Dear friends,
We are happy to announce that version 4.0 of the Plum Village App is available now via Google Play for Android phones and tablets, and via the App Store for Apple devices.
This is the second major Plum Village App release in the past year. Since the previous major release, – version 3.0, in October 2024 – a number of small updates added features such as daily mindfulness quotes and a random option for the Bell of Mindfulness. Now, version 4.0 introduces a major new feature: contributor screens.
In this release, we highlight the many people who have contributed talks, meditations, songs, and other resources to the Plum Village App. This includes Thich Nhat Hanh and his monastic disciples, but also many others from the Plum Village community, including lay (non-monastic) teachers, singers, songwriters, musicians, and filmmakers. The contributor screens make it easier than ever to discover and learn about these remarkable individuals, as well as to access the content that they have contributed.
We would like to dedicate this update to our friend Karim Manji, who passed away unexpectedly earlier this year. Karim was involved in many Plum Village initiatives, and had joined the Oak Forest app team to help curate our content offering. Karim brought thoughtfulness and care to everything he touched, and his spirit of service continues to inspire our work.
Some years ago, Karim suggested the idea of a screen in the app for each teacher or contributor, including a bio, photo, and all of the content they had contributed. We are honored to realize this ambition with the v4.0 update – one of the many ways in which Karim continues.
Contributors
Below most content items within the app, you will see the names of one or more contributors:
Typically, a contributor will be the person guiding a meditation or giving a Dharma talk.
Many of the recordings in the app feature Vietnamese Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh, who founded Plum Village in France and associated monasteries around the world. Other frequent contributors include monks or nuns at one of the Plum Village monasteries. There are also lay teachers, who have many years of experience practicing in the Plum Village tradition, but do not live a monastic life.
The Plum Village App also features music, so the associated contributors are singers, songwriters, and musicians. For videos, we also list filmmakers, particularly where they have created new visual or artistic interpretations of Plum Village teachings.
Wherever you see a contributor’s name within a ‘button’, you can tap this to see more:
A screen for that contributor will show a photo and short biographical text:
You can also view all the items from that contributor, by tapping ‘Items featuring’ at the bottom of the page:
Our small content team will be rolling out this feature gradually. Not every contributor is tappable yet, and even when they are, many contributors may only feature a relevant website link, not a full bio. However, most of the top contributors to the app already feature biographies, and we will continue to add more over time.
Improving language support
As part of the contributors feature, we are also improving the way we support different languages in the app. Some names, in particular monastic ones, may differ by language. Plum Village monastics are each given a name in Vietnamese, but the meaning can be translated into English and other languages. We may also translate ‘Sister’ or ‘Brother’ into each language. Typically, in the app, we will list both the original Vietnamese name along with a translation in your app interface language (English or one of the other six languages we support so far).
You may notice that the names do not follow a strict pattern – this is because the monastics have different preferences. Some go mainly by their Vietnamese name – for example, Brother Phap Huu. Others prefer to emphasise the English translation – for example, Sister True Dedication (Hien Nghiem).
Other improvements in v4.0
In this update we have also extended some of the layout changes from v3.0 to the whole app. In v3.0 we introduced an image for each new item on the home screen; now, we have extended this throughout the app:
We have also updated the folder layouts to better match the new design:
Under the hood, we have upgraded the framework we use to develop the app. Unfortunately, as part of this, we have had to drop support for some older devices. The minimum requirement is now iOS 15.1 or Android 7. For those using devices with an older OS, we offer Plum Village App: Web Edition as an alternative.
Future development of the Plum Village App
Our small team is working at an increased pace to extend and improve Plum Village App. We continue to carefully improve its design and navigation, making it easier to use and more 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 – there are already many ideas which we want to work on.
In order to make these further improvements possible, please consider supporting us by offering a monthly donation towards 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 the generosity of many donors.
If you are enjoying the app but are not able to donate at this time, you can also support us by leaving a positive 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.