Logos Library is Amazing, Mobile use is not.
I really like the library Logos / Faithlife have brought together, it is probably second to none. But the untethered mobile version of this wonderful library is little more than a book reader. I know someone will protest and say it is way more than just a book reader, but it is also way less than it is when it is connected to the internet. There may be some platforms that do not have the neccasary oomph to get the job done alone, but the modern Android and iOS platforms are not one of them. Even Adobe has recently announced the full version of photoshop for the new iPad. PLEASE place a premium on non connected functionality. As it stands today my Silver logos 7 package may be my last as there are other mobile offerings that do work without needing the internet. If you agree please chime in, I believe the current direction seems to be to add things we aren't all neccasarily in dire need of (the new notes may make me upgrade anyway) but I do believe all of us would benifit by having more disconnected capabilities.
Again I ask for a focus on disconnected functionality.
Thank you.
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I like you wish for more offline functionality. I'm just trying to keep my app from crashing at this point.
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The latest mobile app is great BUT I agree with the need to have internet independent functionality. I live with very limited access to the net and travel in places that simply do not have it at all or not at the speeds you have in the USA. One more vote for more functionality without the internet. but well done on a great mobile upgrade.
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I agree FL lags behind other bible software companies in its mobile app’s offline capabilities, it they just don’t seem to be interested in doing anything about it, this issue has been raised so many times. I think that is a shame.
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The thing is a lot of people use the app on 4 year old iOS devices, or Android devices from across a wide-budget range with wildly differing capabilities. Smaller capacity phones wouldn’t be able to download my library for offline use.
i really do want the search capabilities improved (mostly how results are displayed) but my passage guides in Logos provide exponentially more information than the resource guide in Olive Tree ever had to deal with, largely because Logos is designed for huge libraries.
We have offline lookups for original languages, we can have a layout with every commentary we’d like, linked to bible texts in multiple languages. We can search any downloaded resource. We can quickly look up English terms offline in our top prioritised bible dictionaries.
But on top of that offline stuff, when connected to the internet we have access to the best word study tool on mobile, the unparalleled exegetical guide, the passage guide and the ability to search all of our thousands of books at the same time or read references to books we haven’t even downloaded in seconds.
There’s stuff I desperately want the mobile app to do that it can’t do right now, but I think it’s easily among the best bible apps on mobile. If I’m offline I have to tailor myself to some of the apps limits, but it’s rare that I can’t accomplish what I need to.
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+1 This is a major issue for me. I often prefer traveling with iPad only and right now Logos is the app that is the greatest challenge both in terms of limited functionality and how many things break without internet. A lot of the earth does not have US style access to wifi nearly all the time. Even on flights where I like to work a lot, the Logos iPad app is too crippled. Given how much Apple has progressed with making the iPad a computer replacement and how many people are using iPads for computers Logos approach is still very surprising to me.
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TOTALLY AGREE!!!
FULL OFFLINE SUPPORT should be a PRIORITY.
The new iPad Pros can easily accommodate a full version of the Logos bible app; from the APPLE WEBSITE
- Video mirroring and video out support: Up to 4K through the USB-C Digital AV Multiport Adapter and USB-C VGA Multiport Adapter (adapters sold separately)
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more like "Retrograde"
+1 This is a major issue for me. I often prefer traveling with iPad only and right now Logos is the app that is the greatest challenge both in terms of limited functionality and how many things break without internet. A lot of the earth does not have US style access to wifi nearly all the time. Even on flights where I like to work a lot, the Logos iPad app is too crippled. Given how much Apple has progressed with making the iPad a computer replacement and how many people are using iPads for computers Logos approach is still very surprising to me.
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Standing and applauding while nodding my head in full agreement with this thread! 👏👏👏👏
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Additionally, enabling sync of personal books to mobile devices would be a wonderful addition!
There are simply books which are not available in the Logos library (yet) which I have imported to Logos on my computer, and which are synced to the cloud (I believe). Making those books available on mobile devices would be very, very beneficial.
