Gospel Library and/or Book of Mormon apps for Mac?

Ever consider Gospel Library and/or Book of Mormon apps for Mac? Please include current languages and American Sign Language.

You will note that the forum for Gospel Library is grouped with Mobile Applications. Mobile devices, for the purposes of these applications, are the smaller screen devices. A Mac has full screen and web browser capability. Those resources available in Gospel Library are available on LDS.org using a web browser.

There have been requests for desktop and laptop computer applications for offline access to these resources. Whether apps will be developed for these devices and operating systems is unknown.

Note that there is no GL for Windows XP/7. If there is one that runs on Windows 8 desktop, that's likely a happy side-effect of development for Windows tablets.

Is there a way to have the bookmarks, highlights, notes, and tags made on the Gospel Library app on an iPhone and iPad be easily accessible on a Macbook Pro? Either in app form or on LDS.org in Safari. For example, is there a simple bookmarks tab to click on when logged in to my LDS.org account to bring me to where I was just reading on my iPhone and iPad?

Also, how simple would it be for the Church to make the same app for Mac to be able to allow Apple users to sync seamlessly across devices?

RGamache wrote:Is there a way to have the bookmarks, highlights, notes, and tags made on the Gospel Library app on an iPhone and iPad be easily accessible on a Macbook Pro? Either in app form or on LDS.org in Safari.

The highlights, notes, and tags already sync between the mobile Gospel Library apps and the Notes area of LDS.org. There are a few implementation differences between the various platforms, but these things sync pretty well.

RGamache wrote:For example, is there a simple bookmarks tab to click on when logged in to my LDS.org account to bring me to where I was just reading on my iPhone and iPad?

Bookmarks, unfortunately, are the exception to the rule, since the bookmark features on the mobile apps and on LDS.org are quite different in philosophy and implementation. You can read a discussion of these distinctions here. Because of these differences, bookmarks don't sync like the other things.

RGamache wrote:Also, how simple would it be for the Church to make the same app for Mac to be able to allow Apple users to sync seamlessly across devices?

It would require development of an entire new app. Desktop applications are clearly not a priority for the Church in this area -- the development efforts are going to mobile platforms (iOS, Android, Windows 8+) for mobile devices, and into LDS.org so that users with traditional desktops and laptops can access study tools via a browser.

I've been looking around for the same thing as RGamache. What would have been nice was to do my scripture study at the phone when I'm out somewhere (bus, on the go) and continue the study when I get back home on my mac. That includes being able to mark and make notes on my mac as well. After reading for some time on my iPhone it's nice to change it up a bit with a bigger screen. I like the function that allows me to view my notes in lds.org, but wish I could make new ones, either in lds.org or on a Gospel Library app for mac.

Levs_Doon wrote:I like the function that allows me to view my notes in lds.org, but wish I could make new ones, either in lds.org or on a Gospel Library app for mac.

You can make new notes on lds.org - in the scriptures at least (I'm not sure how many pages have the feature, but if you're logged into lds.org and go highlight text, a popup should appear allowing you to pick a color, tag, and add a note.

FWIW,

Liz

Please consider gospel library Apps for MacBook Air. Thank you.

One option is to use Boot Camp or like program on your Mac to be able to also run Windows 10 along with OS X. Install windows 10 on the Mac, (you can run both operating systems at the same time.) In the App store for Windows 10 you can install the Gospel Library ,the Gospel Library Beta, Mormon Channel beta, and the LDS tools Universal Windows apps. Windows 10 Home or Pro on a USB drive can be purchased from the Microsoft store or Amazon. (make sure the USB stick/drive is from the Microsoft Corporation if purchased on Amazon)

The Church only has 6 full-time developers working on Gospel Library, LDS Tools, Mormon Channel, LDS Youth, Mormon Tabernacle Choir, LDS Music, and Book of Mormon for iOS and Android, as well as a couple of other apps in the pipeline. There aren't enough resources to develop apps for Mac, unless it's done entirely by volunteers, like the Windows apps. I think that would be nice, but I don't think we'll see it anytime soon. It's more likely that Apple would introduce features that allow iOS apps to run natively on Macs, but that won't necessarily happen anytime soon either...

sbradshaw thank you for the insight about the development team and the use of volunteers to develop apps. Like you, I would hope that Apple would introduce features that allow iOS apps to run natively on Macs, but I also don't see it happening any time soon. My earlier suggestion/option is for those who would still like to use a current version of the Gospel Library app on their Mac, although it is designed natively for the OS X operating system. Personally, that is why I interested to see what happens with the soon to be released Windows 10 mobile smartphones and other devices As I understand it, the Windows developers can now write a Universal Windows app for Windows 10 devices once and it will run many types devices, (smartphones, laptops, tablets, desktops, for example) with a few changes adjustment depending on the target hardware. Hopefully something like that will work for the Apple products side in the future, but I don't see that happening any time soon, mainly due to the two very different operating systems (iOS and OS X) that Apple uses currently.

