Bible App: Getting 100 Million Downloads is More Psychology Than Miracles-Nir&Far

Hi, I'm Nir Eyal and this is the near and Far Podcast. This podcast is about business, behavior and the brain. On this show, I do a few things. I read quick articles I've written about topics shaping your behavior. I interview authors of books I enjoy, and from time to time I devote episodes to answering your questions. If you want to ask me a question, visit the podcast page on itunes, go to Ratings and Reviews, and ask me a question. By leaving a review, I promise to read it and possibly include your question of future episodes. So please ask me anything now. Enjoy the episode. And for more, you can always Visit me@nearandfar.com.

Bible app getting 100 million downloads is more psychology than miracles by Nir Eyal. An edited version of this essay appeared in the Atlantic. Below is my original it's not often an app has the power to keep someone out of a strip club. But but according to Bobby Grunewald, CEO of YouVersion, that's exactly what his Bible app did. Grunewald says a user of his app walked into a business of ill repute when suddenly, out of the heavens, he received a notification on his phone. God's trying to tell me something, grunewald recalled the user saying. I just walked into a strip club and man, the Bible just texted me. YouVersion recently announced its Bible app hit a monumental milestone, placing it among a rare strata of technology companies. The app, simply called Bible, is now on more than 100 million devices and growing, Grunewald says a new install occurs every 1.3 seconds. On average, some 66,000 people have the Bible app open during any given second, but that number climbs much higher at times every Sunday, Grunewald says. Preachers around the world tell devotees to take out your Bibles or YouVersion app, and we see a huge spike. The Bible app was funded and built by lifechurch TV of Edmond, Oklahoma. Though Silicon Valley digerati rarely heed lessons from churches in red states, in this case, Grunewald and his team have something to preach about. The market for religious apps is fiercely competitive. Searching for Bible in the app store returns 5,185 results. But among all the choices, YouVersion's Bible app seems to be the chosen one, ranking at the top of the list and boasting over 641,000 reviews. How did you version come to dominate the digital Word of God? It turns out there is much more behind the Bible app's success than missionary zeal. The company is a case study in how technology can change behavior when it utilizes the principles of consumer psychology coupled with the latest in big data analytics. According to industry insiders, the YouVersion Bible could be worth a bundle, Jules Maltz, general partner at Institutional Venture Partners, told me. As a rule of thumb, a company this size could be worth $200 million and up. Maltz should know. His firm recently announced an investment in another pre revenue app, Snapchat, at an 800 million dollar valuation. Maltz justifies the price by pointing to the per user valuations of other tech companies like Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, who each commanded astronomical sums well before turning a profit, Maltz was quick to add. Of course, this assumes the company can monetize, but through standard advertising. Placing ads in the Bible app would rain manna from heaven, and the church which originally funded the Bible app would suddenly become, shall we say, very blessed. However, Grunewald says he has no intention of ever turning a profit from the Bible app. Despite multiple buyout offers and monetization opportunities, the Bible app remains strictly a money losing venture. Lifechurch TV has invested over $20 million in the Bible app, but according to Grunewald, the goal is to reach and engage as many people as possible with Scripture. That's all. So far, Grunewald is meeting his goal. In the beginning, Grunewald is a quick thinking, fast talking man. During our conversation, he pulled up statistics in real time, stopping himself mid sentence whenever relevant. Data flashes on his screen and grabs his attention. As Grunewald preaches on about mobile app development best practices, I need to occasionally interrupt him to ask clarifying questions. My words stumble over his enthusiasm as he bears witness to what he's learned building his Bible app. He spouts user retention figures with the same gusto. I'd imagine he might proclaim scripture. Unlike other companies, when we started we were not building a Bible reader for seminary students. YouVersion was designed to be used by everyone every day. Grunewald attributes much of the Bible app's success to a relentless focus on creating habitual Bible readers. Grunewald is well prepared for our interview, and thanks to an email his publicist sent me prior to our call, so am I. In the email, the Bible app's success is broken down into the language of habit formation more commonly seen in psychology textbooks. The cues, behaviors and rewards of communing with the Lord are bullet pointed and ready for our discussion. Bible study guides are nothing new, grunewald says. People have been using them with pen and paper long before we came along. But as I soon found out, the Bible app is much more than a mobile study guide. In fact, the first version of youversion was not mobile at all. We originally started as a desktop website, but but that really didn't engage people in the Bible. It wasn't until we tried a mobile version that we noticed a difference in people, including ourselves turning to the Bible more because it was on a device they always had with them. Indeed, people started taking the Bible with them everywhere. Recently, the company revealed users read Scripture in the most unsanctified places. 18% of readers report using the Bible app in the bathroom. While the 100 million install mark is an impressive milestone, perhaps the more startling fact is that users can't put the Bible app down long enough to take a holy shit. How to Form a God Habit Grunewald acknowledges the Bible app enjoyed the good fortune of being among the first of its kind at the genesis of the app store in 2008. To take part, Grunewald quickly converted his website into a mobile app optimized for reading. His Bible app caught the rising tide, but soon a wave of competition followed. If his Bible app was to reign supreme, Grunewald needed to get users hooked quickly. That's when Grunewald says he implemented a plan. Actually, many plans. A signature of the Bible app is its selection of over 400 reading plans. A devotional itunes of sorts catering to an audience with diverse tastes, troubles and tongues. Given my personal interest and research into habit forming technology, I decided to start a Bible reading plan of my own. I searched the available themes for an area of my life I needed help with. A plan titled Addictions seemed appropriate. Reading plans provide structure to the different task of reading the Bible for those who who have yet to form the routine. Certain sections of the Bible can be difficult for people to get through, Grunewald admits. By offering reading plans with different small sections of the Bible each day, it helps keep readers from giving up. The Bible app chunks and sequences the text by separating it into bite sized pieces. By parsing readings into communion wafer sized portions, the Bible app focuses the reader's brain on the small task at hand while avoiding the intimidation of reading the entire book.

