Linden Lab has confirmed that SL Mobile is being developed and that the initial release is planned for late 2023 with limited functionality to start of with with more functionality being added after.
Apparently the core development of this product started in October 2022 built upon Unity. SL Mobile will be compatible with iOS and Android devices. The lab have been working on the graphics, avatar rendering, rendering edges and more.
Second Life Mobile – First Look Preview
Sounds very exciting and I would love to try out SL Mobile when it’s in beta later this year. Hopefully the lab will update the Second Life community on a regular basis on the progress.
On Wednesday 3rd August at the web user group meeting there was a question asked about the status of the mobile type viewer (27mins/14secs) and Reed Linden said it’s coming slowly in terms of development. There are alot of struggles with that apparently and it’s not a straight forward project.
Reed mentioned that the lab are still deciding on whether to have its own solutions or to go down the partnerships route. There could be a paid by the hour system like the SpeedLight app. It might be something like the popular Lumiya app (no longer in development) or SL Go (inactive) from the past. Nothing has been officially been announced yet.
Linden Lab have actually been working with the SpeedLight app team so it will be interesting to see if anything big happens with this soon.
From what I have heard I really don’t think the lab will launch the Second Life app this year (it’s on the 2022 roadmap though I know). At best there might be probably a beta version of the Second Life mobile app before the end of 2022 if development picks up again. I would predict it will be launched sometime in early-mid 2023 or 2024 now at the latest.
For the last few years development for Second Life mobile has been mostly in the fast lane I think and now it’s moved back in the slow lane. There are probably alot of reasons for the on going delays to the project.
Should the lab continue with Second Life mobile development? If so what do you want to see happen ?
For anyone that missed the Above the Book interview today featuring Patch Linden and Phelan Corrimal then here is the full video above. The interview runs for 53 minutes and 15 seconds. Patch talks about the passing of Ebbe Altberg, Philip Rosedale role as advisory, the use of the AWS infrastructure, new event regions, Mobile is still in the works, general improvements and more.
Patch mentioned a lot about improvements made to Second Life recently from the Marketplace changes, the new search look, the introduction of Multi-Factor Authentication and performance improvements. Over the next few years the lab hopes to improve the new user experience on-boarding processes like the avatar system. Patch hopes to double the number of active online residents in-world within the next few years.
The part I found interesting was when Patch talked about the new event regions capable of running up to 150 avatars and there is a target of 200 which would be a challenge to meet later in the year. Apparently there have been some testing going on at some shopping events and soon it may be possible at RFL events.
For all those waiting to hear about Mobile well it’s in active development with a possible streaming option being considered. IOS is the still the main focus and costs may be included in the near future. I’m sure more will be shared in the weekly web user group meetings soon.
There was not really a mention of Premium Plus (big announcement coming up maybe ? ) or any Linden Home announcements. This interview is more like a general catch up on the past year on what’s going on. I would imagine we will have to wait now until SL19B to hear more announcements on upcoming Linden Home themes.
During this month’s Web User Group meeting hosted by Keira Linden there was more details given out about the status of the iOS version of the Second Life app. Linden Lab recently submitted a new version to Apple and it’s been finally been accepted by Apple after months of on-going issues to get it approved.
Keira Linden talks about this around the 10 minute mark onwards during the meeting which can be watched again in full below. The lab are focused on the iOS Second Life mobile app which will be a chat app mostly. It will be a good way of keeping touch with friends inworld without having to be logged into Second Life. The lab are still working on the Android version which is still in development.
The lab are working on a whole set of new features into it and soon it will be on the Apple Store. There are around 40-50 users that have the iOS version of the Second Life app and more wide spread testing is still needed yet.
Apparently those that use the iOS version of the Second Life app will be logged into new dedicated “SL Mobile” regions which will be primary be used for communications like IM/Group Chat. These SL Mobile regions will not be open to everyone unless they are using the SL Mobile app. Those that log into the SL Mobile regions won’t be able to see their avatar appearance and there won’t be local chat within regions as everything will be done via Direct IM at first. Over time more functionality like 3D view will be added way down the line on the roadmap and hopefully it will reach a point where most of the Second Life community can use it.
