An Initiative by Madhukar Prabhu
Three nights ago, on the blessed occasion of the centennial appearance of our beloved Śrīla Gurudeva, Śrī Śrīmad Bhaktivedānta Nārāyaṇa Gosvāmī Mahārāja, we presented to him our humble offering of the Gaudiya Kirtan app, Version 1.0.
I am happy to announce that it is now available on Google Play and iOS App store. If you already have the latest version of the app on your phone, it should update automatically. (The new app icon has a blue mridanga on top a golden background.)
Here are some of the new features available now that were not on the previous beta app:
𝗠𝘂𝗹𝘁𝗶𝗽𝗹𝗲 𝗹𝗮𝗻𝗴𝘂𝗮𝗴𝗲𝘀: (1) English, (2) Russian, (3) Spanish, (4) German, (5) हिन्दी, (6) বাংলা, (7) ଓଡ଼ିଆ, (8) తెలుగు, (9) ಕನ್ನಡ, (10) മലയാള, (11) தமிழ், (12) ગુજરાતી
𝗦𝗲𝗹𝗲𝗰𝘁 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝘀𝗮𝗻𝗴𝗮: Each sanga in the line of Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura Prabhupada has its own prema-dhvani, mangalacarana, guru-parampara songs, arati kirtans, songbooks and so on. When you select your sanga, all of your sanga’s unique songs and prayers will be set as default.
𝗜𝗺𝗽𝗿𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗱 𝗳𝘂𝗻𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝗮𝗹𝗶𝘁𝘆 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗱𝗲𝘀𝗶𝗴𝗻: The overall design has been greatly improved. Now you easily navigate the songs and verses. For example, in landscape mode you can view the songs sideways and swipe left and right to move through verses. We will continue to update and improve these features.
𝗥𝗲𝗺𝗮𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗲𝗱 𝗮𝘂𝗱𝗶𝗼 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗿𝗲𝗱𝘂𝗰𝗲𝗱 𝗳𝗶𝗹𝗲 𝘀𝗶𝘇𝗲: now you can more quickly download new, improved quality audio and it will take up less space on your phone.
Feel free to share any nice kirtan recordings (that you have permission to share, of course) so we can add them to the app.
One of the things I’m very excited about is now, finally, everything is set up so that it is very easy for us to make changes directly on the content in the app. That means if you want me to add a song or if we need to correct a mistake or make an improvement, it can be done pretty quickly.
Within these next two weeks, we’re going to iron out some of the app functions, add audio playlists, add pictures to the collections, go through all the songs adding in hyphens and spaces, fix the b’s & v’s (you might currently see things like Valadeva or Gurudeba), and import the words for many hundreds of songs from the various Gaudiya matha songbooks that we’ve been preparing throughout the year.
Once again, our two developers, Sriram and Jairam (Jaya Gopal) really outdid themselves. Despite all kinds of obstacles and responsibilities, they worked all day and night over the last weeks so as to release the app on Śrīla Gurudeva’s centennial day. I tried my best to keep up with them but was unable to do so.
Many of the others involved—Navina-Kṛṣṇa and Vṛndāvana-candra with remastering the audio, Kamala didi with design, Sadananda and Jayadeva with Bengali typing, and others—also gave Gaudiya Kirtan all their energy, love and care. I am fortunate to be serving alongside all these devotees.
This is only Version 1.0. We have big plans for this app and no plan to ever stop. I will send out regular project updates every Ekadaśī, so you can consider this post as “project update #001.”
We appreciate your feedback and suggestions, not to speak of all the support and encouragement you have given. We are excited that we will regularly be able to bring you more features and kirtans.
We pray to forever serve our guru-varga, eventually with the sole aspiration to please them.
Śrīla Gurudeva ki jaya!
Śrīla Prabhupāda ki jaya!
Śrī rūpānuga guru-varga ki jaya!
Śrī Śacīnandana Gaurahari ki jaya!
Śrī Nitāi Gaura-premānande! Hari Hari Bol!!
aspiring servant,
-Madhukar das
Link to download:
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