Tag Archive for: siri

Listen to WELS Through My Bible in Three Years with Siri Shortcuts

This past spring the audio version of Through My Bible in Three Years was added to Amazon Alexa’s “Flash Briefing” function. Today, we are pleased to announce that this audio series, along with the Daily Devotion is also available through a handy Siri Shortcut for iPhone and iPad users. Siri Shortcuts allow the user to either set up a custom button on their homescreen or simply say “Hey Siri” to invoke the shortcut. Shortcuts are simply actions that automate some kind of desired task. In this case, play the audio podcast for the Daily Devotion or Through My Bible in Three Years.

There are two ways to “install” these Siri Shortcuts on your phone or tablet. The first is to simply use the provided links below. You need to select these from your device and then follow the instructions for adding them to your Siri Shortcuts gallery. Note that you will need to make sure that Settings / Shortcuts / Allow Untrusted Shortcuts is set to On. Here are the links you’ll need:

If you are a little more technical and adventurous, you could build your own shortcuts. Just mimic the screenshots below in the Siri Shortcuts app…

Once installed you should be able to simply say “Hey Siri, play Through My Bible”. Give her a second to respond and you should be hearing the Bible reading. You can also go into Siri Shortcuts, find the Shortcut, open the shortcut, select the share link at the bottom and add to home screen. Now you have all you need to hear God’s Word “on command.”

In the Through My Bible in Three Years podcast, each day you are provided a narrated portion of Scripture, that over the course of three years, will navigate through the entire Bible. This is a wonderful way to be fed by the word over your morning cereal or driving the kids to school.

Enjoy!

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Hey Siri, Play God’s Word!

The technology available through your smart phone can do amazing things. But perhaps the best thing it can do is to help you stay in God’s Word. WELS publishes daily devotions and Bible readings in audio format that your phone can easily retrieve and play for you. Today I’ll focus on how this is possible on an iPhone. Later I’ll do the same for those of you carrying Androids.

While Siri, the iPhone and iPad’s perky little digital assistant, doesn’t always do what you want her to do, I’ve had good luck getting her to play WELS Daily Devotion and WELS Through My Bible podcasts through Apple’s Podcast app. I’ve included a screencast of the rather simple process below, but here are the steps:

  1. On your iPhone or iPad, make sure you have the Podcasts app installed.
  2. Open it and tap the Search link at the bottom.
  3. Search for “WELS” and then find and tap “WELS – Daily Devotion” or “WELS – Through My Bible.” They should be on the second row of results.
  4. Once open, tap the purple “subscribe” button.
  5. Give it a minute or two for Siri to figure out that there is new content in the app.
  6. Now give it a try. Say “Hey Siri” (or otherwise use whatever method you prefer to wake her up), and then “Play WELS Daily Devotions”. She should find the latest episode and start to play it automatically. Nice! What a great way to put Siri to good use :-)

That’s it. Give it a try if you are an iPhone or iPad user.