Missionaries and Tablets, some basic questions

A few questions, as a friend and I are working on a project for missionaries.

1) How widespread are tablets now? Most missions? All American missions?

2) What is their software? Limited, presumable to the LDS Library App, some custom missionary thing, and perhaps some maps?

3) Do missionaries get any technical training, say, on how to use the note taking, tagging, and other abilities of the LDS Library app?

4) Do they have access to LDS scriptures in other languages automatically, or only if they're in that country?

5) Is there a way to use languages simultaneously, like splitscreen Book of Mormon in English/Spanish at the same time?

6) Do annotation/notes go across languages? If I add a note to John 3:16 in English, and then switch to the Spanish library, will the note show up at Juan 3:16 in the Spanish Bible?

1) Most missionaries in the United States, Canada, and Japan have iPads now (though not all) and they are beginning to test Android tablets in some missions.

2) Missionaries are able to install apps created by the Church, which includes Gospel Library, LDS Music, etc. as well as an Area Book / Planner app produced by the Church. I don't know how free they are to install other apps, but I assume they would need permission from their mission president.

3) Missionaries don't receive any extensive training on how to use Gospel Library, other than the in-app help/tips, and help from their companions or members.

4) Yes, they have full access to Gospel Library, which has content in 107 languages (including the Book of Mormon in 66 languages so far).

5) Gospel Library for Android supports having two windows of the app up at the same time in split screen (so you could have the same chapter up in two languages), but only for Android 7+. Missionaries with Android tablets will most likely be running previous versions of Android, so they aren't currently able to do this, and Gospel Library for iOS doesn't support split screen where the same app is on both sides of the screen. So, no, this isn't currently possible for missionaries without a third-party app.

6) No, this would be technically difficult or impossible to implement, since it would require sophisticated machine translation. Currently, when something is highlighted, Gospel Library knows (for example) that the highlight is in verse 7 and that it goes from word 13 to word 17. If you were to highlight the phrase "I will go and do" or just "go and do" in 1 Nephi 3:7, then switch languages, somehow the app would have to map the English "I will go and do" (words 13–17 in the verse) to the Spanish "Iré y haré" (words 10–12 in the verse). It becomes even more difficult if you highlight a vague word or phrase that doesn't translate exactly. If you were programming an app with this requirement, a workaround would be to only allow someone to highlight an entire verse, at which point you could highlight that same verse in every language.

Ah, so can't attach something to a chapter and verse number either? That means any Seminary notes on scripture a missionary might have on a verse are lost to him, if he's studying in Spanish... unless he changes his library language back to English, hunts down that chapter/verse, looks at it, then reverses the process to get back to Spanish?

I wish you could add resources in other languages, instead of having to change the whole library language.

Yes, that's correct.

I am in a mission that does not have tablets and we have had no communication from the Missionary department on when we will get them

lehrschallbrian wrote:I am in a mission that does not have tablets and we have had no communication from the Missionary department on when we will get them

Generally, the mission president determines when the transition will begin. I do not know how long the transition takes after that happens.

Oh okay I'm not sure mine knows that lol