The app will now try to detect the preferred color scheme of your browser or device and switch into dark mode if requested.  On many mobile devices, this will mean the display switches to use white text on a black background when power is low, in order to help conserve battery life.  This behavior can be overridden in the Accessibility settings under the Scripture Colours section.

Previously there were only two Font size options available under Settings - small and large.  The old switch has been replaced with a dropdown list of options ranging from 1 (the smallest) to 7 (the largest) - greatly expanding the range that can be set.  (Note that this setting changes the font size for the Scripture text only; there remains an option to Zoom the whole display under the Accessibility settings.)

With the columns setting enabled (see Settings on the Main Menu), Scripture text will now flow over upto 5 columns, to make better use of the space on very large screens.

It is now possible to disable the automatic hyphenation of words in the Scripture text.  This can be a useful aid to reading and comprehension for some users.  This new option can be found in the Accessibility Popup (under Settings) in the final Other section.

It is now possible to use the home and end keys to quickly scroll to the top and bottom of the content in popup windows.

Important popup messages will now briefly vibrate the device to help alert the user.

The Amharic New Testament has been added to the list of available translations.

The Portuguese Bible now has added text helps (cross references, notes, etc.)

A new Help Popup provides a gallery of help pages and videos covering all aspects of using the Online Bible (presently in English only).  These are presented on the Welcome screen on first use, and available from the Help option on the Side Menu.

The Navigation Popup now features a Verse selection panel which is accessed by a long-press (or right-click) on the chapter number alongside other navigation improvements (see in-app help for more details).

The top of screen Navigation Bar now contains buttons for moving backwards and forwards in history (rather than the previous go to book start/end buttons).  This important change will allow users of the app on some Apple devices to return to the previous location after following cross-reference links, etc.

Keyboard users can now access some of the main app features by using the following keys:

A range of verses can now be selected within a chapter by selecting a verse in the normal way, and then long-pressing (Shift+click for mouse users) on another verse to select all the verses between the two.  The selected verses can then be copied, bookmarked, etc. in the normal way.

It is now possible to link to the Online Bible with a URL which allows for the preselection of verses.  This is accomplished by adding a comma after a full reference - i.e. /#en_JHN_3_16, navigates to John chapter 3 and pre-selects verse 16; /#en_JHN_3_16,36 pre-selects both verse 16 and 36 in that chapter.

Bible versions can now have text helps (notes, cross-references, etc.) that apply at a whole verse level (rather than only against certain words), opening up the possibility for the more rapid introducton of these to some Bible versions.

It is now possible to directly open the Bookmarks Popup from a bookmarked verse by using the icon in the text helps at the end of a selected verse.

The Categories page of the Bookmarks Popup now gains the ability to download the bookmarks in a given category in an HTML format.  Previously only a CSV format was supported, which could not transmit any formatting within notes.

The Russian Synodal Bible has been added to the list of available translations.

The Ukrainian Gospel of John has been added to the list of available translations.

Added ability to switch the Online Bible App interface in to modern Hebrew.

Added new Column Rule line option (Settings | Accessibility | Other) to help distinguish columns - especially helpful at higher zoom levels and/or on smaller screens.

Increased proportion of screen used when zoom employed.

Improved contrast of verse numbers and link text.

Reduced opacity of verse numbers.

Bible text is displayed using Google's multi-lingual Noto font. This is now self-hosted, to avoid any calls to Google's servers which might be tracked or blocked in certain territories.

Iframing of the OBA is now blocked from unauthorised parent domains.

Removed plain text from backend calls to help prevent malicious tracking.

Clicking on the list of refs for a bookmark now brings up a popup providing the text of each verse and allowing quick navigation to any reference.

The bookmarks display now gains a new Category page allowing for the different colors of bookmarks to be named and all associated bookmarks and notes to be downloaded as a CSV file.

Introduced new Service Worker based approach to downloading Bibles which improves speed by 10x and greatly reduces risk of failure.

The app now asks the browser to retain any downloaded Bibles, which should help ensure the longevity of data for offline use.

Forced immediate reload on ServiceWoker upgrade.

Improved lastSelectedVerse recording in readiness for verse range selection in subsequent version.

Duplicated WebWorker functions in ServiceWorker - paving the way for the app to use one approach or the other.

Added last sync time tracking to improve frequency of checking.

Handle change of browser language during session.

Samsung browser users now gain Service Worker support improving performance.

Added copyright notices to give recognition to third-party work incorporated into the Online Bible App.

The existing Gospel of John has now been joined by Romans, 1 & 2 Corinthians, Galations, Ephesians, Philipians, Colosians and Philemon.

The existing Gospel of John has now been joined by Matthew, Mark, Luke, Romans and Hebrews.

Many small screen devices hide the vertical scroll bar when not actively scrolling.  A new option under Settings | Accessibility | Other allows you to turn on a visual indicator of progress through the chapter.

New icons in the Select Bible popup allow you to find out more about a translation and buy print copies of scripture items in that language.

This feature paves the way for use of the Online Bible within other websites. This capability will allow approved parters of the Society to incorporate aspects of the Online Bible in ways more appropriate to their countries and cultural settings.

In response to user requests, the ability to change background and text colors has been extended to encompass more than the scripture text area. Find this capability under Settings | Accessibility | Scripture Colours.