Holy Triggers 5 Years of Testing and tinkering have helped Grunewald's team discover what works best. Today, the Bible app's reading plans are tuned to immaculate perfection, and Grunewald has learned that frequency of use is paramount. We've always focused on daily reading. Our entire structure for plans focuses on daily engagement. To get users to open the Bible app every day, Grunewald makes sure he sends effective cues like the notifications sent to the sinner in the strip club. But Grunewald admits he stumbled upon the power of using good triggers. At first we were very worried about sending people notifications. We didn't want to bother them too much. To test how much of a cross users were willing to bear, they Grunewald decided to run an experiment. For Christmas, we sent people a message from the app, just a Merry Christmas in various languages. The team was prepared to hear from disgruntled users annoyed by the message. We were afraid people would uninstall the app, grunewald says. But just the opposite happened. People took pictures of the notification on their phones and started sharing them on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook. They felt God was reaching out to them. Today, Grunewald says, triggers play an important role in every reading plan. On my own plan, I receive a daily notification on my phone which reads, don't forget to read your addiction's reading plan. Ironically, the addiction I'm trying to cure is my dependency to digital gadgetry. But what the hell, I'll fall off the wagon just this once. In case I somehow avoid the first message. A red badge over a tiny holy Bible icon cues me again. If I forget to start the first day of the plan, I'd receive a message suggesting perhaps I should try a different, less challenging plan. I also have the option of receiving verse through email, and if I slip up and miss a few days, another email would serve as a reminder. The Bible app also comes with a virtual congregation of sorts. Members of the site tend to send encouraging words to one another, delivering even more triggers. According to the company's publicist community, emails can serve as a nudge to open the app. Triggers are everywhere in the Bible app, and Grunewald says they are a key part of the Bible app's ability to keep users engaged. To some, all these messages might become a nuisance. But remember, this is the Bible, and uninstalling the Bible app or turning off notifications would basically be flipping the Lord the bird.

Glory be in big data, Grunewald's team has sifted through behavioral data collected from millions of readers to better understand what users want from the Bible app. We just have so much data flowing through our system, grunewald says. We were generating so much of it that apparently we showed up on Google's radar and they contacted us to take a closer look. Grunewald reports his company recently completed work with Google engineers to help with storing and analyzing data so they could solve these problems for others as well. The data revealed some important insights on what drives users retention high on Grunewald's list of learnings was the importance of ease of use, which came up throughout our conversation. In line with the work of psychologists dating back to Gestalt psychologist Court Lewin to modern day researchers like BJ Fogg. The the Bible App uses the principle that by making an intended behavior easier to do, people do it more often. The Bible App is designed to make absorbing the word as frictionless as possible. For example, to make the Bible App habit easier to adopt a user who prefers to not read at all, he can simply tap a small icon which plays a professionally produced audio track. Read with all the dramatic bravado of Charlton Heston himself, Grunewald says. His data also revealed that changing the order of the Bible, placing the more interesting sections up front and saving the boring bits for later, increased completion rates. Furthermore, daily reading plans are kept to a simple inspirational thought and a few short verses for newcomers. The idea is to get neophytes into the ritual for a few minutes each day until the routine becomes a facet of their everyday lives.

