Reading Scripture on a phone is now normal, and the objection that a phone is a poor place to read is only half right. The phone is where the interruptions live — but it is also the thing you have with you at the moment you actually have ten free minutes.

Store listings all promise the same things. These five questions do not.

1. Does it work offline?

The most important question and the least advertised. An app that needs a connection is useless on a plane, in a basement, on a bad network, and in the places where Bibles are hardest to obtain. Install one, turn off your data, and open it before you commit.

2. Which translations does it carry, in which languages?

Check that it has the version your congregation reads, so you are not the only person on a different page. If you read in more than one language, check that both are there and that they can be shown side by side.

3. Is there audio, and is the audio good?

Audio turns commutes, dishes and sleepless nights into reading time, and hearing a text read aloud catches things the eye slides past. Listen to a chapter before deciding — the difference between a natural reading and a robotic one is the difference between using it and not.

4. Can you keep notes, and can you get them out?

Highlights and notes accumulate into something valuable over years. Before you build that up, check whether you could export it if you ever moved. Anything you cannot export, you do not really own.

5. Does it compete with the reading?

This is the question people skip. Some apps are quiet: you open them and there is text. Others open onto feeds, streaks, badges and notifications. If the first screen is anything other than Scripture, the app has a second agenda.

A note on ours

Our own app, BiblePro, is built around the first and last of these: it reads offline, and it opens onto the text. We would rather you used a different app well than ours badly — but if you want one that keeps out of the way, it is worth a look. Either way, keep a paper Bible too. Batteries are the one failure mode print does not have.