Linden Labs, Will You Ever Create A Mobile Phone App For Secondlife?

[Galaxy Littlepaws]

2 minutes ago, Prokofy Neva said:

The other day, I was exploring in a sim, and I saw the owner standing stock still, and I thought he was AFK but he wasn't slumped over. I IM'd me and asked about an event, and he said he couldn't show me the event sign because he was dialed up to SL on his phone and couldn't move. But that enabled him to at least talk in IMs, and possible click on groups? And I have had customers tell me they are logged in "on their phone". Not just to their email answering IMs via email, but somehow in SL. Not sure how they are doing this. 

There are a few apps such as Lumiya for Android (although in that one you can move around). They are pretty limited though. But it's at least something if you need to do something chat-wise in SL and can't get to your PC.

Edited January 14, 2019 by BethTech

[Coffee Pancake]

1 minute ago, Prokofy Neva said:

Not sure how they are doing this. 

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.lumiyaviewer.lumiya&hl=en_US

The play store is far more forgiving when it comes to acceptable apps vs Apple's store.

[Galaxy Littlepaws]

Just now, CoffeeDujour said:

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.lumiyaviewer.lumiya&hl=en_US

The play store is far more forgiving when it comes to acceptable apps vs Apple's store.

Yes, this is why I'm really hoping they'll aim for the Android market as well. Not just Apple.

[Kyrah Abattoir]

On 1/14/2019 at 7:02 AM, CoffeeDujour said:

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.lumiyaviewer.lumiya&hl=en_US

The play store is far more forgiving when it comes to acceptable apps vs Apple's store.

It USED to be but Google is slowly tightening the noose it seem.

[JaslynMaia]

On 12/26/2018 at 10:48 PM, Alyona Su said:

iOS has "SL Notifier" for $0.99 and MetaChat ($3) which supposedly also works with OpenSim and there's even one for IMVU (I didn't even know that was still alive) LOL. I dunno about Android, tho'.

Okay, putting down my own two cents after months of trying to find a lumiya replica and testing sl apps for IOS.

First things first, I would recommend against SL notifier UNLESS you own property in world. Rentals dont count. Aside from having to purchase the app on the appstore, they request that you spend another 500L on a signal beacon in world at their shop. I cant quite think of the proper word to call it, so lets call it a signal beacon for now. Basically the problem here is that the app is useless unless you buy that beacon and rezz it inworld on property that you own. The most it does without that beacon is tell you who’s online at that moment, which you can already do with MP. Even if you do own property in world, the most the app will provide is a chat system. Map is only available to see where your friends are. 

In turn that means I do recommend Metachat, for now at least, since something is better than nothing. Unfortunately though, the app lags quite a bit but I have reason to believe that phase will pass as they’re still sending updates for the app. Theres no extra obligations or anything in world, so that 3$ you spend, thats it. In comparision to SL Notifier, Metachat has a lot more features. You can access your inventory - thus in turn attach/detach items, enable RLV, chat, and blindly move in world. I say blindly because unfortunately unlike Lumiya, you cant actually see the world through 3d lens, just the sim map, coloured dots representing your avie/avies hanging around, and a camera direction from the dot representing you. But again, do note that swapping from chat to chat, or tab can be painful. 

Unfortunately, these are the only two apps I’ve been able to find so far on the appstore. Aside from just now learning about Bright Canopy, which sounds appealing but 17$ for 10 hours is a bit much for me personally. Everything else is just a matter of smart design in order to succeed.

