Chavah turns 10!

Shalom friends,

10 years ago, on February 16th 2010, we announced in a humble blog post the very first version of Chavah:

I’m really excited to show you guys something I worked on over the last few days:
Chavah – Internet Radio For Yeshua’s Disciples

It works on both Windows and Mac, right in your web browser. (Depending on how old your computer is, it may need to install a small Flash-like plug-in called Microsoft Silverlight. After that, you’re home free.)
If you’ve ever used the Pandora.com music service, this is in the same vein. In fact, Pandora is the inspiration for Chavah.
Give it a try! Hope you like it, and please let me know about any problems in the comments.

Yes, it really looked like that. I'm reminded of the saying, "Do not despise humble beginnings!"

Because the web was still in its early days, we used Silverlight plugin technology to play MP3 audio. (Back then, most web browsers couldn't natively play MP3s - amazing how far we've come since then!)

Two years later, in April of 2012, we released Chavah 2.0:

Fine Kineti readers, I am truly overjoyed to announce Chavah Messianic Radio v2 is available today – oh yes!

Try Chavah v2 now: messianicradio.com What’s so great about this new Chavah?

• Chavah runs on mobile phones! Droid, iPhone, Windows Phone 7.
• Chavah runs on tablets! iPad, Xoom, Galaxy.
• Chavah runs on PC, Mac, and Linux.
• No install required! It’s pure native web technology. No Silverlight, no Flash, no QuickTime, no Windows Media.
• Chavah now sports a clean, sharp HTML5 design that focuses on content over chrome.

Ha! This was pretty cool. Things really moved forward with this release; it made Chavah available on mobile phones and tablets, it worked without any plugins -- just the native web -- and featured a design refresh. The design was...an improvement? Not sure what I was thinking with all the red colors. Weird choice in retrospect.

But, this release really put us on people's radars, as we streamed over a million tunes for Messiah.

Fast forward 4 years, December of 2016, we released Chavah 3.0:

Big news, friends. I am glad and overjoyed to announce: The brand new version of Chavah Messianic Radio is here!

This new version works better on mobile, has more awesome features, is more secure, faster, smoother, and no longer requires the now-defunct Persona service to sign in. Woo-freakin'-hoo! Smile

Even though some features are still baking – hearts, chat, a revamped profile, and sharing, to name a few – I felt it was important to release Chavah v3 now. Chavah v2, built back in 2012, was showing its age, utilizing some now-obsolete technology. This new version is a complete rewrite with brand-spankin’ new tech for the modern web – oh yes! 

That version, Chavah 3.0, is what we're still building on today. Today's Chavah has seen many improvements on top of Chavah 3.0. You might say that today we're at Chavah 3.5 or so.

We've come a long way, friends! Thanks for being with us! Here's to another 10 years of music for Messiah - cheers and l'chaim!