"Latter-day Saints are the Lord’s covenant people; therefore, 'LDS' or 'Latter-day Saint' should not be used to qualify objects such as temples, scriptures, or doctrine that belong to the Lord or His Church and not to Church members," a new article on ChurchofJesusChrist.org states. The Church recently updated the names of apps and channels such as Mormon Messages, LDS Tools, LDS Music, LDS Media Library, and more.
Many of the Church’s mobile apps are being renamed to align with recent direction from Church leaders regarding the naming of Church products.
- LDS Tools is now Member Tools. This app provides a congregational directory and calendar, missionary referral tools and directions to nearby chapels and temples.
- LDS Media Library is now Gospel Media on the mobile app as well as online. This app is the Church’s library of all public video, images and music. The media is organized into collections that help users find, use and share media at home, at church and on the go. The mobile app enables Latter-day Saints to create media presentations and download media to present offline. Members can also trim videos, mark favorites, sync presentations across devices and share their presentations with others.
- Mormon Messages is now Inspirational Messages. These videos usually feature an inspirational story about a Church member or a teaching of a Church leader. They can be found in Gospel Media, in the Gospel Library app and on the Church’s YouTube channel.
- LDS Music is now Sacred Music. This application offers sheet music in addition to text-only versions of hymns and songs, audio recordings (instrumental and vocal) and indexes for topics, authors and composers. Playlists can also be created and shared.
- LDS Sing-Along is now Sing-Along Hymns. This app provides beautiful imagery to accompany sacred hymns and songs. Words on the screen and a bouncing ball to indicate which word should be sung make it easier for children to sing along as they learn the music the Church uses to worship at home and at church. Playlists can also be created and shared.
- The Gospel Library app keeps the same name.
Various other services and mobile apps, such as LDS Seminary and Institute, will simply remove “LDS” from the name.
The terms “LDS” and “Latter-day Saint” should not be used to qualify objects, such as temples, scriptures or doctrine, that belong to the Lord or His Church. Instead of “Latter-day Saint temples,” for example, the appropriate references would be “temples of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints” or “house of the Lord.”