big on purpose. If one is hard to hit, that is something we want to hear.

Reading

Scroll to read. Tap ◀ or ▶ to change chapter. Tap the chapter name — Genesis 6 — to pick any book and chapter from a grid.

Tap a verse to select it. Tap it again to unselect. Press and hold a verse to copy it.

Aa makes the text bigger or smaller, in steps. It stacks on top of the text size the device is already set to.

Read aloud

Tap Speak and the page is read to you, each word highlighted as it is spoken. The button becomes Pause while it reads: tap it to pause, and tap it again to carry on. The verse being read works the same way — tap it to pause, tap it again to continue.

To stop reading, rather than pause it, double-tap the button or the verse being read.

Double-tap any other verse to read from there, whether or not it is reading already. A single tap only selects a verse.

If you have selected a verse, Speak starts from it. With Ask open and a result selected, Speak reads that result instead of the page.

Rare Bible names are said the way the concordance spells them out — Habakkuk, Zerubbabel. Common names stay as you would expect.

Going somewhere

Three ways; use whichever is natural.

• Tap the chapter name and pick from the grid.
• Say it: tap Ask, tap the microphone, and say “Romans 8” or “John chapter 3 verse 16” or just “chapter 4” — or “Read me Romans 8” to go there and hear it.
• Ask Siri: “Navigate in Bible Reader” — Siri asks which book, chapter or verse — then say “Romans 8.” (More under Siri and Shortcuts.)

Or follow a link: tap a reference in Ask or Search, or Go to in the Margin, and the page goes there.

When a link takes you somewhere, a gold bookmark appears at the top of the page with the place you left, Genesis 24:22. Tap it to go back. It keeps that place however many links you follow, and even if you close the app, and it goes away once you are back at that verse.

Search

Tap Search and type or say a word or a phrase. You see every verse that contains it. With more than one word, two choices appear under the count: the words together as a phrase (“kingdom of heaven”), or all the words in any order. Each shows how many verses it finds. For a single word, the count at the top — “281 verses, with related forms” — opens to show what else was matched (loved, loveth, lovingkindness). Strict, in the row of chips, turns that off: only the exact word. Tap a result to open it in the page.

Ask

This is the part that is different. Tap Ask and type or say a question the way you would ask a friend — “What does this passage mean?”, “Who was this written to?”, “What happens next?”, “What does ‘plans to prosper you’ mean?” — or a name, a word, a place: “Noah”, “rest”, “who was Melchizedek”, “Tell me more about Jeremiah 29”.

A question about this verse or this passage is about the verse you have tapped on the page (or the chapter, if none is tapped), so you never have to say “Jeremiah 29:11” yourself. A question about something else — “Noah” — is answered about Noah, not about the page you are on. The chip that best fits the question is chosen for you: Names for a name, Commentary for “what does this mean”, Topics for “what can I learn from this”.

You get the reference works’ own words: what a name means (Noah — rest; repose; consolation), the dictionary entry, the concordance, the topical index, the commentary on the passage. The chips along the top of the panel — All · Names · Dictionary · Strong’s · Topics · Commentary · Cross-refs — narrow it. Cross-refs follows the verse you have selected on the page rather than what you typed.

Tap a result to select it; its scripture references become links you can open where they stand, and Speak reads the entry. Press and hold to copy it.

Suggestions offers the questions worth asking about the passage you are on — “Tell me more about Jeremiah 29:11”, “What was happening when this was written?” — so you type nothing. History keeps what you have asked, searched and gone to, so you can do it again with one tap.

Ask also does what you tell it. Say or type “Read me John 6” and it goes there and reads the chapter aloud; “Read me John 3:16” reads that one verse (then “Keep reading” carries on). “Read this chapter”, “Read from verse 16”, “Stop”, “Pause”, “Keep reading”, “Next chapter”, “Bigger”, “Smaller” and “Search for mercy” do what they say, and Ask gets out of the way. “Go to John 6” or “Open John 6” just goes there. Anything else is a question, as before.

