How to use Canon
A short walk through the app. Nothing here is hidden. If a control is on the paid plan, the app says so when you tap it.
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Open a book
On the library, scroll to the shelf and tap a book, then a chapter number. The search box above the shelf finds a book by name, a verse such as John 3:16, or words inside the King James.
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Read
The chapter is the large text. Tap a verse number to start the voice at that verse. The gear at the top changes the size of the type, from 14 to 28, and switches night and day.
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Listen
The bar at the bottom has Play, the speed, Voice, Sleep, and the previous and next chapter. Hide tucks that bar down to one line so the verses stay visible. Play reads the chapter out loud. Voice steps through the voices already on the phone. Choose the one that sounds least like a machine. Chapters speaks the chapter name when a new chapter starts. Verses speaks the verse number before each verse. The Read box takes 5, 5-12, 3:16, 3:16-18, ch 4, or ch 4-6. Under the chapter title, a line says how many minutes the reading takes at the current speed. Ten chapters in each book are free, and the player shows how many of those ten you have used in the book you have open. After that, the paid plan keeps reading in that book. Another book starts its own ten. It also adds the sleep timer, which stops the reading after 15, 30, or 60 minutes. Car, on that same bar, opens a black screen with a huge Play button, Back 15s, and Next chapter. Leave brings the normal page back.
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The lock screen
While it is reading, the phone’s lock screen, earbuds, and car buttons can play, pause, and skip about fifteen seconds. The title on the lock screen is the book and chapter.
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Clip a verse
Tap Clip verse on the player when a line hits you. Saved clips, on the library, replays just that verse, opens it in the chapter, or sends the words to someone. Clips stay on this phone.
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My voice
Tap My voice on the player and read the verse out loud, then tap Stop. The recording stays on this phone and is not uploaded. My voice on the library plays it back, or opens that verse in the chapter. You can keep more than one reading of the same verse.
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Background music
Under How is your heart today, and again on the player, you can choose None, Gentle Rain, Legendary Harp, Peaceful Piano, or Mythical Woods. Rain and harp are free. Piano and woods are on the paid plan. The volume slider is only for the music, so it does not drown the voice. On the player, the line under the music says which track fits the chapter. Tap it if you want the music to stay put.
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How is your heart today
Type a word, such as anxious, lonely, celebrating, or tired, and press enter. Canon plays two chapters that fit, one after the other, with a quiet track under the voice. Anxious plays Philippians 4, then Psalm 23.
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Places
A city name in the chapter is underlined. Tap it. A map opens with the ancient site on today’s borders, and a short note. Biblical Atlas, on the library, shows the same map with Abraham’s route, Paul’s journeys, and the voyage to Rome. The line only joins the stops. It is not a surveyed road.
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People
Under the chapter title, In this chapter lists the people from the character shelf who are named there. Tap a name for a short note and the verses that carry it. Characters on the library is the full shelf. It is the people the story turns on, not every name in a genealogy.
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Values
Children, family, men, women, and wisdom is a short summary of what the King James says, with the verse under each line. Tap the reference to open it.
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Where a verse quotes another
Under some verses, a line says Quotes or Quoted in, with the other verse written out. Matthew 1:23 quotes Isaiah 7:14. Isaiah 7:14 says it is quoted in Matthew. These are the places where one verse is using another, not a note on every line.
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A day at a time
Finding Peace is a seven-day plan. Tap a day to open that chapter. When the day’s audio finishes, the day is marked and the streak goes up. The prayer at the top of the library changes with the date. Verse of the day can be played by itself.
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Languages and the second text
The gear, or the language row on the library, switches English, Russian, Spanish, Polish, French, and German. Russian is the Synodal text, Spanish is the Reina-Valera of 1865, Polish is the Gdańsk Bible, French is the Louis Segond of 1910, and German is the Luther Bible of 1912. The Apocrypha, Jubilees, and Enoch stay in English. In English, American Standard can sit under each King James verse. Strong’s numbers can be turned on, and a tap on a word opens the lexicon. Both of those are for the English Old and New Testaments.
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Notes
On a wide screen the journal sits beside the chapter. On a phone it sits under the text. Write what you saw and tap Save note. The note is stored on this phone with the date and the verse you were in. The journal is part of the paid plan.
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Offline
A chapter you have already opened can come back without a signal. The paid plan copies the whole shelf onto the phone, including the American Standard, Strong’s, and the language you have open.
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What is free
Reading, ten chapters of audio in each book, the verse of the day, the heart playlists, rain, harp, search, the plan, the prayer, the atlas, the characters, the values, the quote lines, clips, car mode, and your own recordings. A chapter you already played still plays. The paid plan is $4.99 a month, or $30 once. Either way it keeps the audio going after those ten chapters in a book, and it adds the sleep timer, piano and woods, the journal, and the offline shelf. After you pay, write down the restore code. On a new phone, enter that code, or the email you paid with, in Settings. Give Canon, on the library, lets you pay $30 and send that code to someone else. Their card is not charged.