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I agree this is one of the most irritating things about the mobile app and it has been raised numerous times over several versions, but no one is listening. I travel internationally a lot, and so you are dead the whole time you are traveling. The capacity problem could easily be solved by simply having an option about features and resources to download. The rest of the world has left Logos far behind.
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Fully agree. The new app is a step back. Can't highlight, cumbersome, freezers regularly.
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The new app is a step back. Can't highlight, cumbersome, freezers regularly.
This has not been my experience at all! Have you tried isolating any causes/issues?
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Can't highlight, cumbersome, freezers regularly.
I haven't tried any highlighting, as I gave up on that a couple of mobile app iterations ago. But I am experiencing freezes, delays, and other oddities. In fact, I posted one from church this morning where the app wouldn't look up a word. I'm told by a responder that it was because I went offline, but I couldn't see any evidence of that when it happened (no loss of connectivity elsewhere with the iPad)...I'm thinking the app was freezing instead.
But that just highlights many of the issues above about offline functionality.
Eating a steady diet of government cheese, and living in a van down by the river.
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Yes, I have spent hours trying to solve the issues. I've summited screenshot and reported bugs. With no help.
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I too have issues with mobile app to the point where it’s almost unusable. Highlighting is buggy and often doesn’t work. Chinese resources are almost ubusable in terms of selecting text. Logos really needs to take a look at these issues.
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Hi everyone,
We know offline use is important to many of our users. We have shipped improvements to offline word lookups, and we're actively working on improving offline search.
Full offline use of the Logos app is not really feasible for many reasons. However, we're wanting to improve the offline experience where we can, especially for core lookups/activities in the app. Additionally, we're working on improvements to the library that will make it easier to download resources, and to know if those resources have been downloaded.
What are some of the primary offline improvements that you'd like to see?
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What are some of the primary offline improvements that you'd like to see?
For me:
- Offline support for reverse interlinears
- Translation comparison tool
...we're actively working on improving offline search.
This is great - it's the biggest downside of the app. What I'd love from this is:
- For the number of results to be visible at the top
- For results to appear in order (by resource, online or offline) with some kind of reference above hits (bible reference/page reference/chapter heading etc)
- For the results to be cached, so that you can continue to see results after swapping between tabs/apps
- For help working out what modifiers you can use
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Hi Daniel,
Glad to hear that offline usage improvements are coming soon.
My most frequent offline use case of the iOS app (esp. on iPad) is to read, highlight, and digest commentary content for a specific Bible passage I'm preparing to preach on. As such, I would like to see the following features and improvements:
- From the Passage Guide, I can have a button to download the top 10-20 commentaries generated by the PG (download the specific volume pertaining to the Bible book/passage being studied).
- Have another button to "un-download" them when done reading them.
- Make it easier to select and copy text from these commentaries... right now the swipe-to-highlight function really interferes with the ability to easily select and copy, plus the context menu often pops up and gets in the way of the selecting text.
Thanks,
Peter
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What are some of the primary offline improvements that you'd like to see?
1. On the Android app, add the same lookup pop-up window for Original Language and Reverse-Interlinears that you added to the iOS app, and make sure they work just as well online or offline, for Original Language and Reverse Interlinears.
2. Make it so that the new homepage cards update properly offline, especially the Liturgy and Saints cards (the v7 cards worked properly offline, when dates changed)
3. Passage Guide
4. Bible Word Study Guide
5. Exegetical Guide
Regarding the most important improvements I'd like to see that would hopefully also work offline...
1. Search would be useful, but currently search is so bad, regardless of whether you are offline or online, that I never use it. Above all, inline search is key for the Mobile App, and should always be the default option, and should work equally well offline or online. Searching in all resources I find is rarely needed or wanted on the mobile app, for me anyway.
