Apple Approves Official iOS App for Second Life! But There's a Big Catch...

Linden Lab just announced that its long (long!) awaiting iOS app for Second Life has finally been approved by Apple, so expect that coming soon -- this mini scoop via sharp-eyed SL fan blogger Daniel Voyager, who took furious notes as staffer Keira Linden gave details in a recent meeting in SL itself:

[Linden Lab is] 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.

Unsurprisingly, Linden Lab just announced plans to create a user-driven social media campaign for both TikTok and Instagram, the largest social media apps on the iPhone.

This is all great news, even if it's painfully belated. Late Linden Lab CEO Ebbe Altberg told me the iOS app was in development back in early 2019, and it was announced the previous year and... well, the actual right time to put out an official iOS app for Second Life would have been, oh, let's say 2010. (When as it happens, Pocket Metaverse, a third party iOS app for SL existed, and was pretty good.)

That said, I'm looking forward to it. However, there's a face-kicking caveat to the upcoming iOS app for Second Life. It doesn't have much Second Life in it:

iOS details starting above at around 10:45

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.

Hopefully! So a virtual world app with any of the actual world anytime soon. Which will make it challenging to convert Linden Lab's TikTok / Instagram campaign into actual new users, who'll expect to get the full 3D experience they are seeing in these social media videos right on their phone. But I guess I'm still hopeful the virtual world aspect for the iOS app eventually emerges soon. After all, it's what made IMVU an also-ran competitor with Second Life to a far larger virtual world of nearly million users.

Comments

[M.Sutcliffe]

Well, doesn’t sound very inviting. I don’t even use chat.

[Gordon Cole]

I am amazed at how one person could build Lumiya with almost 100% of the SL functionality while LL have used years making a client for IMs.

[DevinVaughn]

This is interesting, because it might be a sneak peek into Linden Lab's strategy of bridging SL and SL Mobile. This is baby steps for now, it takes time to develop code and app. But I could see it working that there are SL Mobile only sims that Enforce both Avatar and Environment efficiency.

Imagine this: You want to 3D chat live on the phone with your friends? Teleport to SL Mobile Island 1. Opps, you are not allowed because your avatar is bonkers heavy with scripts and complexity. BUT you forgot to switch your Mobile, low lag, fast Avatar first. So you just go to appearance, change outfit, and Teleport is accepted. You land in a beautifully crafted environment, perhaps created by a well known genius designer who excels at kickass and fast. Much good time is had! .....And later, you want to meet up with your special friend after work in the Posh main grid where you wear as much scripts and fancy mesh as you want, or decorate to max, because the maingrid is still the wild wild west of freedom and zero enforced avatar or sim limits (if you don't mind the lag).

Just a thought... I wonder how long it would take to build it.....

[camilia fid3lis nee Patchouli Woollahra]

Where Lumiya stopped would have been a better start. Still, this is a good start as long as progress continues.

[Nodoka Hanamura]

To the people who are genuinely frustrated that Linden Lab hasn't put in a lot of features in SL Mobile - Do you really want your phone to become a hotpocket?

SL, lest we forget, is horribly optimized and LL is probably having to rewrite the viewer to be optimized for mobile, and that'll take some time to do. Not to mention they're also having to do optimizations to the main viewer, including a shift to Vulkan.

And even then.. why would you want to use something like SL on mobile for 3D Chat? On that small of a screen?! I swear on my life I'll never understand people who think that 'Mobile is the future' - Yeah, wake me up when my phone screen isn't unbearable to stare at for more than an hour and running anything remotely complex on it won't turn it into a silicon furnace.

[Tad Noodle]

Why doesnt Linden Lab make a different platform for mobile? Something that is like Second Life but can be used on mobile without the possibility of phones exploding? Something like IMVU and Avakin Life but with the same aspects that make SL what it is. Something that promotes creativity and is primarily created by its users? I have 0 technical skills, so I have no clue what it would take to do something like this, but since SL's engine is so outdated and can't fully migrate to mobile without breaking everything that exists, why not try to break into the mobile market with something new?

[DevinVaughn]

From what I have seen, avatars are crazy expensive in VRChat. Imagine if SL had mobile only sims for mobile style avatars. I'm sure SL would dramatically bring down cost of avatars. And what makes SL the longest lasting of all virtual worlds is content and being fleshed out with so much capability already. Sims that require efficient only decor, landscaping, scripts, and avatars solve the problem. No exploding phones over content anyway. The app also needs to be efficient. And if you done doing what you want in 3DChat, but yearning to do all the nice things you can do on the maingrid, you can. You just teleport into SL proper.

[Mondy]

You don't understand why people would want to chat on a phone screen?

Why do you think Discord on mobile is so popular?

[Nodoka Hanamura]

@Mondy

I understand why people would want to chat on a phone screen, but why would you want to do that while having to meandering about in a virtual world that you can barely tell a prim for the trees in, with a inventory system that is convoluted as sin.

If we just get an SL Companion app, that would be great - It would be the same as Steam. You can contact friends, check group notices and talk in said groups, and hopefully use it as an optional 2FA method other than a dedicated authenticator.

[seramari]

I just want to be able to organize my inventory from my phone... That would be amazing.