Siri can ask for you: “Ask Bible Reader” — Siri says “What would you like to ask?” — and your question goes to Ask as if you had said it there.

With Apple Intelligence

On a device that supports Apple Intelligence you also get a short written answer above the list — a few sentences that answer your question directly, headed with what it is about (About Jeremiah 29:11), and what to read next. Every sentence cites the entry it came from, and those entries are the rows underneath, so you can check it. It always says what it is: Ask’s summary, not the Bible’s own words. Each chip gets its own short read of its results.

On a device without Apple Intelligence the app cannot write an answer of its own. Ask a question about a passage there and you get a prepared summary of the chapter instead — a short paragraph written ahead of time from Matthew Henry’s commentary, headed Prepared summary · About John 3, with a list under it of which of Henry’s entries each number stands for; tap one to open where it begins. It says plainly that it is about the whole chapter, not an answer to your question. Ask about a name or a word and there is nothing prepared, so the card says so. Everything else works the same.

Margin

On the Reference and Ask – Tell Me More reading profiles (Settings › Reading Profile) there is one more button, Margin. Tap a verse, then Margin, and what is known about that verse comes up with no question asked — what a reference Bible keeps in its margin: the people and places it names, its words in the Hebrew or Greek they were written in, the other verses that speak to it under the word of your verse each one hangs from, and Matthew Henry’s commentary on the passage. On an iPad or a Mac it sits beside the page when the page has room to spare at your text size, and over the page when it hasn’t; the button in its corner moves it the other way if you’d rather. On a phone it comes up over the page.

Everything in it opens over the page: tap a verse there and you see it, can hear it, and can close it and be exactly where you were. The Words are the verse’s own words as chips, in order; tap one and it lights up on the page while Strong’s entry for it — the original word, how it is said, what it means — comes up with whatever Easton’s, Smith’s and the ISBE say under the same word (the chips with a small book have a dictionary entry). Tap a cross-reference’s heading, or a name, and the words it hangs from light up on the page too. Go to inside that card is the one thing that moves the page — and when it does, the bookmark ribbon appears so you can get back.

Talking to it

The microphone works in both Search and Ask. Tap it, say what you want, and stop talking — it ends on its own after a pause. Tap it again to stop early.

If it keeps mishearing you, Settings › Ask › Better Speech Recognition sends your speech to Apple to be turned into words instead of doing it on the device. It is off unless you turn it on.

Siri and Shortcuts

Bible Reader works with Siri and with the Shortcuts app, so you can ask a question or go to a passage without touching the screen — or turn a passage you come back to every day into one big button on the Home Screen.

Saying it to Siri

Say “Bible Reader” as part of what you ask, and Siri asks you for the rest:

• “Ask Bible Reader” — Siri says “What would you like to ask?” Ask it the way you would in Ask: “Who was Melchizedek?”, “What does this passage mean?” Bible Reader opens with Ask already answering.
• “Navigate in Bible Reader” or “Choose a passage in Bible Reader” — Siri asks “Which book, chapter, or verse?” Say “Romans 8”, “John 3:16” or “First Samuel 17.”
• “Choose a chapter in Bible Reader” — Siri asks for the book, then the chapter.
• “Choose a verse in Bible Reader” — the book, the chapter, then the verse.

When Siri asks for a number, say the word with it — “Chapter 4”, “Verse 16” — rather than the number on its own; it hears that more reliably.

Siri is still learning how to hand a request to an app. If it says something like “I can open Bible Reader for you” and goes nowhere, or opens the app at the last page you read, use one of the phrases above — or, already in the app, tap Ask, tap the microphone and say the place. Bible Reader hears that itself.

Your own shortcuts

The Shortcuts app has Bible Reader’s actions — Open Scripture, Open Book, Open Chapter, Open Verse, Choose a Chapter, Choose a Verse and Ask Bible Reader — to build into shortcuts of your own. Make one once, and it runs with one tap or one sentence.

