Sermons 3.0 App Today?

0:02 Looking at our world from a theological perspective. This is the Theology Central podcast, making Theology Central Well. Today is the day, right, Today is the day that the Sermons three point zero app is to drop is to be finally available. I've been looking off and on throughout the morning. I haven't found anything as of yet. However, I do have some information about it. You may some of you may have already seen it. We're gonna talk about everything. We're gonna look at the app stores, We're we're gonna check everything. Right after I say good morning everyone, welcome. It is Monday, February the twenty fourth, twenty twenty five.

0:47 Can you believe it's February the twenty fourth already? Before we know it, twenty twenty five is going to be over right. It's Monday, February the twenty fourth, twenty twenty five. It is currently eight thirty one am Central time, and I'm coming to you live from the Theology Central Studio located right here in Abilene, Texas. And inside the studio, I've been well. I mean, I was having some breakfast, but other than that, I have been looking and looking and looking for the Sermons three point oh app to drop. I haven't seen anything now, so this is kind of the weird thing. If you look. If you look at Sermon Audio's x feed, there's no update there. They have that one post they made about the service three point oh app that was there a couple of days ago.

1:33 There's no new information. If you look on the Sermon Audio website and click on the news tab, you will see some information, and I'm going to go through all that information. If you go to the Apple app Store. In fact, let me look here. If you go to the Apple App Store, it just okay, yes, I just all I can find. In fact, yeah, there's no update. There's no updating, and I'm doing a search again just to make sure. Yes, there it is no update. The last update was three months ago, so there's nothing as of right now. If you go to the Google play Store, hang on, let me go down here. If you go to the Google Play Store there it just says Sermons two point oh. So as of right now, I cannot say that there the update is available anywhere. However, on February it looks like on February the twenty third, so I kept checking yesterday. Maybe I didn't check the news tab, so it may have been late yesterday. Sermon audio posted again in the newstab. It says Sermons three point oh app for Apple and Android, and I'm like, yes. When I saw that, I'm like, oh, it's available. I still haven't seen it, so I don't know exactly what time it's going to drop. I think I have maybe maybe around eleven am. I don't know if that's Central time eleven am. I don't know which times own, but maybe around that time maybe. But here is what we have.

3:06 All right, are you ready? It says attention broadcasters. Now that that's attention broadcasters. Maybe attention is I mean to me, the app is for the listeners, not the broadcasters. But maybe it's attention broadcasters so that as broadcasters we can let the listeners know. But I mean attention everyone, all right, new version three point oh major update. So new exclamation point version three point oh major update. Exclamation Point. So they want you to see this new version three point oh major update. Now when I hear major update, I get excited because that could be a lot of new features, a lot of new things. Let's see what they give us here. Right here we go complete app rewrite for superior stability and strettrategic development. Now that tells me right there, wait a minute, strategic development. Does that means this is just the rewrite of the app with all of the maybe features and new things that I've been discussing and talking about coming later. It's just going to be like, hey, here's the new app, so it's ready to go. But nin we'll start adding the new features. Maybe maybe that's maybe that's the way we should see this next. Entirely new floating player experience. All right, So that's I'm curious to see what that is. Entirely new floating player experience,

4:40 free user accounts to follow and bookmark content, cross device play history, linked to user accounts, and proved offline mode with background downloading, deep linking support. I don't know what that is. Dark mode support. Dark Mode may be cool. I think a lot of people, some people may be more excited about dark mode than I am. One way or the other. Chrome Cast support more languages supported, Spanish, French, and it names all the languages. Rewrite under the hood, introducing Sermons three point zero, the official app for Sermon Audio. This late latest version has been completely re engineered under the hood to deliver superior media playback stability while setting a bold strategic direction for future development. Now that to me is the part. I was thinking, Oh, we're going to get the new app, and we're going to be maybe we'll get this feature, maybe we'll get this feature, and maybe we'll get this feature. I think what we just may get is a new app that's really more written.

5:46 Everything's been rewritten and redeveloped behind the scenes, and then this will allow them to add new features coming. So maybe it's not going to be I was thinking, today's the day, and we're going to get this, and we're gonna get you know, maybe we can follow more than thirty four broadcasters, and maybe we'll get notifications and maybe you know, I've got all of these I maybe some more discovery tools and okay those kinds of things. Maybe that's not what we're going to get today, it says the Sermons app. The Sermons app features a simple yet modern design aesthetic that is one hundred percent native. It works great on mobile devices of any screen size, including tablets. This best part, it's available immediately without any charge right all two million plus sermons. Sermon Audio features the largest library of audio and video sermons from conservative churches and ministries worldwide. All of this content is available in a single app, whether it be live church services, podcasts, hey they mentioned this, podcasters all right, radio broadcast, audiobooks, devotionals, conferences, q and as debates, testimonials are twenty four hour radio stream providing a mix of the best preaching of music around the claw. It's all here, right, and I do like the fact two million sermons plus. That's what you should take away from it, all right, and one single app you have available to you over two million sermons, podcasts, all of the things they listed, and about five to

7:18 six thousand things are being added every single week. So that makes the tool, I mean, can we even is there any way to quantify its value? I don't even know. I mean that is like that to me is amazing that that exists. That every day, new sermons, new sermons, devotionals, Bible studies, this just added. Whether I agree, whether I disagree, it's all right there. So but what we can talk more about that some other time. Here another thing they have listed here rock solid floating player experience. We've worked very hard to improve the stability of the playback experience.

