Dear friends,
We are delighted to share with you that version 3.0 of the Plum Village App is now available via Google Play for Android devices and the App Store for Apple users.
I have arrived, I am home
Thich Nhat Hanh
This release includes the largest visual and navigational change to the app in more than four years. A new Home tab appears when you open the app, and we have added new menus on every tab for accessing frequently used features and settings. Together, we hope these changes make it easier to navigate and find everything in the app.
Introducing the Home tab
In this update, we have introduced a Home screen which appears when you open the app and is always available via the bottom tabs. The Home screen includes a quote from Thich Nhat Hanh; a selection of new items on the app; access to your favorites, downloads, playlists, and activity; plus, a list of upcoming Plum Village retreats.

We hope you will find the new Home screen helpful, and that it will bring you joy when you open the app. Over time, we intend to extend the Home screen to highlight a wider selection of what the app has to offer, and would love to hear your feedback as it evolves! 🙏
Letting go of the Extras tab
Previous versions of the app included an Extras tab. Over the years, most new features that didn’t fit into other categories were added here:

For newcomers to the app, it wasn’t obvious that so many goodies were hidden in this section. We therefore decided to remove the Extras tab, making space for the new Home tab. Everything previously available on the Extras tab is now available on the Home tab, or on one of the new menus in the top right corner of every tab.
New menus
Each of the five tabs now includes two new menus in the top right corner:

- The Timer/Bell menu provides access to the Meditation Timer and Bell of Mindfulness features
- The Settings menu provides access to app settings, your user account (when signed in), and user-related data, plus some general information and help resources for the app
The Timer/Bell menu

This menu enables access to two bell-related features. The Meditation Timer allows you to set a timer for a meditation session, with bell sounds to begin and end the session and optional bells throughout. The Bell of Mindfulness allows you to set a bell to ring throughout the day, to help you to stop, breathe, and come back to the present moment.
Meditation Timer improvements
We have also refined the Meditation Timer in this update. It is now possible for meditation sessions to be as short as two minutes or longer than an hour. Preparation time (prior to the start of the meditation) is also now configurable:

The timer screen (once a meditation starts) has been updated to a minimalist design:


The Settings menu
Tapping on the user icon in the top right corner opens the Settings menu:

Here, you can sign in, if you would like, to sync your favorites and playlists across devices. You can also manage many settings for the app, including appearance (light or dark theme), languages (we currently support seven), subtitles, playback speed, Apple Health (for iPhones and iPads), SD cards (for Android devices), and mobile data settings.
You can also learn about the app and Plum Village itself, and access help resources including Frequently Asked Questions and help articles, send us feedback, and contact us to report bugs or with other enquiries.
Other improvements in v3.0
This update includes many other small improvements and bug fixes, including:
- When listening to tracks in your playlist, these will now be seen under ‘My Activity’
- A bug which meant playlists would stop playing when the network connection was lost has now been fixed
- The search function will now find blog posts under ‘Latest Updates’.
Version numbers for the Plum Village App
Since its initial release in 2018, the main version number of the Plum Village App has only been updated once, when version 2.0 was launched in early 2020. We were happy that the improved app would be able to help many people during a difficult year, when the world was navigating the COVID-19 pandemic – something that was recognised when the app was awarded first place in the Health and Fitness category of Product Hunt’s 2020 ‘Golden Kitty’ awards.
Since then, new updates have been launched every few months, from v2.1 and v2.2… all the way to v2.14 earlier this year. Despite the layout of the app remaining consistent, we have added many major new features since 2018, including: share, search, and repeat options; playlists; optional sign-in; activity tracking; dark mode; video subtitles; the meditation timer; retreats and download screens; user interface refinements; and support for seven languages!
With the addition of so many features, 2024’s v2.14 was very different and much more extensive than 2020’s v2.0.
The launch of version 3.0 represents two things. Firstly, it is the most substantial visual update to the app since 2020. Secondly, we are changing the way we assign version numbers to the app, better reflecting its improvements.
The Plum Village App is now very established, with many thousands of active users. Therefore, we like to make improvements gradually, allowing users to become comfortable with these incremental changes. It is now unlikely that we would ever redesign the whole app all at once, as we did with the version 2.0 release.
So, to better reflect the improvements made to it, from now on each significant change to the app will come with a new major version number. In short, version 4.0 and 5.0 are likely to come much sooner than version 3.0 did.
Future development of the Plum Village App
This year, our small team has increased the Plum Village App’s pace of development. We continue to improve its design and navigation, making it easier to use and beneficial for more people, as well as improving the features and content within the app. To help guide us in this process, we invite you to offer suggestions, comments, and votes on our public feedback board.
In order to sustain this increased pace, please consider offering a monthly donation to support the continued development of the app and the addition of new meditations, talks, and other resources. As has been the case with Buddhist teachings for millennia, the app is made freely available to all – but this is only possible because of many generous donors.
Alternatively, if you are enjoying the app but are not able to donate at this time, you can support us by leaving a review on the App Store, Google Play, or TrustPilot.
You can also actively help our efforts by contributing subtitles in English or any other language.
If you experience any difficulties or bugs when using the app, please report these via our contact form; we will follow up by email to help.
The new app is absolutely fabulous!!
Very friendly for Senior citizen’s -elders like me!!
May you all be well
The app is perfect timing to help me with my sobriety!!
Almost 2 months now
First time in 50 years!!!
Dear Victor, this is amazing! Thank you so much for this kind sharing! Wishing you all the best in the world 🙂 A lotus for you 🙏🏽
Thank you so much for the update! I immediately found the home screen easier to navigate. I like the quote at the top and the access to what has most recently been added. I appreciate all the care that went into this update.
Thank you so much, Rachel, for your feedback! Good to hear you enjoy the new chances 🙂 With gratitude 🙏🏽
Muchas gracias por tanto amor que recibimos en esta app.
Gracias, Amparo! 🙏🏽
Your application is a great gift to the world and just keeps getting better. Thank you for all of your thoughtful diligent work.
Bowing deeply to your team,
Mike
Thank you, Michael, for the kind words 🙂 With much gratitude 🙏🏽
I admit to being faintly horrified at the prospect of such a radical new version. Maybe you have not considered the older people who use the app, and perhaps it would have been sensible to introduce changes more gradually.
How do I get help when I need it — which I certainly will?
Dear Lorna,
Thank you for sharing your reaction and concern. If you have any difficult understanding how to navigate with the changes, please use the contact form in the app or on the website with this link and we will get back to you.
I can also recommend, if you are having trouble finding anything in the app, to use the search feature. Every feature of the app is available via the search too.
We are aware that many users of Plum Village App are older and sometimes find it difficult to adjust to the changes we make. In fact, I feel this myself when apps radically change their layout, even though I am a bit younger. So we have discussed this without our team and we are indeed trying to make changes gradually. It is not our goal to change things for the sake of change, but rather to improve the usefulness of the app for the many users of the app now and in the future. To do this, we need to make some changes and some of our updates will have a bigger change when it is difficult to introduce the changes gradually (like with this update and the Home screen). We try to soften the impact of such changes with blog posts to explain the changes and with a few tooltip messages in the app to highlight the changes the first time you see the new layout. We will continue to keep this in mind as we make further improvements in future and we welcome any feedback about particular difficulties you encounter whilst using the app.