SL Mobile Initial Release Late 2023

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.

Second Life Premium Plus Members Who Use SpeedLight Get More Benefits

Breaking News

On Tuesday 4th October Linden Lab officially announced that Premium Plus members who use the SpeedLight to access Second Life will now get more benefits.

The new benefits include the following…

• Unlimited online time at SpeedLight
• Advanced 3D World view
• Prioritised support (tickets and live chat)

Having unlimited online time sounds pretty good along with advanced 3D World View with more support. The Speedlight mobile app has been around for awhile now and its already proving popular with the Second Life community.

The Speedlight app is on Android and IOS along with the web browser version. In corporation with Linden Lab – v25 (September 2022) update:

The Speedlight mobile app is already popular with many of our community members since it enables Residents to stay connected with Second Life while on the go, and now Premium Plus subscribers get access to additional Speedlight benefits: no online time limitations along with prioritised online support. Now you can enjoy Second Life on your mobile devices (or in a web browser) with the freedom to stay connected as long as you like! To get these benefits, all you need to do is access Second Life using SpeedLight with your Premium Plus account

“SpeedLight is free! The only limitation is 6 hour online time (you can re-login immediately). The additional Gold facility adds unlimited online time to your avatar”.

“SpeedLight features:- Second Life search- friends list- local chat, group chats, IMs- IM autoresponder- group management- inventory management- L$ transactions history- and other Second Life featuresGold (premium) features:- advanced 3D- unlimited online time- mass IMs- message templates- mass messaging”.

Please spread the word and give it a go on the SpeedLight app. Feel free to post your views in the comments section below.

Apple approves iOS version of the Second Life App

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.

2021 Mobile Apps For Second Life

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
• Price: $23.99
• Size: 71.4 MB
• iPhone requires iOS 10.0 or later
• Latest Version: 12.102.0758 – 13th April 2021
• Download

MetaChat

• MetaChat is a text-only viewer for Second Life/OpenSim
• Price: $2.99
• Size: 54MB
• iPhone requires iOS 13.0 or later
• Latest Version: 1.2.9131 – 1st April 2021
• Download

Android

SpeedLight Viewer

• SpeedLight is a mobile viewer for Second Life featuring teleport access, IMs, group search, world view rendering, group management, L$ transactions history and more
• Price: Free
• Size: 3.9MB
• Requires 7.1 and up
• Current Version: 12.097.0719 – 7th April 2021
• 10, 000+ downloads / 158 reviews via Google Play
• Download

Mobile Grid Client

• Mobile Grid Client is a messaging client/viewer with local chat, group chat, IM, search, mini-map, the ability to teleport, inventory support and more
• Price: First 28 days of usage are free (pay monthly starting at L$250 for usage)
• Size: 1.9MB
• Requires 4.0 and up
• Current Version: 1.29.1280 – 23rd September 2020
• 100, 000+ downloads / 3, 331 reviews via Google Play
• Download

SL Friends

• SL Friends is a tool application to get notifications about Second Life friends
• Price: £1
• Size: 4.8MB
• Requires 5.0 and up
• Current Version: 1.09 – 28th July 2019
• 500+ downloads / 30 reviews via Google Play
• Download

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.

Second Life Mobile Development – April 2021 Update

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.