8:03 The app now support now sports our new floating sermon player, so that you can easily enjoy listening to sermons while browsing additional content. Okay, I think there was there were some people who would complain about that, that they would be listening to a sermon, but if they went and looked somewhere else, it would it would turn off the audio. I don't think I had that experience too much on my iPad. Maybe I did, Maybe I never paid attention. I don't know. I think Android users were the ones who were like, no, as soon as I go off the screen, it turns off, So there's no I'm not going to use the sermons two point zero app. So hopefully that's been fixed. The player can be minimized or maximized with the swipe, and of course it fully supports background playback, right, so that's what a lot of people want it, So that's good. You can auto play from one sermon to another, repeat, shuffle, and adjust playback speed.

8:57 It's native, it's beautiful, and it just works as expected. All right. Then it says you can set up a free user account to follow your favorite broadcast broadcasters. Now does that mean I can set up a free user account to follow as many of my favorite broadcasts as I want, or I can only follow thirty two to thirty four, whatever the current number is. I can follow series speakers, and I can bookmark sermons for later listening. The improved feed tab displays the latest content from those you follow. We have an improved feed tab. Oh, I can't wait to see that. What is the improved feedtab? Right? I can't wait to see that. While the library tab organizes your followed broadcast, series speakers, and bookmark sermons, your play history includes the percentage completed. It also links to your user account, allowing you to start a sermon on the website and seamlessly continue on the app. I do like that. I do like that. Improved offline mode with background downloading. We've improved offline mode to be more robust, enabling you to download any sermon, any sermon's audio or video even while the app runs in the background. Simply tap the download icon on any sermon page to begin downloading.

10:11 The downloads area and the library tab houses all downloaded content, with flexible options to search or sort items to your preference. Dark deep linking supported. We now have support for deep linking, enable you to jump directly into the app to specific sermon series, speakers, or broadcast pages iOS only from external links. This seamless integration integration not only streamlines navigation, but also facilitates sermon playback directly through the app's native player. So I guess this is if you send someone a link, I guess it will jump directly into that specific sermon or series. But this is only for iOS, so I'll have to try that and see how that works. More languages supported, as we've already talked about, says. The release also brings a host of additional enhancements dart mode, Chrome crafts, Chrome cast compatibility, various Android fixes, refine search functionality. Okay, that's good. I mean, hey, the better the search functionality is, the greater chance, the greater chance that people can find well, my content or any other broadcasters content. When people are searching you want you want, there's a chance they're going to get to what you have made available. So I'll be interesting to mess around with the search function history,

11:42 an upgraded feed tab, a slew of bug fixes, and subtle design refinements. It would help us greatly if you could give us a good rating and leave a comment in the App Store, Please spread the word, and please do that, ladies and gentlemen. I don't know how many times I can say this, whether it's a podcast, like if you're in the Apple podcast app, and let's say you look up Theology Central, give us a good rating, give us a review, because that's how algorithms pick it up. That's how your content gets discovered. Well, when it comes to apps like the Sermon Audio app, you sit there and you use it hour after hour after hour. Well have you gone to your app store given it a five star rating, have you written a positive review? Have you done anything to help them out? It's easy to take things for granted in twenty twenty five, Oh it's just another podcast. Yeah whatever, I click on this, Okay, I don't like it, move on to the next thing.

12:37 I click on this, I like it. Whatever, move on to the next thing. I love this, So what, move on to the next thing. And in many cases you just take it for granted that it's always going to be there. And I and on one hand, I understand, well, who cares if sermon Audio goes away? Who cares? I got YouTube, I got the You've always got other things. But if you care if you like anything if you if you think it's a good thing, do something to support it by either giving it five stars, writing a review, sharing it with other people supporting them, whatever the case may be. So there we have it. Those are all the updates. Now they're not. It's not the updates I was hoping for. Again, the things I dramatically wanted probably the three things that my top three list is come on.