A button for a passage you read every morning:

1. Open the Shortcuts app and tap +.
2. Search for Bible Reader and choose Open Scripture.
3. Tap Reference and type the place — “Psalm 23”.
4. Give the shortcut a name you would say, such as “Morning Psalm”, and tap Done.
5. Press and hold it, choose Share, then Add to Home Screen.

Now there are three ways to run it: tap it on the Home Screen; say “Hey Siri, Morning Psalm” — Siri runs a shortcut by its name, which is often the most dependable way to get somewhere by voice; or give it to a gesture that needs no aim at all, such as Back Tap (Settings › Accessibility › Touch › Back Tap: two taps on the back of the iPhone) or the Action button on an iPhone that has one.

Not yet

Reading aloud by voice (“read me Romans 8”), searching by voice, and “continue reading” are coming. Until then: open the passage with Siri or a shortcut, then tap Speak.

On a Mac

The same app, with a menu bar. The Reading menu has everything on the toolbar, with keyboard shortcuts: ⌘R Speak or Pause, ⌘[ and ⌘] for the previous and next chapter, ⌘F Search, ⌘K Ask, ⌘M Margin, ⌘+ and ⌘− for text size, and ⌘, for Settings. An iPad with a keyboard has the same shortcuts.

Settings worth knowing

Settings is a list of pages, with a search at the top: type what you’re after (voice, font, history) and it takes you to the setting.

• Reading Profile — Simple Reader, Reference or Ask – Tell Me More: one tap sets which buttons the toolbar shows and how big they are. Simple Reader is the page and Speak alone, with the largest buttons (and, on an iPhone, Books and the chapter arrows in the bottom row); Reference adds Search and the Margin; Ask – Tell Me More adds Ask. Every switch it sets stays a switch of its own.
• Reading — text size, the theme, verse numbers, the words of Christ in red, and chapter summaries.
• Read Aloud — the voice, and Slower / Faster. Hear This Voice previews it. The first choice uses whatever voice the device’s own Accessibility settings have chosen; that is the only way to get a Siri voice. Under Other Languages, the voice for the Spanish and Chinese Bibles: if only basic ones are there, download one marked Enhanced or Premium in the iPad’s Settings › Accessibility › Read & Speak › Voices (from the main list; apps can’t use the Siri voices), and it appears once it has downloaded.
• Toolbar — button size, labels, and which buttons show: Search, Ask and Margin. (Ask and Margin can also be turned on or off on their own pages.)
• Margin — the Margin on or off, and its sections: check the ones you want, drag them into the order you want, and the Margin shows them that way.
• Ask — Ask on or off, which references it searches, its History, and Better Speech Recognition.
• Bibles — the King James is always the page. Beside it, in the Margin’s Parallel Translations, the Berean Standard Bible comes with the app, and five more are one download (about 28 MB): the World English Bible, the Reina-Valera 1909 and the Nueva Biblia Viva (Spanish; the second is a paraphrase), and the Chinese Union Version and the Chinese Contemporary Bible. Check the ones you want to see; Speak on a Spanish or Chinese card reads it in a voice for that language. Where a translation numbers a verse differently, or joins two verses into one, the card says so (2:1, vv. 11–12).
• References — which reference works Ask searches and the Margin shows. All on by default. Under Commentary, five more works — Matthew Henry’s complete commentary, Adam Clarke, Jamieson-Fausset-Brown, Barnes on the New Testament and Spurgeon’s Treasury of David — are a 157 MB download rather than part of the app: tap Download once, on Wi-Fi if you can; Remove frees the space.
• Help — Set Up This iPad, Diagnostics, this guide, and Sources & Licenses: where every text came from and the terms it is under.

What to tell us

• Anything you could not hit — a button, a chip, the panel’s grab handle.
• Anything you could not read — too small, too faint, the wrong colour in Night.
• What the microphone heard versus what you said. Settings › Help › Diagnostics has a log.
• A Siri phrase that did not work, with Siri’s exact words back.
• A wrong answer in Ask — say which chip and what you asked.
• Anything that felt like one step too many.

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