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Sooner or later every operator hears it:
“…and this one won’t be on the screen, but Genesis 3:12 says, ‘The woman whom you gave to be with me…’”
Voice Follow is the answer to that moment. Turn it on and the LightLoop Remote listens through your iPhone’s microphone, recognizes spoken scripture references, and displays the verse on your Apple TV — in your translation, styled with your Bible template — then follows along verse by verse as it’s read. It also works the other way round: when the words being spoken match a slide you already prepared, Voice Follow jumps the live presentation to it.

Live Scripture

Spoken references that aren’t in your deck are fetched and shown as an overlay on top of whatever is playing.

Follow Slides

Spoken words that match a prepared slide — a sermon point, a quote, a lyric — jump the presentation to that slide.
All speech is transcribed on the iPhone, using Apple’s on-device speech engine. No audio is recorded, uploaded, or sent to any server. References are matched by a deterministic grammar, not an AI model — the same words always give the same result.

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Requirements

iOS 26 or newer

Voice Follow uses Apple’s on-device SpeechAnalyzer, introduced in iOS 26. The rest of LightLoop Remote still works on iOS 17+ — the buttons simply don’t appear on older versions.

App versions

LightLoop Remote 1.3.2+ and the LightLoop Apple TV app 1.3.2+.
The Remote must stay in the foreground while listening — iOS doesn’t allow reliable background microphone access. In practice the phone sits on the podium, at the sound desk, or in the operator’s hand.

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Turning it on

1

Enable Voice Follow for the feed

In the web app, open Feeds → your feed → Settings and switch on Voice Follow. It’s off by default and set per feed, so you can enable it for the sanctuary without affecting lobby signage.
2

Set your translation and template

Voice Follow uses your account’s default Bible translation and default Bible theme (background, fonts, colors). Set these once in the Bible editor — see YouVersion & Bible translations.
3

Tap the button in the Remote

Connect LightLoop Remote to your Apple TV. Two buttons appear in the toolbar: a bible icon (Live Scripture) and a viewfinder icon (Follow Slides). Tap either — or both.
Each button fills bottom-up with a live microphone level meter while listening, so you can always tell it’s hearing the room. A rolling transcript appears below the toolbar showing the words being recognized.
Choose a Free Use Bible translation and LightLoop preloads the entire Bible to the Remote in the background the first time it’s used — after that, lookups are instant even on poor Wi-Fi.

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What it understands

Voice Follow is built for the way people actually speak a reference aloud: Book names, ordinal prefixes (“first”, “second”), the words “chapter” and “verse”, and number words are all weighted — and every number is validated against the real chapter and verse counts of that book. A reference to “Genesis fifty-two” is rejected, because Genesis has 50 chapters.
This validation is why ordinary speech doesn’t set it off. Phrases like “three points this morning”, “for the love of God”, or “chapter of my life” contain no valid book-plus-number combination, so nothing happens.

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Chapter-only references

If a chapter is cited without a verse, Voice Follow loads the whole chapter and shows the first verse immediately — then jumps to the right verse when it hears the text being read. Saying “in John ten, Jesus said, my sheep hear my voice” puts John 10:27 on screen.

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Following the reading

Once a verse is displayed, Voice Follow tracks the reading:

Advances verse by verse

As the passage is read aloud, the display moves to the next verse automatically.

Responds to verse cues

Say “verse six” and it jumps straight there.

Fades out on its own

When the speech drifts away from the remaining text for about five seconds, the verse fades out. Nobody has to clear it.

Handles a new reference

Cite a different passage and it becomes the new context — fetched, displayed, and followed.

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Follow Slides

With Follow Slides on, Voice Follow matches what’s being said against the text of every slide in the currently running playlist — song lyric slides, Bible verses, and sermon text and quote slides — and navigates the live presentation to the best match.

Your slides win

If a verse is already a slide in your sermon, Follow Slides shows your slide rather than fetching one. Your design is always preferred.

Stays a step ahead on songs

As the last words of a lyric slide are sung, the next slide is already up — like a teleprompter that listens.

Repeats don't drag it back

A repeated chorus won’t send the screen backwards. It only moves when another slide matches better than the one on screen, and it prefers moving forward.

Undo on every move

Each automatic jump shows a banner on your phone — tap it to return to exactly where you were.

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Say “next”

Say “next” or “next slide” on its own — with a beat of silence either side — to advance manually. If a Live Scripture verse is on screen it moves to the next verse; otherwise it advances the presentation. The silence on both sides is what makes this safe: a mid-sentence “next week we’ll be looking at…” won’t move anything, because words follow immediately.

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Sensitivity

Tap the transcript preview below the toolbar to reveal a sensitivity slider. It sets how many matched words are needed before Voice Follow acts — from Sooner (react as soon as it hears a match) to Precise (wait until more of the line has been read). Navigation always uses a stricter threshold than the scripture overlay, because moving the live presentation is more disruptive than showing a verse.

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Staying in control

Tap to dismiss

Tap the verse banner on your phone to clear the verse from the Apple TV.

Long-press to pin

Long-press to keep the verse on screen indefinitely — for a responsive reading or a moment of reflection. It stays until you tap it again. A pinned banner is visually distinct from a temporary one.

Two independent switches

Run Live Scripture alone, Follow Slides alone, or both. The microphone runs whenever either is on.

Off by default

Voice Follow is opt-in per feed and never enabled without you switching it on.

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Troubleshooting

Check three things: Voice Follow is switched on for that feed in Feeds → Settings; the iPhone is running iOS 26 or newer; and both apps are on 1.3.2+. The buttons are hidden entirely when any of these isn’t met.
Watch the transcript preview. If the words are being recognized but the reference isn’t firing, the book name is probably being misheard — check the transcript for what it actually captured. Numbers and less common book names are the usual culprits in a noisy room.
The first reference into a chapter has to be fetched. Switching your default translation to a Free Use Bible translation enables the full-Bible preload, after which lookups are instant. YouVersion translations are fetched per chapter on demand.
Voice Follow uses your default Bible theme. If that theme’s background isn’t already cached on the Apple TV it’s downloaded on first use, so the very first verse may appear over a dimmed screen before the background arrives.
Tap Undo on the banner to go straight back. Then raise the sensitivity slider toward Precise so more of a line must match before it acts.
The meter reflects raw microphone input, so it moves for any sound. If no words appear, the speaker may be too far from the phone — move it closer to the platform or the sound desk.

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Privacy

Voice Follow processes speech entirely on the iPhone:
  • Audio is never recorded, stored, or transmitted.
  • No audio is sent to LightLoop’s servers, Apple’s servers, or anywhere else.
  • The only network requests it makes are ordinary Bible verse lookups — the same requests the web app makes when you add a Bible item.
  • Transcription uses Apple’s on-device speech model; the reference parser and slide matcher run locally in the app.