New World Notes

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:

Coming Soon to SL Mobile Lumiya App: Block/Mute Feature

Lumiya, the 3D Second Life viewer for Android devices (which I'm proud to have as a sponsoring partner of NWN) is getting a powerful new feature in an upcoming update: a block/mute list. (Sneak preview above, though it'll be polished when it's pushed as an update.) Lumiya developer Alina Lyvette is adding it, she tells me, "because of the recent spike of griefing behavior in SL. I should have done it a while ago, but now, as it seems, there's an increased need for it." Go here to get it in the next update.

Lumiya Updates: SL for Android App Gets Rich Notifications & Sliding Chat/Contact Interface (NWN Partner News)

Lumiya, the 3D Second Life viewer for Android devices (which I'm proud to have as a sponsoring partner of NWN) has a new update which comes with some cool added features: Rich notifications and a sliding chat/contact navigation interface. At left, you can see what rich notifications look like: SL specific info which pops up on your Android phone/tablet homescreen.

The navigation interface, as Lumiya creator Alina Lyvette explains, is useful when you're using another app on your device, get a system notification from Lumiya, and launch it start an SL chat session: