Linden Lab Officially Confirms Pause In SL Mobile App

On Tuesday 26th October 2021 Linden Lab officially confirmed to my private message on Twitter that they have definitely paused the development for iOS and Android apps for Second Life. The team are actively working on a new direction and some news on that will be announced in the near future. The lab mentioned that they don’t have anything to share right now.

Thanks to Linden Lab for the fast response. Here is the official confirmation they sent to me via Twitter PM.

@danielvoyager Greetings! We have pause development on just that branch, but the team is actively working on a new direction to take from here. We don’t have anything to share right now, but we should have some news on that soon.”

I blogged about the first reports about the development pause on 23rd October but there was no confirmation at the time from the lab until now. The lab sent out emails during the past few weeks to the test group announcing the development pause/closure of the mobile test regions etc.

I think many will be wondering now what will Linden Lab go next with any future development of the iOS/Android Second Life apps. I would imagine we may hear something during 2022 or perhaps in 2023.

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Linden Lab Pauses Development On Second Life Mobile App

On Thursday 21st October New World Notes reported that Second Life official mobile viewer development has been paused according to a “veteran Second Life insider”. The member is apparently from the SL Mobile Viewer test group and shared this news below.

From looking at this generally it does appear to be written from Linden Lab and many will be most likely be disappointed by this development pause. It does appear the team is actively working on a new direction from here. I would imagine we will hear from the lab shortly about this latest development and hopefully what they plan on doing next.

From source insider…

After reviewing the current state of the SL Mobile Viewer and the helpful feedback from residents, we have decided to pause development on this branch. The team is actively working on a new direction to take from here. We should have some news on that soon.

We’d like to thank you all for your time and feedback. It was very valuable to us! We will be closing TestFlight and the mobile regions on October 29th, 2021. Again, thank you for participation! Linden Lab

At the bottom of the message sent to NWN the lab are closing down TestFlight and the mobile regions on Friday 29th October 2021. The source said that development has been “stagnant for months” and says the following…

“Didn’t have push notifications, and until a recent update would only work when you had the app open on your screen,“

“You logged into a special mobile users only region and would remain there while the app was running, you couldn’t be teleported, seen on the map, had no attachments etc. IM messages worked well .. and that was all we ever got.“

I think Lumiya and SpeedLight Viewer is the benchmark for any Second Life mobile app they have to aim for. I accept development takes time and issues can happen along the way.

I would imagine any launch now of any SL Mobile app won’t happen until later in 2022 or 2023 at the earliest. At the monthly web user office hours in recent months there has not been any major announcements or really much to be excited about it seems.

There is a thread about this on the Second Life Forums for the latest discussions.

More updates soon.

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.

The Lumiya Viewer is still available via Slide.Me & still no word from Alina Lyvette

Back in early May 2019 I blogged about the Lumiya Viewer being no longer listed on the Google Play Store. Apparently it was removed from Google Play due to a change in the developer terms (change in SMS policy from Google). Lumiya was removed off the Third Party Viewer Directory page for a variety of reasons.

The Lumiya website was last updated in early October 2017 and the latest viewer version was 3.4.2. There has been no word from Alina Lyvette for some time now and it seems unlikely that the Lumiya app will be updated again anytime soon. Myself and many others have tried to get in touch with Alina but so far there have been no responses.

The Lumiya Viewer is still available through Slide.Me (risk) and other websites which may be risky. The last version still offers communications and other viewer functions. However from what I have heard the world rendering and avatar appearance etc are broken.

I hope someday we will hear from Alina Lyvette. For now it’s worth waiting for announcements on the iOS and Android version of the new Second Life mobile app that Linden Lab are working on now.

Apple Rejects iOS Version Of The Second Life Mobile Client

According to this week’s Web User Group (WUG) meeting held on Wednesday 7th October 2020 it appears that Apple rejected the first submission iOS version of the Second Life mobile client. For some reason it did not meet the requirements.

Linden Lab are now working to address the issues as part of Apple’s review process and when that is done then the iOS version will go through Linden Lab QA process. After that then the IOS version can be re-submitted to Apple for approval for a 2nd time.