[Sapphire Divine]

SL is a game. It's a 3D Virtual World. However, many people that play SL is lazy. I know someone that lost their truck because they thought it was more important to host at a club then let my hubby (whom was my boyfriend at the time) offered to take her to pay on her loan of the truck. Next day they repo the truck and she blamed my hubby and I for the loss of it when it was SL that cost her the truck. But I also know that one has to be behind more then a month to have their vehicle repossessed. So she was just plain lazy. She slept at her pc logged into SL and that is where you find her 24 hrs a day!  Then there are some that are disabled iRL and have all the time in the world to live on SL to feel some sort of importance in their life! But if you neglect your RL responsibilities and duties such as laundry, paying bills, cooking, grocery shopping, making sure your kids get up for school, feed your kids and or pets etc...… then you are plain lazy! You should always have a balance between RL and SL. But yes an app for SL would be nice for those that have businesses iSL that earn their RL monies. But I have a question can you play SL using a phone hotspot? Cause I don't see how you can being I feel SL is too heavy to use on a phone hotspot. Also I think it eat your data up quick. And I know to get a mobile hotspot on your phone is $29.99 a month but I am sure that has a certain amount of data which means you wouldn't be able to log in or pretty much stay on SL almost 24/7 using a phone hotspot. Then once you ran through that data you have to buy more data and it's small increments for large amounts of money. Or does anyone know if this is possible without spending a lot of money? Also to the person that said some won't mind paying a small fee to access SL on their phone. And I think if you are a prem member it should be free! And to the one that said it cost too much for LL to make an app they make a lot of money. I mean they get money from a percent of the price a seller sets to sell their items on MP. They get money from those of us that pay for a premium account. They get money from those that have got sims directly from LL as they charge a fee to set it up as well as a monthly tier. Then think about those that have multiple sims. As well as pretty sure they get a cut as look at the price diff between buying L$ from them vs converting your L$ into $. Also what about those that have their groups set up to take liability from their where does that L$ go, prolly LL?! And what about the L$10 per pic we upload, the money it costs to upload scripts and objects. It all goes to LL so come on they are rolling in the dough so they have it to make an app. Not to mention the other virtual world they have created. They just choosing not to make the app! But the app be more beneficial for those creators that made a business or multiple businesses to make money. There are not many veterans of SL that play anymore. I am one of the few that still actively play SL I have been iSL since Dec 26, 2004 It be nice to play it through a PS4 that has Virtual Reality omg to be our avatar more realistically would be awesome!

[Selene Gregoire]

2 hours ago, Sapphire Divine said:

There are not many veterans of SL that play anymore. I am one of the few that still actively play SL I have been iSL since Dec 26, 2004

April 2004 here. There are more of us oldbies still around than you might think.

Personally, I have no interest in a mobile app for SL or PS4, XBox, or any of those. I've never had one in my home and never will.

[ItHadToComeToThis]

My original account is June 2006. Trust me, we are here.

[bigmoe Whitfield]

4 hours ago, Sapphire Divine said:

SL is a game. It's a 3D Virtual World. However, many people that play SL is lazy. I know someone that lost their truck because they thought it was more important to host at a club then let my hubby (whom was my boyfriend at the time) offered to take her to pay on her loan of the truck. Next day they repo the truck and she blamed my hubby and I for the loss of it when it was SL that cost her the truck. But I also know that one has to be behind more then a month to have their vehicle repossessed. So she was just plain lazy. She slept at her pc logged into SL and that is where you find her 24 hrs a day!  Then there are some that are disabled iRL and have all the time in the world to live on SL to feel some sort of importance in their life! But if you neglect your RL responsibilities and duties such as laundry, paying bills, cooking, grocery shopping, making sure your kids get up for school, feed your kids and or pets etc...… then you are plain lazy! You should always have a balance between RL and SL. But yes an app for SL would be nice for those that have businesses iSL that earn their RL monies. But I have a question can you play SL using a phone hotspot? Cause I don't see how you can being I feel SL is too heavy to use on a phone hotspot. Also I think it eat your data up quick. And I know to get a mobile hotspot on your phone is $29.99 a month but I am sure that has a certain amount of data which means you wouldn't be able to log in or pretty much stay on SL almost 24/7 using a phone hotspot. Then once you ran through that data you have to buy more data and it's small increments for large amounts of money. Or does anyone know if this is possible without spending a lot of money? Also to the person that said some won't mind paying a small fee to access SL on their phone. And I think if you are a prem member it should be free! And to the one that said it cost too much for LL to make an app they make a lot of money. I mean they get money from a percent of the price a seller sets to sell their items on MP. They get money from those of us that pay for a premium account. They get money from those that have got sims directly from LL as they charge a fee to set it up as well as a monthly tier. Then think about those that have multiple sims. As well as pretty sure they get a cut as look at the price diff between buying L$ from them vs converting your L$ into $. Also what about those that have their groups set up to take liability from their where does that L$ go, prolly LL?! And what about the L$10 per pic we upload, the money it costs to upload scripts and objects. It all goes to LL so come on they are rolling in the dough so they have it to make an app. Not to mention the other virtual world they have created. They just choosing not to make the app! But the app be more beneficial for those creators that made a business or multiple businesses to make money. There are not many veterans of SL that play anymore. I am one of the few that still actively play SL I have been iSL since Dec 26, 2004 It be nice to play it through a PS4 that has Virtual Reality omg to be our avatar more realistically would be awesome!

