The big news about Logos Bible Software is that it is moving to a new subscription model. I have mixed feelings about this. On the one hand, I try to avoid all subscriptions for software. On the other hand, I have an investment in Logos, and I want the company to succeed so that my investment continues to pay dividends. Here is the FAQ for the Logos subscriptions. Something that softens the change to subscription is the Legacy Fallback License. For those who have already purchased a base package, they can keep features from their subscription tier that don’t rely on the cloud or AI. The features that do require cloud and AI are specified in the FAQ. This seems to allow something akin to an occasional upgrade for those without the budget for a subscription.
Logos is touting several new features.
Synopsis Feature
The synopsis feature uses AI to summarize top search results. The summary is footnoted so that the user can jump from the summary to the resources. I like the idea. I tried several sample searches, and the results were mixed. As expected with AI-generated text, the paragraphs didn’t always cohere, were not always drawing from the sources that I would value the most, and thus did not tend to direct me to the main sources. However, by narrowing the scope of the resources being searched, I was able to generate better results.
This search on the archaeology of Jericho under the “All” tab (which searches books in my library as well as books I have not purchased) returned a critical understanding of the question.
The result was somewhat better when I limited the search to just the books I owned, but it was still drawing on sources that I would not rank highly, and it still gave a generally critical summary.
When I limited the range of the search to journals which I owned, the content was better, but the paragraph didn’t really cohere.
Perhaps this feature will continually improve as AI improves, and it would work best if run against pre-defined collections of books. But at present I probably won’t be using this feature.
Summarize Feature
An AI feature that I did find helpful was the summarize feature in the search results. Historically, the search results returned a sample of text, and by reading that sample the user decides if that resource is worth reading or not.
But by clicking on “Summarize,” an AI summary of the source is generated that provides a bigger picture summary of the source.
I found this genuinely helpful in choosing resources to pursue from search results.
Updated Factbook
One of the challenges that comes with a large library in Logos is surfacing the right materials from the library at the right time. The Factbook helps with this.
Here are some examples of different kinds of Factbook searches:
New Toolbar
The subscription version of Logos has also debuted a new toolbar. This is similar to the ribbon in Microsoft Office. Selection of different tabs reveals access to different tools. While this does mean extra clicks to access certain features, it also makes a number of features more clearly accessible. For instance, I’m glad to be able to access special copy features without having to open the copy verse pane.
Insights
Another new feature is the Insights panel which can open on the right side of a Bible resource. It will surface a top Bible commentary, and parallel passages.
I find the Related Passages section helpful. I’d rather drop the Study Bible option. Permitting customization in which the top commentary for each book of the Bible could be selected would make this feature more useful to me.
Other Things I Liked and Areas for Improvement
The new version of Logos had a couple of other features that I liked. The program no longer needs to be restarted when changing from to or from dark mode. When text is copied from the mobile app, a citation is copied along with it. This is especially helpful because the mobile app does not consistently show page numbers.
There are a few regressions which are now areas for improvement. In Logos 10 there were several options for linking to resources. I prefer the L4 option because I can link directly to the program without internet access. In the new Logos this option does not seem to be present.
I like the bottom drawer in the mobile app and all of the functions it holds. However, when copying text, the drawer takes up too much space on the screen, and this limits how much text can be copied. It should recede entirely when text is being copied and reappear only after text has been selected. Even better, it would be good if the screen would scroll when the user selects text down to the bottom of the screen.
Pricing Info and Subscription Link
Here is the subscription pricing:
To subscribe, see here.
For more information from Logos on the subscriptions, see: https://www.logos.com/subscription-faq
Leave a Reply