Once the iOS version of the Second Life mobile client is on the App Store listings then it will go from the closed alpha phrase to the beta phrase most likely. The Android version is still behind the iOS version and is still being developed. I would imagine early 2021 we would see the Android version approved. Maybe late November or December for the iOS version if Apple gives the green light. Who knows!.

What to expect from the first release of the iOS Communications App

It’s important to understand that the first release of the iOS version of the Second Life mobile client will not have full capabilities like world rendering, purchases and more. Over time the app will have inventory management, group chat and more features. The app will be used for those that want to stay connected on the go rather than using it at home.

This is a delay for sure but hopefully everything can be resolved before the end of 2020. That depends on Apple of course.

Lumiya Viewer no longer on the Google Play Store

 

It seems like the well known Lumiya Viewer is no longer available on the Google Play Store. It’s unclear if this is just a small technical issue or something more serious. It could be Alina Lyvette is taking a break for a while.

For me it was one of the best mobile viewers out there for Second Life and OpenSim grids. As many know early last year the Lumiya Viewer was removed from the official Third Party Viewer Directory. Apparently the Lumiya Viewer is still working if you have it installed already.

Lumiya Viewer has been available since August 2017 and the app has been downloaded more than 100, 000 times. Alina Lyvette does have two other apps which are still available today to download – Lumiya Cloud Plugin and Lumiya Voice Plugin. Both of these apps have not been updated for some time.

Within the past 24 hours there has been some discussion about this via reddit.

I hope the Lumiya Viewer app comes back on the Google Play Store soon. If not then at least a download link on the official Lumiya Viewer website would be good.

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UPDATE 1 – 2nd May

• Lumiya Viewer is still up on the Aptoide Android market where you can download it.

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Ebbe Altberg talks about the future of Second Life and Sansar

Check out the latest new interview with Ebbe Altberg CEO of Linden Lab talking about the future of Second Life and Sansar. Wagner James Au interviewed Ebbe Altberg for 45 minutes at Linden Lab HQ in San Francisco in March 2019.

They chatted about efforts to grow new user growth, land discounts, the upcoming mobile companion app, cloud deployment, improving performance and much more relating to Second Life. With Sansar they chatted about the low usage numbers since the beta launch, Sansar’s long download times and efforts to optimize Sansar.

It’s incredible to think Ebbe Altberg has now been with Linden Lab for over five years and he has achieved a great amount over the years from reducing land costs, the roll out of Mesh, Bento, Animesh, improved the communications with the community, improved the experience for premium members and much more.

Some highlights that I found most interesting,,,

• The new IOS mobile companion app is being worked on. It’s going to be focused on being connected with friends, chat, shopping, customer service and more. The lab are not considering it to be a viewer in the short term.
• New pricing options/discounts are coming soon (within next few months)
• Lot’s of new features (EEP) for Second Life (within weeks)
• Second Life is targeted to move completely to the Amazon cloud within the next 12 months (early – mid 2020)
• The premium subscriber base is growing
• The lab are focused on continuing revenue & user growth for Second Life.
• The lab are now interested in growing the concurrency levels and retention rates
• There are no plans to force migrate Second Life users to Sansar
• There are more people working on Second Life (130+) than Sansar (70+)
• There is work to continue to reduce Sansar long download times
• Sansar is still in beta and still in pre-launch mode
• The lab are shipping big updates every month

For more specific highlights from this interview see here.

2019 Mobile Apps For Second Life

Linden Lab is working on a new app for Second Life during 2020 on iOS and Android. Beta release expected very soon. 

The last post I made on mobile apps for Second Life was back in January 2010 for the IPhone. Since then Touch Life, Sparkle IM and AjaxLife have all gone offline.

Apparently Linden Lab is working on an iOS app solution for accessing Second Life and hopefully there will be a Android version of it. Hopefully there will be a prototype app released sometime this year if all goes to plan. Sansar may at some point go on mobile in the near future.