Can you fix this so we can read it?

[Wulfie Reanimator]

5 hours ago, Selene Gregoire said:

Personally, I have no interest in a mobile app for SL or PS4, XBox, or any of those. I've never had one in my home and never will.

Why?

[Kimmi Zehetbauer]

4 hours ago, Wulfie Reanimator said:

Why?

There's a few of us, I think 11 on the planet, who don't live with the phone stuck to our heads.

[Odaks]

12!

[Bree Giffen]

Yeah me too!

 

Posted from Bree's phone

[Maryanne Solo]

I discontinued the use of my mobile phone. Can't stand the stupid things~! It's a good example for supporting students too. "Please put that silly toy away and concentrate, or you're on your own" 

Edited December 9, 2019 by Maryanne Solo
Out of mobile phone data/hours :p

[Kimmi Zehetbauer]

3 hours ago, Maryanne Solo said:

I discontinued the use of my mobile phone. Can't stand the stupid things~! It's a good example for supporting students too. "Please put that silly toy away and concentrate, or you're on your own" 

We only have a flip-phone that's kept in the glove box of the truck. Some say "why don't buy a new fancy schmancy smart phone so you can do this and do that.  No thanks. I'm a part time city bus operator and don't know how many times I had someone walking with their phone heading straight into the coach.

[Cristiano Midnight]

On 12/7/2019 at 3:29 AM, Selene Gregoire said:

April 2004 here. There are more of us oldbies still around than you might think.

Personally, I have no interest in a mobile app for SL or PS4, XBox, or any of those. I've never had one in my home and never will.

I don't think a full blown viewer for SL is realistic for moble or consoles. Hell, they can't even optimize for PC correctly, and the bandwidth on mobile would be prohibitive too.

That said, I do think a mobile app where you could do things like organize your inventory, read notecards, be in chat somewhere even if you can't sign into SL fully, send ims, etc... would be nice to have. There have been some third party attempts at it, but only LL could really create a mobile app that would support all of this. This would especially be nice on a tablet like an iPad.

[Selene Gregoire]

1 hour ago, Cristiano Midnight said:

I don't think a full blown viewer for SL is realistic for moble or consoles. Hell, they can't even optimize for PC correctly, and the bandwidth on mobile would be prohibitive too.

That said, I do think a mobile app where you could do things like organize your inventory, read notecards, be in chat somewhere even if you can't sign into SL fully, send ims, etc... would be nice to have. There have been some third party attempts at it, but only LL could really create a mobile app that would support all of this. This would especially be nice on a tablet like an iPad.

Sure, it would be nice to have for those who have cell phones or tablets. I have neither. I've never even owned a console so it doesn't make any sense for me to be interested in an app for something I don't own and never will own. No point in coveting what I can't have.

[Cristiano Midnight]

1 minute ago, Selene Gregoire said:

Sure, it would be nice to have for those who have cell phones or tablets. I have neither. I've never even owned a console so it doesn't make any sense for me to be interested in an app for something I don't own and never will own. No point in coveting what I can't have.

Understood - but a majority of users do have at least a mobile phone in addition to a PC, so being able to access some aspects of SL on the go or even just while you're lying in bed and you don't want to fire up your computer would be nice.

