The tech stack is pretty straightforward (Rails back-end, using Expo/React Native for the mobile apps).
The biblical texts are actually rendered in a WebView and the native code communicates back/forth to the WebView with a basic javascript bridge. I wasn't sure this approach would work at first, but it's actually worked out quite nicely.
Handling theological bias has actually been one of the bigger challenges (not technical of course). People have such drastically different views and prejudices of the Bible that I'm always walking a careful line of what resources are approved vs not.
My approach will likely improve over time, but for now it is based on a few main factors.
1) Is the content primarily concerned with teaching the Bible?
2) Does the teaching fall within what is broadly considered orthodox?
3) Is it a good "fit" for the UX of the app?
By "fit" I mostly mean duration. If there is a good sermon, but it's 45 min long, then it may not be approved. Since people are actively reading the Bible, ideally a video will say something meaningful and specific about a Bible passage without taking too long (<5 mins).
We've had similar challenges with Catena, definitely a challenge in the fragmented denominational space, but I like your principle of indexing on broadly orthodox content. Excited you're thinking about this space :)
we actually do this on get.catenabible.com - we get permission from the speakers then tag the video in our database by verse+timestamp. Would love your feedback :) God bless!
The biblical texts are actually rendered in a WebView and the native code communicates back/forth to the WebView with a basic javascript bridge. I wasn't sure this approach would work at first, but it's actually worked out quite nicely.
Handling theological bias has actually been one of the bigger challenges (not technical of course). People have such drastically different views and prejudices of the Bible that I'm always walking a careful line of what resources are approved vs not.