CASE STUDY · CHURCHES & MINISTRY
A daily devotional app that keeps getting better for 168,000+ readers
A national Christian media ministry publishes a daily devotional that readers open every morning on iPhone and Android. Peace Builders is the team that keeps it improving: fixing what breaks, adding the features that build a daily habit, and moving critical infrastructure onto systems the ministry owns.
Native iPhone and Android apps · Firebase backend
168K+
user accounts on the devotional app
~86K
devices receive its notifications, twice a day
2
native apps, iPhone and Android, plus a cloud backend
1,350+
code changes across iPhone, Android and cloud since 2024
At a glance
Who
A national Christian media ministry and its daily devotional app
Industry
Churches & ministry, publishing
Platforms
Native iPhone (Swift) and Android (Kotlin) apps, Firebase cloud backend
Timeline
Ongoing development and support since March 2024
Engagement
Continuous improvement: a steady release cadence rather than one big project
Built with
Swift, Kotlin, Firebase, Node.js 22 Cloud Functions, Firebase Cloud Messaging
Last updated September 30, 2026
Why a devotional app has to be dependable
A daily devotional is a habit. Readers open it at the same time every morning, often before anything else on their phone. When it crashes, loads slowly or forgets where they left off, that habit takes the hit.
For a ministry, the app is also a long-term commitment. It has to keep working through every new iOS and Android release, keep readers’ notes and progress safe, and keep costs predictable, all while staff focus on the content rather than the code.
The ministry needed a development partner who would do both kinds of work: the unglamorous stability fixes and the visible features readers ask for.
How we approached it
We work on the app continuously, in small releases, with three priorities.
- Stability first. Every crash in the reader’s daily path gets fixed before new features: the Bible reader, the devotion reader, notes, search and the audio player.
- Features that build the habit. Reading streaks, a Verse of the Day home-screen widget, dark mode for early mornings, and faster search.
- Infrastructure the ministry owns. Sign-in, notifications and search run on the ministry’s own Firebase project rather than on paid third-party services.
Features we built into the app
Built natively for the iPhone and Android apps.
Reading streaks
A daily streak that rewards readers for coming back every morning.
Verse of the Day widgets
Home-screen widgets on iPhone and Android, so the day’s verse is there before the app is even opened.
Dark mode
A full dark theme across both apps for early-morning and late-night reading.
Fast search
Search across devotions and content, powered by an index the server rebuilds every night.
Google and Apple sign-in
One-tap sign-in, plus branded account emails for password resets and verification.
Community prayer wall
Readers share and pray for requests, on a wall shared with the ministry’s website and moderated in one place.
Help center with live chat
Help articles, support tickets and live chat with the support team, without leaving the app.
Personal notifications
Notifications in each reader’s local time, a friendly permission prompt, and staff-written in-app messages.
Guided tutorial
A first-run walkthrough that shows new readers where everything is.
How notifications reach 86,000 devices
The app’s daily notifications used to run through a third-party push service, which was also behind several of the app’s most common iOS crashes. We rebuilt them on a system the ministry owns: a device registry in its own Firebase project and Firebase Cloud Messaging for delivery.
Each reader gets notifications in their own local time. Staff schedule them from a console built for the ministry’s apps, and a new permission prompt explains the value before iOS or Android asks.
Built with
- Swift: the native iPhone app and its home-screen widget.
- Kotlin: the native Android app and its widget.
- Firebase: Authentication, Firestore, Realtime Database for synced notes, Remote Config, Crashlytics and App Check.
- Cloud Functions on Node.js 22: search indexing, secure access to Bible content, prayer wall rules, support and account emails.
- Firebase Cloud Messaging: notification delivery on both platforms.
What changed for the ministry
The app keeps improving on a steady cadence instead of waiting for a rebuild.
- A steadier daily habit. Crash fixes in the core reading path came first, and new features build on that foundation.
- Features readers notice. Streaks, widgets, dark mode, better search, social sign-in, a prayer wall and in-app support, on both platforms.
- Less dependence on outside vendors. Sign-in runs on the ministry’s own Firebase project, and notifications have been rebuilt to do the same.
- Security built in. The database rules are covered by an automated test suite that passes 67 of 67 checks.
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Questions about maintaining a ministry app
Yes. Peace Builders regularly works on existing iPhone and Android apps: fixing crashes, modernizing the code and adding features, without starting over.
Stability in the daily reading path first, then features that support the habit: reading streaks, home-screen widgets, dark mode, fast search and reliable notifications in each reader’s local time.
Owning the notification system reduces dependence on an outside vendor, keeps reader data inside the ministry’s own infrastructure, and in this case removes a source of app crashes.
Yes. The iPhone app is written in Swift and the Android app in Kotlin, sharing one Firebase backend.
Many clients work with us through Your Software Department™, a flat monthly subscription for ongoing software work with daily progress updates.
Want your app to keep getting better?
Tell us what your readers or customers keep asking for. We’ll tell you honestly what it would take.