We are pleased to make available, free of charge for users of the app, the entire Bible in the Maori language (the 1868 version (with corrections) published by the Society).

Users with an account can now bookmark verses and make notes associated with those bookmarks. Read a "How to . . ." guide with details of this major new feature here.

Users with an account can now sign in to several different devices simultaneously and have their bookmarks and notes shared between those devices.

Users on touch screen devices are now able to use pinching and spreading to zoom in and out on maps without closing the map display.

Users can now select (under Settings) to have all menu and other control text rendered in Portuguese.

Users can now select (under Settings) to have all menu and other control text rendered in Russian.

This new menu option takes users to a web page on the main TBS site which provides options for supporting the work of the Society.

The app now stores all user data (including notes from the new bookmarks facility) in an encrypted form for increased security.

Users can now tap/click on the book and chapter headings in the Navigate panel to quickly switch between selecting a book or chapter.

The tabs within the Navigate panel now 'stick' to the top of the panel as the user scrolls down, to allow for quick switching of tabs without the need to scroll back up.

Previously searching required at least two key words to be entered (to help prevent large results). This restriction has been removed in recognition that some single words produce very few results.

A range of code improvements have been made which have reduced the size of the core app components by 10% assisting in faster loading and quicker performance. In particular, the features available to logged in users are now not loaded until logged in, helping initial load times.

To improve the speed of moving between chapters, the app will now silently fetch the next chapter in readiness of navigating there.

Many languages of the world do not use western numbers (e.g. 1,2,3...).  This enhancement brings in support for the non-western number schemes, beginning with arabic-indic chapter numbers as used in the Persian scriptures.

Previously copied verses (e.g. pressing Ctrl+C with verses selected) included just the verse number.  Now a full reference is appended to the copied verse(s).  Verses copied from search results now also include the search term(s) and number of results (as shown on the screen).

The entire New Testament in a new revision of the classic 1895 Persian (Farsi) Bible by the Society.

Initially just the Gospel of John in the Society's revised 1871 Constantinople version.

Now when scrolled down a page, a 'more' icon appears next to the navigation controls providing rapid access to the icons available at the top of the page (Search, Bibles and Main Menu).

In addition to an onscreen icon, it is now possible by pressing Ctrl + c to copy search results to the clipboard (on supported devices).

Previously searching in the Greek Textus Receptus required users to enter Greek characters - not a straightforward process without a Greek keyboard.  Now it is possible to use equivalent characters in other scripts, so for example, typing 'a' in a Latin script (e.g. English) will be turned into 'α' in the Greek script.

The list of matched words shown when typing in a search term now include new 'traffic light' style icons. Words with a green icon have the fewest occurances in the selected Scriptures and are the best to search on.  If you need to use a word with a red icon, try to add another word to cut down the number of search results.

Word definition notes in the English (AV) Scriptures which previously said "See note at v..." now contain the referenced text instead.

Previously, supplemental words in the Scriptures (e.g. those normally rendered in italics) were not available for searching.  These have now been added.

Swiping down from the top of the screen (over the place where the current book and chapter is displayed) will now open the Search popup.&nbap; This is expecially convenient on a mobile device when you have scrolled down some way into the chapter, and don't wish to scroll back to the top just to access the Search popup.  [Note: You can also swipe in from the right of the screen at any time to access the full menu.]

The auto-complete function during searching now no longer requires the exact characters in order to find a match, but will allow any accented or non-accented version of a character.  For example, typing in "a" will now also match "à", "á", "â", "ã", "ä", "å", "ā", "ă", "ą", "ǟ", "ǡ", "ǻ", "ȁ", "ȃ", "ȧ", "ӑ", "ӓ", "ᶏ", "ḁ", "ẚ", "ạ", "ả", "ấ", "ầ", "ẩ", "ẫ", "ậ", "ắ", "ằ", "ẳ", "ẵ", "ặ", "æ", "ǣ", "ǽ", and "ӕ".&nsbp; This is particularly useful in non-English languages, but also helps select the word "hymenaeus" in the AV, for example.

The list of matched words shown when typing in a search term are now ordered in a more natural way - starting with words where the entered characters appear first, listed in order or length, and then alphabetically.

While the Online Bible App has long been able to display Bibles in RTL languages, this enhancement now allows for the menu and other interface elements to work with RTL languages too.  The first of these RTL interface language is in final testing now and should be released shortly.

A small but very useful addition - it is now possible to quickly clear all the entered search terms by clicking on the "X" icon at the end of the input field.

Recently used Bible versions are now displayed at the top of the Versions list (marked by green flashes) and not, as previously, seperated into two different lists.

It is now possible to quickly return to the top of a long list of search results by tapping the icon in the footer of the Search popup.

Switch these on by selecting Text helps in the Settings menu. 

Verses (in the English Bible only at present) are then annotated with small superscript markers to indicate marginal notes, cross-references, word and measurement definitions. Selecting the verse then displays these details.

Look out for the padlock symbol next to certain menu items. Attempt to access these features (currently, Maps and the text helps mentioned above) and you will be asked to sign in with your TBS website account email address and password.

If you do not have an account, just follow the link to create one - it should take less than 5 minutes and is entirely free.

Please note that by signing in you consent to the storage of certain personally identifiable information and grant TBS a license to hold and process any user generated content.  For more details see the Terms and Conditions in the About option.