Looking for Alina Lyvette, Creator of Lumiya, the Android App for Second Life

Update, September 21: Added some explanation for why Lumiya was removed from Google Play and is only available for authorized purchase on the SlideME app store (bottom of this post).

I'm trying to reconnect with Alina Lyvette, the Russia-based developer who created Lumiya, the wildly popular Second Life app for Android which is officially available only on the SlideME app store. (Well over 100,000 people already own a copy.)

I haven't been able to communicate with Alina for years, and she has not updated Lumiya since 2017. I recently asked the Lumiya group in SL if anyone had seen her lately, and someone immediately replied:

"Every single day someone asks that question and gets the same answer."

Important point: Her absence does not mean anything is wrong, necessarily. In fact, last May, her lead technical support person in SL suggested she's in contact with Alina:

The support rep told me Alina's been busy with her RL career, and has only been able to work on Lumiya "when able". Still, I'd love to get back in touch with her. So if you know her, please let her know!

And once again, Lumiya is still available by her (and works great) on this app store.

Update:  The reason Lumiya was taken off Google Play were covered in a previous post -- it was not for any nefarious reason, just a change in Google Play policies.

"According to the notice sent through the Lumiya in-world group, the reason for the delisting on Google play was because of a change in SMS policy from Google. Lumiya has a backup feature for chat so if it uses SMS to send those then that's probably what it refers to."

Alina herself published the app to SlideME and recommends buying it there.

 

Comments

[Dukes of Hasbro]

Linden Lab should buy it! ..then maybe open source it so we could have a firestorm version as well. I think it would be a great business move combined with a good marketing campain to highlight it.

[John Bach]

I bought it when it was still on play store

[Cesar]

I been using Lumiya for years but now the poses / animations doesn't work anymore I already paid for this app and the issue still on

[Grash Uriza]

The issue here is thst I've already bought this on Google Play. With no contact from the developer, it doesn't make sense to repurchase... and that s before considering to get it means using a marketplace/app that I had never heard of before or have any reason to trust.

[Edward Ashford]

Was wondering what happened to Lumiya on the Play ▶ store 🏬. I bought it too on Google Play. There's even less reason to get it from that other app store when that website doesn't even have an SSL Cert. They can 🥫 get a free 🆓 Cert from Let's Encrypt, though SSLforFree.com
Would be 🐝 great to see an update. There was some problems with Lumiya, including that it kept disconnecting.

[SL Fan]

I agree with everyone else. I see no point in repurchasing from a place I don't trust. On top of that, Edward Ashford above says it does not have an SSL certification. I suppose it makes it safer to purchase? I wish the author of this article would elaborate more why Alina Lyvette has chosen to sell her product on a completely different location. It's just really confusing. Even if her product does get that SSL certification, I still won't repurchase the app when I already have it.

I hope one day it will be back on the Google Play store. That way, issues such as disconnecting and the animation poses, will be fixed. Right now the poses don't display properly in the viewer. My avatar just stays in a t pose the whole time, with my arms down. If anyone out there personally knows Alina Lyvette, please get into contact with her to see if she is even considering putting it back on the Google Play store. Thank you :)

[Wagner James Au]

The reasons for being taken off Google Play were covered in a previous post:

"According to the notice sent through the Lumiya in-world group, the reason for the delisting on Google play was because of a change in SMS policy from Google. Lumiya has a backup feature for chat so if it uses SMS to send those then that's probably what it refers to."

Alina herself published the app to SlideME and recommends buying it there:

https://nwn.blogs.com/nwn/2019/05/lumiya-android-sl-viewer-slide-me.html

[Riley thomas]

I purchased it once. I've never heard of this other store so I will pass. Why pay twice for a product I own?

[Jadziyah]

I purchased it years ago. By far the most useful $3 I've ever spent. Even if things are a little off it's still an amazing app for mobile SL. I will make sure to take care of the apk if I switch phones in the future. Hope Alina is actually okay

[JooonCeee]

Linden Lab should buy this for the residents so the grid can grow again, everyone has a smart phone now.
people do not buy home computers like they did in 2004.

[Trusty Rusty]

What I've told in Sansar was they would get a Mobile App then Second Life would be retired in a few years, as a consolation prize they've said they would give it the best going away party ever!

[Pulsar]

It will be a great going away party... on VRChat.
... and to Sansar first.
Yeah, Second Life is old and won't last forever (but hey, Active Worlds is still around), however it's still their cash cow. The one with sustainability concerns is Sansar: after over 2 years, it's still as dead as ever. The first public release flopped, then on Steam it was dead on arrival. With few 10s of people using it per time it's comparable to the worst flops on Steam and the flat concurrency trend isn't better than the one High Fidelity had.

Meanwhile IMVU has over 6 million monthly active users now (see their about page) and a large slice of that comes from their mobile version. Also meanwhile Decentraland dropped VR for the Web, which could potentially run anywhere. And Linden Lab is still investing wasting money on their dead horse Sansar, grasping for fabled target users, letting go the SL 3rd party mobile viewers at the same time, while their competitors are galloping trotting away.

[Mondy]

"What I've told in Sansar was they would get a Mobile App then Second Life would be retired in a few years, as a consolation prize they've said they would give it the best going away party ever!"

Source? becauase as a user of Sansar for 2 years and knowing many of the regular users there and on the official Discord channel there is no way you have been told this in ANY official capacity.

Complete Bull****