Questions
The things people ask first
Using it
What is a lesson, exactly?
A short deck of cards you swipe through, usually about five minutes. It sets the scene, reads the passage, stops to ask you something, and ends on one sentence worth keeping. You can read a whole one here, card by card, without installing anything.
Do I need to be in a group?
No. Most people read on their own. The leader notes exist for whoever is running a group, and they are invisible to everyone else.
What happens if I miss a week?
Nothing. There are no streaks, no scores, and nothing to break. This is a product decision and it is also written into the code — there is no loss state to trigger.
Which translation does it use?
Lessons quote the Berean Standard Bible throughout. The reader carries three translations you can switch between as you read — the Berean Standard, the Berean Literal, and the World English Bible, which also includes the Apocrypha. All three are public domain.
Does it work without a signal?
Yes, if you download a translation first. Highlights and notes you make offline wait on the phone and sync when you are back. Lessons you have already opened stay readable too.
Is there audio?
Two kinds. The whole Berean Standard Bible is recorded — all 1,189 chapters — with proper transport and lock-screen controls, and it keeps playing in the background. Separately, a growing share of the lessons are narrated, and the deck follows the narrator so you are never looking at a card the voice has left.
Which phones?
Android and iOS. Both are in testing rather than on the stores yet; if you want in early, the support page says how.
Getting it
Can I buy Thread for myself?
No, and that is deliberate. Thread is sold to churches, per seat, as one plan that also includes Emberside. There is nothing an individual can buy on any platform, and no in-app purchase anywhere.
Then what do I get if my church does not have it?
More than you might expect, and it is free rather than a trial that runs out. The whole Bible reader, the recorded Bible, offline downloads, highlights and notes, the verse studies, and forty-eight lessons that stay free permanently. The free tier keeps one course open at a time and you can change which.
How does a church get it?
Through discipleshiptogether.com, which is where Thread and Emberside are sold together. Setup is currently done by hand rather than through a checkout, so it starts with a conversation.
What is Emberside, and do we have to use it?
It is the other half of the plan — small-group management for churches: gatherings, prayer, readings, and a quiet signal to a leader when somebody has gone quiet. One plan covers both. Churches use both together, but nothing in Thread requires Emberside to be running.
What is in it
What do leader notes actually contain?
A briefing rather than a worksheet: how to open, how long it runs, three questions with the reasoning behind each, what to watch for, who in the room is most at risk from the passage, and how to end. There is a real one, unabridged except for length, on what's inside.
Is any of it unsuitable for younger readers?
Some of it, and the app says so before you open it rather than after. The Hard Texts course covers commanded slaughter, sexual violence, and a daughter sacrificed. Those lessons open by naming what the passage contains and telling you it is fine to stop. The same warning appears on the home screen summary, so it reaches you before the passage does.
Do you take a position on the disputed questions?
On the essentials, yes. On a specific set of long-running disagreements — the millennium, the nature of hell, the days of Genesis 1, the age of the earth, and head coverings among them — we name every serious reading and decline to pick. Where we stand gives the full list and the reasoning.
Will it tell me what to do about somebody else?
No. No lesson gives a reader an instruction to carry out on another person. That was once possible and the card type was removed from the schema, the app, and every published lesson, so it is a structural guarantee rather than an editorial intention.
Your data
What do you collect?
The privacy policy lists it in full and names every processor. The short version: no advertising, no advertising identifier, no cross-app tracking, and nothing about you is sold. Product analytics can be switched off in the app and the setting is honored.
Are my reflections private?
They are yours and are not shown to anyone — not a group leader, not a church admin. They are stored unencrypted, which the privacy policy says plainly, because the alternative means a key only you hold and a lost key losing your writing permanently.
How do I delete my account?
In the app under You, or by email if you no longer have it. It is immediate and nothing is archived. Removing your account has the detail, including exactly what is destroyed.
Something else
If it is not here, ask. Support and testing has the right address for a bug, a question, a data request, or getting into early testing. There is also a public board of what has been asked for and what shipped.