IOS SL Mobile App Status Check
3D View – To be confirmed later down the road
Direct IM – Available (limited)
Localized Chat – Only Direct IM at this point in time
Inworld Presence – Available (limited)
Group Chat – Coming Soon (couple of releases down the track)
Notecards: Can’t see notecards or inventory
Search: Will be available
Chat Rooms – A certain amount of friends allowed in a room (being looked at)
List Of People In Region – Not available
User Concurrency: No numbers yet on concurrency users
There were many topics mentioned in this month’s meeting from marketplace improvements, the new user experience, search, last names and more. Here is a quick brief of the important new updates…
The new Welcome Islands are now undergoing A/B testing along with the existing Learning Islands / Social Islands. The Welcome Back Island is open for the public to look around.
A new Search project to do with functions may be released later in 2021 or 2022
The Premium SL Birthday themed Last Names will be removed soon and will be replaced with a new selection of Last Names in the next few weeks. There will be Halloween Last Names coming in the Autumn months.
As mentioned in this blog post the iOS version has been accepted by Apple
The lab have started work on updating the Second Life Marketplace with the new Second Life blue logo
The World API has been worked on to make it faster
The web user meeting runs for 1 hour.
The next Web User Meeting is scheduled for Wednesday 4th August 2021 at 2pm SLT over in the Denby region in Second Life.
For anyone that have missed Grumpity Linden Meet The Lindens 2021 session at SL18B then here is a summary below. Don’t forget to check out the SL18B Birthday Calendar for great upcoming events.
On Wednesday 23rd June Grumpity Linden talked with Saffia Widdershins at the SL18B Auditorium about a variety of interesting topics. These included the roadmap for the next 12 months, open source viewer development, SL Mobile and more. Grumpity is the vice president of product and the interim vice president of engineering at the lab. She became a full time Linden in 2014 and now she is apart of the Second Life product team (UI design and layout).
Grumpity talked about Ebbe Altberg who sadly passed away recently and how the team has worked well since Oz Linden departure earlier this year. She talks about how the AWS transition work went smoothly and the advantages that it brings. The move is to ensure the longevity of Second Life.
Grumpity then went on to the roadmap for the next 12 months. She mentions that there will be experiment’s taking place on the simulator side of things. There will be potential in the near future for new land product offerings. The lab will continue to work on open-source development for the viewer. The beta version of the Second Life Mobile communications app for iOS should be ready soon for release. The Android version is still in development which will be released much later.
There was some new SL usage metrics mentioned after the hour mark. Grumpity said that Metrics and infographics tend to be given to journalists. The average daily concurrency averages 40, 000 with the peak concurrency normally hits 55, 000. The daily active users is approx 200, 000 in Second Life. There was mention about the account limits where Grumpity pointed out that there is no longer any limit on how many accounts any one can have.
Run Time: 1 hour / 26 minutes / 50 seconds
On Thursday 24th June Brett Linden talked with Saffia Widdershins at the SL18B Auditorium. Here are some things to mention. Brett is the vice president of marketing in terms of communication and publicity. It’s worth a watch if you have a few hours spare. Brett Linden started with Second Life in July 2007.
A brief summary…
The pandemic has been tough for lab employees / significant spike in user registrations and user concurrency last year during first wave / it’s been a crazy year
The new user experience surveys have been done to improve the overall experiences
Alot of great partnerships made during the past year (NFL Alumni, Adult Swim Partnership & Titmouse). A few more partnerships coming in later summer 2021 / it’s a year of experiments
Share feedback for the Marketing team to editor@lindenlab.com
In two years Brett hopes that Second Life is more accessible in the early stages to the wow moment
Bellisseria development success 1. having a Linden home & 2. sense of community
The marketing team is fixed in the US / primary office based in the US / moles are adding to the overall picture
Linden Lab promote / work with Facebook – Brett would love that / risk of Facebook removing pages / accounts
Long term plan after the pandemic – hope that those in Second Life stay & the lab are testing alot of win back ways for returning residents
Twitch – Streaming from Second Life – on-going discussion with Twitch to resolve the issue / Second Life is on the restriction list / concern about the adult content being streamed
Data plays a big part of marketing for Second Life / some data points not shared for statistics / there is a fair amount of public statistics out there
Over 70 million registered accounts, 200, 000 users across 200 countries (average daily usage), GDP/US $600 million and over $80 million US in creator cash-outs
Run Time: 2 hours / 50 seconds
Meet the Moles live session at starts today at 1pm SLT over at the SL18B Auditorium. Stay tuned for more updates soon.
