I last wrote about the Second Life Mobile App back in December 2024 a month after it’s public Beta release when Linden Lab held a blogger call to tell everyone what was upcoming. I know they’ve been making may continuous developments, so I thought I’d give the latest signup process a go and see what it was like for a new user accessing the grid for the first time on a smartphone.
I’m aware some of this isn’t news to many people, but I wanted to try and be thorough.
The sign up process was pretty standard, so I’ll skip that here and go to the avatar customisation bit. This all takes place in the app after registration and before your avatar appears inworld.
Now this is all great, but there’s one big catch to it; it’s all uses Linden Lab’s own Senra body that few creators design for. Fortunately there’s the Welcome Pack now in the Library section of the inventory and its available in the app by going to the Avatar section screen, so more on that later.
I also happen to have arrived in what would appear to be a regular arrival point, with a single sign explaining how to move, same as it’s been for quite a while. However I was wrong, this place is actually among the Mobile Showcase destinations, make of that what you will.
That is where this post may have ended if I’d not seen a post by Daniel Voyager about the new Mobile Learning Centre 2026.
It seems since I created that new avatar Linden Lab have put some effort into a new on-boarding location. I logged back in with the mobile app and sure enough there was the Mobile Learning Centre on the login screen, so I went to have a look.
If I’d arrived here, I’d have been a little more impressed. It has a game-like activity to help you learn how to control your avatar. You must collect coloured stars, by bumping into them, to open doors. However some of them require you to fly (or the floor fall away underneath you), so you do learn more than just walking. On the whole a much better experience than I had a little while ago.
Unfortunately when someone on the app asks you “How do I get my avatar to look like that?”, things aren’t quite so slick.
As I mentioned above the Avatar Welcome Pack from your inventory Library, is accessible via the Avatar option on the app menu and lets you choose from a few different body types and a few outfits for each.
There’s a very big difference here from the avatar you created at registration though. These selections actually remove the Senra mesh body and replaces it with a Legacy Special Edition body and a Lelutka mesh head. This means you can now wear anything made to fit the Legacy body series, which is well catered for by designers. The Lelutka head means most skins, tattoos and makeups will work just fine too. (Note though that this body and head will get you started, they have some limited capabilities, mainly not including HUDs for making certain changes.)
So now with a head and body that stuff will actually work with, and SLB23 in full swing, there’s a Shop & Hop I can go visit to kit out the new avatar..sort of.
The app let’s you wander around the different stores at the Shop & Hop, clicking the gift boxes to receive the goodies. Sadly there’s currently no way yet to check you received the item, or unpack and wear them because there’s still no inventory access from the mobile app.
This meant I had to switch to the Desktop viewer to overhaul my new avatar with my collected freebies.
You can switch between outfits in the mobile app which is helpful, but you can’t put together an outfit there, except for those made using the avatar selection options. For those residents that might be using primarily mobile, this turns the desktop viewer into a changing room where you have to log on and put your looks together for use on Mobile.
In my December 2024 post I discuss some key features the Lab were planning to bring to Mobile. 18 Months later,how have they done?
- Lobby – Pass
- Address Bar – Pass
- New account creation – Pass
- Persistent chat logs & Group Notice Push notifications – Pass
- Notecards – (Grumpity Linden said “Three Months Plus”) – Fail
- Item level avatar editing – Fail
The ones that passed did so within their 2025 targets. The app and the experience of using it has come on leaps and bounds since public release, but there’s a way to go yet, if they want the experience to resemble the online video marketing.
For me personally it’s nearly there; hovertext and dialog box support have been added, we just need HUD support and rezzing from inventory and I’ll be able to play Herb & Fable on my phone!
A final note on my Mobile experience I’d like to give a shout out to Prima Linden for being so welcoming when I first logge
