A smartphone app for using the Companion was researched in 2013. However, standard technology overtook this, with digital book pages now automatically shaping themselves to the screen size of all computers and phones. This fulfils the function of an ‘app’, without the restriction of having to have a strong wifi connection. Hence the direction that ‘app’ work with the Companion took was to provide a fully-hyperlinked 1800-item contents which can be scrolled and will take the viewer direct to the main-item page. This was planned as a subject-related way into finding all items and cross-references in the book, to guide the reader to where to find all the references to such as ‘Seán O Riada’, or ‘set dance’, or ‘Kitty Hayes’, to link biographies to each other and to related instruments. For instance, such as individual flute players presently dispersed throughout the full 800 pages are planned to be page-linked to the ‘flute’ section, etc. It was expected that that would save an immense amount of time in searching and will be of great value in project-, essay- and lecture-notes compilation.

This detailed, fully-subject-indexed digital version was planned to replace the present Kindle and ibooks versions, with the capability of bringing the reader to all the 4000 or so individual article headings directly in the digital format. Technology and online developments have however made access even on smartphones so rapid that this plan has been shelved pending the 2024 updating.