2. I'd also love to see some of the most important dataset Bible tagging available on the Mobile App Reverse-Interlinear and OL Bibles, and have that info appear in the little Info pop-up. Above all Person, Place, Thing, and Event tagging. You could inaugurate the Factbook (also available offline, of course), when you add it! [:)]
Oh... one more thing. I'd like to see the app try to use offline whenever it can. When you have added offline support, it tends to be significantly quicker than the online versions. I notice this above all on the Bible verse look-ups. They are instantaneous offline, but sometimes if the Internet connection is bad they can really make you wait online. How about making them always do it offline, when available and downloaded, for speed, and then add the offline ability to pull down various verses, not just one?
And similarly with other features - when you add offline support, and its faster and works just as well, default to that always.
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Above all, inline search is key for the Mobile App, and should always be the default option, and should work equally well offline or online. Searching in all resources I find is rarely needed or wanted on the mobile app, for me anyway.
Ooh! Ooh! Yes, this.
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What are some of the primary offline improvements that you'd like to see?
Basic press-lookup functionality, either by auto-download of key resources or a list of suggested resources which should be downloaded for offline function (this in addition to some of the other fine suggestions made by others).
Eating a steady diet of government cheese, and living in a van down by the river.
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Additionally, enabling sync of personal books to mobile devices would be a wonderful addition!
There are simply books which are not available in the Logos library (yet) which I have imported to Logos on my computer, and which are synced to the cloud (I believe). Making those books available on mobile devices would be very, very beneficial.
I see you are new to the Logos forums. Welcome! To your suggestion, Faithlife has previously determined they will never support sync of personal books to the mobile apps. If syncing PBBs is necessary for you, I suggest you do what many of us have done -- get a Surface Pro or Surface Go. That way, you have a tablet that runs the full desktop version of the software with access to all of your personal books.
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I certainly agree. Not happy at all with new mobile app!
Bob Deacon
Ipad Air 2 (ios 9.7 (0014)
Windows 11 inside edition
Samsung S23
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Not happy at all with new mobile app!
What aspects of the L8 mobile app can we improve? How can we make it better for you?
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It is very slow in applying a highlight, it is sometimes difficult selecting text to highlight. I have yet to put it through its paces with notes. I definitely would like offline access for Reverse Interlinears. Please understand, it it not my intent to be negative but IMHO L7 seemed better in some (but not all) ways.
Bob
Bob Deacon
Ipad Air 2 (ios 9.7 (0014)
Windows 11 inside edition
Samsung S23
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Hi everyone,
We know offline use is important to many of our users. We have shipped improvements to offline word lookups, and we're actively working on improving offline search.
Full offline use of the Logos app is not really feasible for many reasons. However, we're wanting to improve the offline experience where we can, especially for core lookups/activities in the app. Additionally, we're working on improvements to the library that will make it easier to download resources, and to know if those resources have been downloaded.
What are some of the primary offline improvements that you'd like to see?
I don't mean for this to be rude or cheeky, but I would like for the app to run correctly first. My app worked great when it was L7 but now it is plagued by crashes, freezes, blank pages and locked scrolling forcing numerous restarts and killing my battery. Once that is addressed, I would like to be able to download my resources and run searches offline as well as guides and workflows. Thank you
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Not happy at all with new mobile app!
What aspects of the L8 mobile app can we improve? How can we make it better for you?
On my iOS device, it is very difficult to select any text close to a hyperlinked Scripture Reference (either in the line above or underneath). It usually opens the long-press options menu for Scripture references, even though I long-pressed on some text in a different line. This really hinders smooth highlighting.
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I would also like a better option for getting word definitions. I have English dictionaries prioritized towards the top but when using lookup I don't always get results from a dictionary. Maybe add an option like define that pulls from the device dictionary?
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Maybe add an option like define that pulls from the device dictionary?
Now I see the problem FL has. This is the exact OPPOSITE of what I want. It is pulling from my iOS dictionary and I *don't* want that to happen.
"You can please some of the people some of the time..." [:)]
Eating a steady diet of government cheese, and living in a van down by the river.
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