There are mobile apps on iOS and Android that can be downloaded to access Second Life during 2021. As many know already Linden Lab are working to launch a Second Life mobile client on iOS very soon followed by a Android release later on.
Touch Life, Sparkle IM, LittleSight and AjaxLife have gone offline now. SLGo closed down at the end of April 2015 after OnLive was acquired by Sony. Lumiya no longer releases updates and the website is no longer being maintained.
Below are iOS apps and Android apps to access Second Life/OpenSim as of 27th April 2021.
iOS
SpeedLight
SpeedLight is a mobile viewer for Second Life featuring teleport access, IMs, group search, world view rendering, group management, L$ transactions history and more
SpeedLight is a mobile viewer for Second Life featuring teleport access, IMs, group search, world view rendering, group management, L$ transactions history and more
Caution! Lumiya version 3.2 can still be downloaded via SlideMe but it’s $2.95. This app was last updated on 27th November 2016. Lumiya is a Second Life and OpenSim client offering a 3D world view, the ablitiy to send/receive messages, teleporting, local chat, manage inventory and more. Lumiya supports server-side appearance, mesh content and it’s compatible with RLV.
Please spread the word and in about a year or two I will post up another mobile apps update blog post.
In recent months Linden Lab have been pretty quiet on the Second Life mobile development for anything to do with the iOS and Android versions of it. There are Second Life web user group meetings which are normally held on the first Wednesday of the month from 2pm SLT to 3pm SLT located at Denby.
The Web User Group meeting is a public monthly meeting used for discussion of issues around the Marketplace, Profiles, Place Pages, Search and Mobile related updates.
Upcoming Web User Group Meetings
Wednesday, May 5th, 2021
Wednesday, June 2nd, 2021
Wednesday, July 7th, 2021
Wednesday, August 4th, 2021
Wednesday, September 1st, 2021
Wednesday, October 6th, 2021
Wednesday, November 3rd, 2021
Wednesday, December 1st, 2021
Linden Lab are focused on the non-graphical aspects for a Second Life mobile viewer like IM, group chat, friendship management and more. I believe there is still NDA for those that are working/testing the iOS and Android versions at the moment.
Keira Linden has mentioned in the Second Life Forums mobile section last year that once there is a beta version of it available then it will be open to everyone to try it out. It’s expected the lab will make an announcement in the weeks/months ahead hopefully. There is potential here for the lab to make this a huge success and another way of bringing in revenue maybe.
Back on Monday 22nd June 2020 Ebbe Altberg CEO of Linden Lab talked about future plans for the Second Life Mobile Companion app for iOS and Android devices. Almost a year later development is slowly getting there.
The iOS version of the Second Life mobile client has been rejected by Apple a few times or so now over the past six months. Apple seems to be making life hard for Linden Lab in terms of passing the app through its evaluation process.
Second Life Mobile News – April 2021 Update
iOS Version
The app is now very close to being ready to go (internal tests are being carried out)
Waiting for Apple to pass the app via their evaluation process
Launch could happen before the end of the summer 2021 (my prediction)
Android
Development is way behind that of the iOS version
Internal testing is still on-going
Launch could happen later this year/early 2022 (my prediction)
Hopefully it won’t be too much longer until the lab announces more about Second Life mobile launch in the weeks or months ahead.
Daniel Voyager 