13:29 Allow people to follow as many broadcasters as they want one just as a user of the app, I can't stand when I get ready, Oh this looks interesting, let me can't follow, can't follow because so I got to go in and decide who I'm going to delete. Well, once I delete someone, then guess what, there's a high probability their content will be out of mind. So I'm not gonna they're not going to probably get as many listens and streams from me because now I've had to delete them from my follow from following, so they're not going to show up in my feed. Well, if that happened, if that happens with me as a listener, well again, guess what that happens to my broadcast for other people? Well, I was following Theology Central but I want to follow that, I'll delete theology Central. Once I can't be followed, my content turns invisible. So I definitely wanted that change. I wanted notifications, man, I wanted a notification system notified. I can be notified when the people I follow at new content.

14:28 I could be notified when any content is at it. I could be I could get notifications maybe when a new webcast is starting, whatever the case may be. I wanted. I wanted a lot of options with notifications, and that didn't happen. And of course number three, I wanted just all kinds of different ways to help people discover content. You upload something, you got a short amount of time for people to see it, and the and the either their feed tab or either in the new sermon tab. Other than that, you're you're out of sight. You're gone. You're hidden somewhere in the archives, and you hope somehow someone will stumble upon it when they do a search. But have you ever done a search for anything on the sermons two point zero app do a search for sermons on Isaiah forty. The list is I don't even know how many things. Some things you'll do a search for it, there'll be like ten thousand sermons. Well, how are you ever going? Hey, I hope you find mine?

15:24 All right? So I was hoping for more discover tools. Maybe those will come later. So those are the kind of the things I'm looking for. But we will see. So as of right now at eight forty six am, let me let me just verify. I'm gonna go to the Apple app Store. I think it's gonna be around eleven. Let me see here. Yeah, still no update, Still no update. I'm looking. I'm gonna do one more. I keep going back in nothing. Hang on, I'm gonna go. I'm gonna go all the way out. I'm gonna cancel all the way I'm gonna go here, do a pull down. It's thinking. Nope. I got updates for a door Dash, I got updates for NPR today, I got updates for pocket Cast, I got updates for New York Times. I have an update for chat GPT. Some of these are a few days old, right, So but nothing I got yeah, nothing for the sermon's two point oh app. So we wait, ladies and gentlemen, we wait. I'm saying eleven am Central time, eleven am Central time, That's what I'm going with that's my that's my Do you want to put money down now? I may have some inside information, or maybe I don't have inside information, but I'm gonna tell you I have inside information.

16:48 We're just gonna put a bet and I'm gonna win all your money. Okay, I'm joking, all right, So that's what we're looking for. Sounds like it's gonna be interesting to see at the improved feedtab. I can't wait to see that better search functionality, can't wait to try that. I don't dark mode, yeah, one way or the other. Overall, I will Hey for Android users, I'm happy for you guys, and for anyone who was having problems. I try to listen to a sermon, but as soon as I go look at something else on my device, the sermon stops. Okay, so I'm not going to use this app anymore. I've heard that from a lot of people. If that's fixed, that's a big thing. That's a big thing. So I'm hoping that it drops soon and then we will talk about it. I told everyone I was gonna update it as or update you as soon as I knew something it's not. I mean, I'm a little behind this morning, I'm a little behind this morning, but there you have it.

17:44 We are waiting and patiently for the sermons three point zero app. We are waiting. I'm glad Sermon out of you put that there. Just wish they would have given us some estimated time of arrival. Okay, the estimated time of arrival. Arrival is you know. But they may have no clue, they may have no idea, but we will see. I'm excited. I hope you are. The main thing is, I just want to promote it. And hey, guys, if you do go to church, if you do go to church, I would how many people in your church know about the sermon two point oh app? Sermon's three point oh app? And how many actually use it on a semi regular basis?

18:27 How many people in your Bible study? How many people in your small group, especially if you have a large church. Have you told your pastor does he seem disinterested? Disinterested? And if so why? But I do know historically I've had a hard time sometimes trying to get Christians to use it. They just seem like I don't care, I don't care. I'm like, all right, well, never mind. I thought the preaching of God's Word was like this big deal, but it's not really a big deal when it comes down to Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, just is a big deal. I guess for Sunday morning for an hour, I guess. I don't know, but yeah, so download it.

19:10 Hopefully you can give it a five star review. I mean, be honest, but you know, try to write a review. And if you do have a complaint in the review, just make it, you know, professional, just don't be ridiculous and try to help them out. And I'm doing what I can. So everyone out there, if you have not downloaded the Sermons two point oh app, go do it right now and then it will be update will happen hopefully sometime today, and then you can update it and then you'll have the Sermons three point oh app. So now we wait. That's what we do. We wait and we'll see. So that's the latest. I'm gonna go eat some more food. Thanks everyone, have a great day and be looking for the Sermons three point oh app that should update this sh you'd be dropping I think within the next couple of hours. Everyone, have a great day.

20:04 We'll be back whenever we get the update. God bless