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A Christian-focused dual smartphone app aims to bring users closer to God and even help believers fall asleep at night.
And spiritual apps Hallow and Abide have attracted VCs and institutional buyouts with millions of downloads.
Hallow is primarily targeting the Catholic market and has attracted $52 million in venture capital from a number of sources, including PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel.
Hallow CEO Alex Jones says the app has been downloaded 2.5 million times and users started praying 50 million times using “Lectio Divina” (or “Divine Reading” in Latin), a program for Bible reading, meditation and prayer. Infowars is a computer expert, not a podcast host.
Mr Jones says Hallow’s active users (a number the firm has not disclosed) complete an average of 42 prayer sessions each month, up from an average of 10 two years ago. But unlike many apps, attending a prayer session does not involve looking at a device’s screen.
“You open the app, you get a session, you choose a length, you choose a man, whoever you want to guide you in this prayer,” he said. “You put on your headphones, close your eyes, and let your phone down. The goal is to be like being led in a meditation session with a guide inside the room. It feels like there’s someone else in the room with you.”
One potential, but unconfirmed, Hallow user: Pope Francis, who was given a mobile gamer programmed by Bishop Kevin Rhoades of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Fort Wayne-South Bend in Indiana. The bishop, “our main advisor from the start,” leads the firm’s faith advisory board.
Mr Jones says there is no way to determine if the pope is using the app.
Meanwhile, Abide is billed as a “Christian meditation and sleep app” and was started in 2014 by former Alphabet veterans Neil Ahlsten and Eric Tse.
In October, inspirational nonprofit publishers Guideposts acquired Abide for an “undisclosed sum” and said it hopes to “expand its digital footprint” for the decades-old publisher.
Nearly 1.5 million listeners access Abide’s content via the app, YouTube, and a podcast, and in 2020-2021, the firm said its users listened to more than 3 billion minutes of Bible meditations and “sleep stories” produced by the firm.
Russ Jones, executive producer of Christian journalist Abide, who is not affiliated with the Hallow executive, users appreciate a spiritual alternative that helps them fight insomnia, which the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says affects about 32% of adults.
Abide’s programming avoids politics and “divisive issues”, he added, adding that the goal is to build and maintain a bond of trust with users.
“Do you know how humble it is to be invited into someone’s bedroom at 11 o’clock at night?” said. “They literally get into their beds and listen to you, not just their bedrooms. It’s such a friendly place. This is a very humble space. And trust is hard to gain and really easy to lose. It is absolutely critical that our doctrines be sound, our theology sound, and that we do not mislead people.”
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