[Selene Gregoire]

Just now, Cristiano Midnight said:

Understood - but a majority of users do have at least a mobile phone in addition to a PC, so being able to access some aspects of SL on the go or even just while you're lying in bed and you don't want to fire up your computer would be nice.

SL on the go... meh. I have a laptop for the bedroom. 

[Kimmi Zehetbauer]

"But officer --- I was teleporting in this "game" and didn't see the big truck coming...." 🤣

[NevaehHeartstrings]

It might just be 100% rumor but i still keep hearing Firestorm might be working on ideas for a phone viewer. taken with grain of salt.

Lets be real here, most newer folks have phones and this was a great choice but no longer updated.

 

 

 

[Noel Loordes]

  

On 12/13/2019 at 9:22 PM, NevaehHeartstrings said:

It might just be 100% rumor but i still keep hearing Firestorm might be working on ideas for a phone viewer. taken with grain of salt.

Lets be real here, most newer folks have phones and this was a great choice ^{(lumiyaviewer.com)} but no longer updated.

Sadly, it also ever only worked on Android, since the rendering library was never ported for iOS, and since iOS doesn't allow the facilities to allow the client to stay connected while the app isn't in the foreground. And, sadly, that means that only Linden Labs can provide a real solution.

My main use-case would be to hang out with friends while reading or watching movies on an iPad. But that would require server-side changes, that allow clients to remain connected for receiving push notifications of local chat and IMs, while the app is otherwise inactive. Ideally even the ability to be connected from multiple devices at once.

I'd very much love a Firestorm solution, but a robust solution requires involvement of Linden Labs for server-side adjustments – and, maybe as importantly, strategic decisions regarding what kind of connectivity should be allowed.

[Coffee Pancake]

On 12/13/2019 at 3:22 PM, NevaehHeartstrings said:

 

This screenshot is was OnLive. Draxtor review here

OnLive added a tiny amount of viewer UI .. but because they never distributed an actual binary to customers, they were never bound by the GPL to release their source code, so that work is now lost forever, along with their ethically problematic business model. (they rendered SL on their servers, and streamed that video to your device, much like Google are now trying with Stadia)

It failed to gain any traction with users due to price and consisting of the absolute bare minimum code to enable game like touch screen controls. Wandering around the grid solo worked well enough, but actually doing anything via their service was a fiddly nightmare as you had to fall back to using the standard LL viewer controls. In one part of Draxtor's review he tries to text chat and it's painful to watch, Sorting inventory, trying demos, creating, editing .. for all practical purposes, impossible without extreme patience.

Running actual full-fat firestrom (or any client) directly on a mobile device is not going to fly without some serious compromises. Even a crummy desktop PC puts significantly more resources on the table than the very best flagship mobile device. Just to be clear, this has nothing to do with the perception that firestrom is bloated or any of their features, the core SL code that's common to every single viewer and comes from LL is what kills this.

Even if by some miracle someone gets the standard client to run natively on mobile, it's going to be a terrible experience that is objectively bad for your device.

Mobile devices are not designed to run hard and hot. Doing this dramatically shortens the life of a battery that can't be replaced. Running a mobile device 'hard and hot' plugged into the power is not a solution and will turn your device's battery into an airbag in record time ... with a chance to go full angry-charmander. 

 

[Kimmi Zehetbauer]

7 minutes ago, CoffeeDujour said:

Even if by some miracle someone gets the standard client to run natively on mobile, it's going to be a terrible experience that is objectively bad for your device.

Mobile devices are not designed to run hard and hot. Doing this dramatically shortens the life of a battery that can't be replaced. Running a mobile device 'hard and hot' plugged into the power is not a solution and will turn your device's battery into an airbag in record time ... with a chance to go full angry-charmander. 

 

SL is best on the computer --- not mobile.

[NevaehHeartstrings]

On 12/17/2019 at 1:30 PM, Kimmi Zehetbauer said:

SL is best on the computer --- not mobile.

I disagree. not many people under 30 are buying home computers(those are the age groups who are careless with cash)..If anything kills SL in the future it will be starvation of losing new residents.