Rewards from the Lord, Grunewald says. The personal connection people have with scripture taps into deep emotions that we need to use responsibly. Readers who form a habit of using the Bible app turn to it not only when they see a notification on their phone, but also whenever they feel low and need a way to lift their spirits. We believe that the Bible is a way God speaks to us, grunewald says. When people see a verse, they see wisdom or truth they can apply to their lives or a situation they're going through. Skeptics might call this subjective validation. Psychologists would call it the Forer effect. But to the faithful it amounts to personally communicating with God. Upon opening the Bible app, I find a specially selected verse waiting for me on the topic of addiction with just two taps and reading 1 Theosians 5:11 encouragement for the children of the day, imploring them with the words Let us be sober. It's easy to see how these comforting words could serve as a sort of prize wrapped inside the Bible app, helping readers feel better and lifting their mood. Grunewald says there is also an element of mystery and variability associated with using the Bible. Applause One woman would stay up until just past midnight to know what verse she had received for her next day, Grunewald says. The unknown which verse will be chosen for the reader and how it relates to their personal struggle becomes an important driver of the reading habit. As for my own reward, after finishing my verse, I received confirmation from a satisfying day. Complete screen A check mark appeared near the scripture I had read and and another one was placed on my reading plan calendar. Skipping a day would mean breaking the chain of checked days, employing what psychologists call the endowed progress effect, a tactic also used by video game designers to encourage progression.

Sharing the Word as habit forming as the Bible app's reading plans can be, they are not for everyone. In fact, Grunewald reports, most users never register for an account with you version Millions choose not to follow any plan, opting instead to use the app as a substitute for their paper Bibles. But to Gruenewald, using the Bible app in this way suits him fine. Just because a reader never registers does not mean Grunewald has not found a way to help them grow the Bible app. In fact, social media is abuzz with the 200,000 pieces of content shared from the app every 24 hours.

To help the Bible app spread, a new verse greets the reader on the first page. Below it, a large blue button reads Share Verse of the Day, whereby clicking the button blasts scripture to Facebook or Twitter. Just why people share scripture they've just read is not widely studied, however. One reason may be the reward of portraying oneself in a positive light, also known as the humble brag. A recent Harvard Meta analysis titled Disclosing Information about the Self is Intrinsically Rewarding found the engages neural and cognitive mechanisms associated with reward. In fact, sharing feels so good that one study found individuals were willing to forego money to disclose about the self. There are many opportunities to share verse from within the Bible app, but one of Grunewald's most effective distribution channels occurs not online but in row that is, in the pews churchgoers sit in every week. People tell each other about the app because they use it surrounded by people who ask about it, Grunewald says. The Bible app always sees a spike in new downloads on Sundays, when people are most likely to share it through word of mouth. However, nothing consummates the reign of Grunewald's Bible app quite like the way preachers in some congregations have come to depend upon it. YouVersion lets religious leaders input their sermons into the Bible app to allow their assemblies to follow along in real time, book, verse, and passage, all without flipping a page. Once the head of the church is hooked, the flock is sure to follow.

For all eternity. But using the Bible app at church not only has the benefit of driving growth, it builds commitment. Every time users highlight a verse, add a comment, bookmark, or share from the Bible app, they invest in it. Behavioral economists Dan Ariely and Michael Norton have shown the effect small amounts of work have on the way people value various products, known as the Ikea effect. Studies have shown that things we put labor into become worth more to us. It is reasonable to think that the more readers put into the Bible app in the form of small investments, the more it becomes a repository of their history of worship. Like a worn dog eared book full of scribbled insights and wisdom, the Bible app becomes a treasured asset not easily discarded. The more readers use the Bible app, the more valuable it becomes to them. Switching to a different digital Bible, God forbid, becomes less likely with each new revelation a user types into the Bible app, further securing YouVersion's dominion. Grunewald claims he is not in competition with anyone, but he does on occasion rattle off the App Store categories where he holds a high ranking. His place at the top of the charts appears secure now that the Bible has crossed its 100 millionth install. But when Gruenewald plans to continue sifting through the terabytes of data to search for new ways to increase the reach of his Bible app and make the Bible even more habit forming to its tens of millions of regular users, Grunewald's Bible app is a godsend.

Thanks for listening to this episode of the near and Far Podcast. You can always find more at my blog, nearandfar.com and don't forget if you have a question you'd like me to explore in a future episode and leave me your question. The former review for the podcast on itunes.