I recently received the MacBook Air. What is the best app to purchase for my scriptures?

carsonm wrote:Personally, that is why I interested to see what happens with the soon to be released Windows 10 mobile smartphones and other devices As I understand it, the Windows developers can now write a Universal Windows app for Windows 10 devices once and it will run many types devices, (smartphones, laptops, tablets, desktops, for example) with a few changes adjustment depending on the target hardware.

Just in reply to your quoted information (not to fork the thread), I installed Gospel Library on my Win10 desktop this week. It works well and my bookmarks, highlighting, etc. synced perfectly from my Android Tablet once I logged in with my LDS Account. I hope Apple moves this direction for you as well.

That is unfortunate that we can't get Gospel Library for the Mac OS. This is an invaluable tool for gospel study and there are just enough people using the Mac that cannot access Gospel Library on their desktop or laptop but only via their iPhones or iPads. Perhaps, this could be a topic for discussion in a future LDS-Tech Conference and seeking volunteers to develop for Mac OS.

I too am looking for the Gospel Library to be available on MAC. What are the options?

millinersc wrote:What are the options?

You can install a iPhone or Android emulator so you can run those versions of the GL on your machine.

Rather than running an emulator or a VM just to have Gospel Library, it would be nice to have it run native on Mac OS. After all, it runs on Windows 10 natively.

dannyyeo wrote:Rather than running an emulator or a VM just to have Gospel Library, it would be nice to have it run native on Mac OS. After all, it runs on Windows 10 natively.

Sure, it would be nice, but it's just not a priority. The fact that it runs on Windows 10 natively is not because of a primary design consideration, but rather because Microsoft designed their Windows 8+ operating systems to be essentially the same for mobile and desktop. The Gospel Library app for Windows was motivated by the need for a mobile app, and a pleasant side effect is that it can run on Windows desktops.

If Apple had made a similar OS decision and ran the same OS on Macs and iPhones/iPads, then you'd be able to run Gospel Library on your Mac. But Apple made a different architectural decision. You can read other posts in this topic for various opinions on how likely it is that there will be a native Mac version anytime soon. Although it's just speculation, no one is betting on it, given what we've heard of limited resources and different priorities.

You're certainly welcome to use the Feedback link on LDS.org to make any suggestion.

I've read those threads and understand the reasoning. I am just thinking that more people, especially retirees are purchasing Macs in my area and thus, would benefit from having Gospel Library available to them. After all, gospel study, getting training and instruction material for leadership positions, access to many other LDS material in textual, video and audio formats are so prevalent in Gospel Library that it would be a gem to have natively on Mac OS. Perhaps, understanding what it would take to make it available on Mac OS and finding volunteers via LDS Tech forum or conference would make this possible. Again, just a suggestion. BTW, thanks so much for making much of these material available on the other platforms.

dannyyeo wrote:Again, just a suggestion.

Until volunteers show up to code for the Mac, it's not going to happen. Unlike the iOS and Android versions, the Windows version is being done by an all-volunteer group. As such, I don't see the church dedicating any resources for Mac, so it's going to have to be done by volunteers. I'm sure many are willing to be testers, but what's needed is coders.

Can I get gospel library on my iMac?

hiker111 wrote:Can I get gospel library on my iMac?

I moved your post to an existing discussion for this issue. If you read through the posts in this topic, you'll understand why the answer is no at this point, and what options you might have.

Maybe The Church should put out a "Help wanted -inquire within." sign outside The Church Office Building & The Joseph Smith Building for LDS app developers.. Laughter. Wink. Wink.

If you have a Mac released in the last few years (with Apple silicon chips), you can install iOS/iPadOS apps from the Mac App Store to run them natively on macOS. This includes Gospel Library, Book of Mormon, Sacred Music, etc.