Below are iOS and Android apps which can be used to access Second Life and OpenSim as of 30th January 2019.

iOS Apps

MetaChat 

• Text only viewer
• View avatar profiles, search for avatar by name, chat locally or via IM, teleport to landmarks, view group information, see your friends list and more
• Size: 27MB
• Version: 1.2.9100
• Price: $2.99
• Available since August 2017
• Listed on TPV Directory
• Download

Android Apps

Lumiya

• Second Life viewer for android phones and tablets
• Supports OpenSim, supports new Android Oreo notifications. supports Bento, supports voice, inventory management, 3D view, mesh support, works with Google Cardboard, full VR experience and more
• Size: 10MB
• Version: 3.4.2
• Price: £2.69
• Available since 2012
• No longer listed on TPV Directory
• Installs: 100, 000+
• Download

Lumiya Voice Plugin

• Adds voice chat support to Lumiya Viewer. Supports group voice calls and nearby voice. Requires Lumiya Viewer to be installed. Support for Bluetooth headsets and speakerphone mode
• Size: 4.9MB
• Version: 1.4
• Available since January 2017
• Download

Lumiya Cloud Plugin

• Enables Lumiya Viewer to save chat and IM data to Google Drive. Requires Lumiya Viewer to be installed.
• Size: 2.7MB
• Version 1.0
• Available since 19th October 2016
• Download

Mobile Grid Client

• Second Life and OpenSim messaging client for all Android devices
• Local chat and instant messages, teleport to other regions, region map, profiles, full inventory manipulation and more
• Size: 1.1MB
• Version: 1.25.1255
• Price: First 14 days are free then there is a monthly fee L$250 for the standard version. The Pro version is L$450 per month / L$4500 per year.
• Available since 2010
• Listed on TPV Directory
• Installs: 100, 000+
• Download

LittleSight

• Second Life viewer for Android
• Chat, IM, online friends list, nearby people, mini-map, teleport to current map (paid service).
• Size: 5,3MB
• Version: 2.0.0
• Price: single payment
• Available since 2012
• Listed on TPV Directory
• Installs: 10, 000+
• Download

Linden Lab confirms they are in early stages of work on an iOS companion app for Second Life

It’s been confirmed this week that Linden Lab are in the early stages in working towards an iOS companion app for Second Life. The lab are focused on getting a prototype out to the Second Life community at some point in the near future. The app will not be linked to a streaming service.

Inara Pey contacted Linden Lab recently with a number of questions concerning the Bit Bucket code repository that was set up by Brad Linden. The lab responded saying the following…

As you point out, we discussed at our Town Hall events last year that we’re actively looking at ways to extend the reach of Second Life to new audiences including mobile platforms. For example, we’re in the early stages of work on an iOS companion app for Second Life.  

Right now we’re focused on getting a prototype out to our Residents, at which point we’ll be looking for feedback and suggestions. In the early stages, we will not be tying the app to a streaming service. However, we don’t have anything to formally announce yet about the specific features, capabilities, and availability.

It’s important to mention that Linden Lab have not formally announced anything yet. It’s early days but it’s good news to hear the lab are working on an iOS mobile app and hopefully they will make one for Android users.

Are you excited about having Second Life on mobile ?

Lumiya Viewer 3.1.1 released

New profile editing in 3.1.1

On 27th September Lumiya Viewer 3.1.1 was released including a number of improvements, new features and bug fixes. The Lumiya Viewer is a Second Life / OpenSim client for Android created by Alina Lyvette. The Lumiya Viewer app costs £2.69 on the Google Play Store and now it’s 8.8M in size.

The biggest improvements in 3.1.1 is the support for OpenGL ES 3.0 which now allows for major frame rate improvements in 3D mode. Rendering mesh bodies, mesh hair and mesh in general has improved alot in this latest update. There are some really handy new features in this new release including the ability to create and share snapshots. The ability to edit avatar profiles and setting home locations.

What’s New in Version 3.1.1

• Improved 3D performance on OpenGL ES 3.0-capable devices
• Taking and sharing screenshots
• Editing avatar profiles
• Setting home location
• Fixed incorrect rendering of Kemono avatars
• Mesh body HUDs are now working properly
• Other bug fixes and improvements

Visit out the Lumiya Viewer website and try it out today. 🙂