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Table of Contents

Creating Content For YouVersion

Learn what to do and what not to do when creating content for YouVersion.

Jillian Galley
Updated by Jillian Galley
Table of Contents

We always bring our best. Excellence honors God and inspires people. You're here to help people around the world engage with the Bible and grow in Christ. We know you want to do this well, so here are some guidelines to help make your content both excellent and consistent within our apps.

Your content is yours, but we get to steward how it shows up across our Family of Apps. That's why we review everything on our platforms and channels, and why we may choose not to make available content that doesn’t fit our Core Beliefs, Partner Expectations, or these Quality Guidelines.

Selecting and Citing Scripture

Your content should stay rooted in Scripture — inviting people to meditate on God's Word and fall in love with it, not just reference it in passing. That’s the heart of every guideline below: offering people a deeper understanding of biblical truth that encourages and challenges them to live out their faith in Christ.

✅ What To Do
  1. All content on YouVersion must connect to Scripture — choose at least one unique Bible verse or passage for each piece of content (for Bible Plans, this means at least one per Plan Day).
  2. When you quote Scripture directly in writing, cite the reference and include the version in parentheses. Paraphrased Scripture doesn’t need a version citation. Example: “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” John 3:16 (NIV)
  3. Quoting the same version throughout a longer piece of written content? Add a footnote at the start instead of citing every time. Example: Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture quotations in this Plan are from the NIV.

❌ Things To Avoid
  1. Don’t take Scripture out of context, misread it, or use it to support a point it doesn’t actually make. Content that does this will be flagged for theological review.
  2. Scripture should shape your content, not just decorate it. Ask yourself: if you took the verse out, would the rest still make the same point? If yes, the verse wasn’t really needed — go back and build your content around it instead.

Titles & Descriptions

Your title and description aren’t just labels — they’re how people find your content in the app. A clear title and description help the right people discover your work and decide if it’s right for them.

✅ What To Do

Make your title clear and true to what your content is about. Skip the clickbait — a title trying to be clever is usually just less clear. If your content is part of a series, include the series name in the title. This helps people find and follow along with the rest of the series.

❌ Things To Avoid

Don’t include hyperlinks or advertisements in your description.

Writing & Formatting Tips

Your content should be publication-ready when you submit it — free of grammar, punctuation, and formatting errors. Consistent formatting also makes your content easier to read: bold headers, italics, and bullet points can all help, used wisely. Most people read our content on a phone, so long blocks of text are harder to follow on a small screen.

✅ What To Do
  1. Use a proofreading tool with a browser plugin (like Grammarly or Language Tools) to help catch common errors.
  2. Aim for 50–500 words per Plan Day, though this isn’t a strict requirement — you know your audience best.
  3. Make sure Bible Plans are at least 3 days long — there’s no maximum.
  4. Keep your writing style, capitalization, and punctuation consistent throughout your content.
  5. Remember to hit “save” on every Plan Day, or you may lose your edits and formatting.
  6. When copying and pasting into Plan Portal, check for formatting mistakes between software — spaces can disappear, lines can break, or extra characters can sneak in. Pasting without rich text formatting, then using Plan Portal’s built-in tools to format, usually gives cleaner results.
❌ Things To Avoid
  1. Don’t submit content without proofreading it first. We review content, we don’t edit it — so we won’t accept written work with multiple errors.
  2. All content must be your own or used with permission, cited and credited properly. (See Giving Credit.)
Giving Credit

If you didn’t create something yourself, or if you’ve changed original content in any way, including translation, say so. Cite your source and give credit where it’s due. This applies to quotes from any source (including Scripture — see Selecting and Citing Scripture), AI tools used to generate or enhance any form of media, and any content translated or reformatted from something else.

Everything you contribute to YouVersion should be authored and owned by you, or used with permission. Attribute every direct quote to its original source, and include a citation any time you’re using content with permission from its rights owner.

✅ What To Do

For Scripture quotations, cite the reference and version right where you quote it, as covered in Selecting and Citing Scripture.

For AI-generated or AI-enhanced media within your content (images, music, video captions, etc.), include the disclosure in the caption or directly alongside the media itself.

For your main thumbnail, since there’s no caption field for it, add a credit to the artist or an AI disclosure note at the top of Plan Day 1 instead.

For translated or reformatted content, add a brief note at the top of Day 1 explaining how it was translated and the original source.

For excerpts, adaptations, or quotes used with permission, include the citation at the point where the content appears, or in an opening note on Day 1 if it applies to the whole piece.

Examples of citations and disclosures:
  • This content was translated from its original language using AI tools, with human review.
  • This Bible Plan was adapted from a sermon series by [name of series and source].
  • Thumbnail image by [artist name], used with permission.
  • This image was generated by AI [tool name] to accompany this content.
  • This image was enhanced or edited using AI [tool name].
  • Video captions were generated using AI [tool name] and may contain errors.
  • This devotional includes excerpts from [book title and author], used with permission.

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