Bible for Android
100% Free, Open-Source, Quick, and User-Friendly Bible App.
No ads, no distractions when you just want to start reading the Bible.
Get the apps on Google Play: Alkitab (Indonesian version) or Quick Bible (non-Indonesian version).
Alkitab is the Indonesian word for the Bible.
Building
Requirements: JDK 21 and the Android SDK, including the NDK, because the Snappy module contains native C++. The compile SDK, minimum SDK, and NDK versions are pinned in gradle/libs.versions.toml.
The main app module is :Alkitab. For local development, use the plain flavor, which works out of the box: placeholder Bible data ships in Alkitab/src/plain/assets/internal, and a placeholder Alkitab/google-services.json is checked in (Firebase features will not actually function with it, but the build and the rest of the app do).
Build a debug APK:
./gradlew assemblePlainDebug
Build a debug App Bundle:
./gradlew bundlePlainDebug
Run the unit tests used in CI:
./gradlew testPlainDebugUnitTest testPlainReleaseUnitTest
The four product flavors are plain, plus yuku_alkitab, yuku_quick_bible, and sabda_alkitab (the published apps). The production flavors need the Bible text not included in this repo and signing keys described under Release builds below.
Contributing
develop is the integration branch. Base your work on develop and target your pull request at develop, never at master.
Every pull request against develop runs the unit tests and a plainDebug build. Pull requests from branches within this repository also receive signed release APKs for all production flavors, which are uploaded to a preview URL and linked in a comment on the pull request. Pull requests from forks skip that job because it requires secrets that forks cannot read.
See the documentation index for architecture, feature guides, and tooling.
Bible translations/versions
This app natively uses .yes files for the Bible text. You can create a .yes file by preparing a plain text file (a .yet file). See the YET authoring guide for instructions and docs/binary-formats.md for the binary format specifications.
To add a version to the app, open it from the Versions screen. The app accepts .yes files directly, and converts PalmBible+ .pdb files to .yes with its built-in converter. Gzipped files (.yes.gz, .pdb.gz) are decompressed transparently.
For converting in bulk or from another Bible format, see docs/tools.md, which covers the desktop converters in tools/ and where to get the prebuilt jars.
Customizing and Integrating
The Bible for Android is not only open-source but also designed to be flexible. You can:
- Create and distribute your own Bible translation
- Create and make publicly available your favorite Song Book
- Create and publish a Reading Plan
- Open specific verses from your app
See the content and integration guides for authoring formats and opening verses.
Developer Documentation
The documentation index links the architecture, infrastructure,
feature guides, contracts, and historical design records.
Release builds
The Releases page holds pre-release APKs built automatically from every push to develop. They are signed with the production key and installable, but they are development builds, not the stable versions on Google Play.
See Build System for version stages, production overlays, Firebase configuration, signing keys, and release artifacts.
License
Copyright 2009-present The Alkitab App Authors.
Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
You may obtain a copy of the License at
http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
limitations under the License.
