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Latter-day Saints worldwide often study their scriptures using the Gospel Library on their mobile devices. Many of us now carry our scriptures everywhere we go merely as an electronic device—and there’s good reason for doing that.

The features of marking, tagging and copying scriptures or listening to them as we ride in the car or accessing hundreds of features that make deep scripture study accessible makes it possible for this generation to understand the scriptures better than any earlier generation.

This great app just got better.

The Gospel Library app recently released a major update for both iOS and Android. Version 4 of the app includes the following improvements:

  • All content is now annotatable.
  • Study tools are more intuitive.
  • Features and functionality are more unified.
  • New video tutorials are available.

All content is now annotatable

phone

You can highlight, add comments to, link, tag, and organize into notebooks all content, including scripture chapter headings and study helps, lists in various lesson manuals, hymns and children’s songs, videos, and more. Not being able to annotate this kind of content was the most common feedback topic from Gospel Library users.

Study tools are more intuitive

Newly refined study tools help you turn study sessions into revelatory learning experiences. The 4.0 update adds rich text formatting to your notes, including bold, italics, and lists, so you can improve the clarity—and value—of your notes. Saving passages into custom notebooks is also much easier. Now you can see your highlights of content saved within your notebooks, as well as move your notes into other notebooks and easily share your notes with others.

Another refinement is when you create a link between two passages, the app now creates bidirectional links that go in both directions between sources. The accessing of footnotes has also been streamlined by directly displaying the related scripture references in the redesigned sidebar.

“The Gospel Library team has been working hard this year to make all the content annotatable and make the study tools more intuitive,” said Elder Larry R. Lawrence of the Seventy. “These enhancements provide members the opportunity of a more enriching study experience and better options to record personal revelation.”

Features and functionality are more unified

Many individuals and families have devices using both iOS and Android platforms on their phone and tablet screens. Others switch between platforms when getting new phones. Now, regardless of platform or device, your experience using Gospel Library 4.0 will be the same.

For example, footnotes on phones are now located on the side like tablets, the text selection buttons have the same icons in the same order, and the redesigned “Notes” section has the same common tools and look and feel as tablets. In 2017, similar changes will be made to the Windows version of Gospel Library and the study tools on LDS.org to provide a further consistent multiscreen experience.

New video tutorials are available

With each new update, the significant enhancements will be highlighted to inform members of the ongoing improvements. The new short videos under the Tips collection, located at the bottom of the home library screen, can help you learn to use the app in powerful new ways and discover features you might have missed. More video tips will be added to the initial batch.

Help others learn to use the app

family

Members experienced with using Gospel Library are encouraged to share what they’ve learned with others. A simple pointer or demonstration given to a friend may open ways to significantly improve their gospel study.

Improvements in version 4.0 of the Gospel Library app provide a more enriching study experience and better options to record personal revelation.

“Research among members showed that many members would use the app’s study tools if they were shown how to use them by a family member or friend,” concluded Elder Lawrence. “Showing others how you use Gospel Library for personal study and teaching is a great way to help strengthen others in their efforts to become self-sufficient in having meaningful study experiences.”

“The new version is really great,” says [a happy Gospel Library user]. “I especially like the . . . and . . .” The new app is available for download from the Apple app store and Google Play.

New content

Recently added content includes new male and female audio recordings of the English scriptures, audio recordings of Teachings of Presidents of the Church: Gordon B. Hinckley, and the following three items found in the new Church History collection that support the study of the Doctrine and Covenants: Gospel Topic Essays, Revelations in Context, and Joseph Smith’s Accounts of the First Vision. Learn more about the new study materials for 2017.