We’re happy to announce a new First Look for SLim, a new voice and text instant messaging client.

SLim’s technology is provided by Vivox (www.vivox.com) and developed in partnership with Linden Lab to work with the Second Life viewer.  SLim enables Second Life Residents to conduct voice or text conversations with member of their Second Life friends list….whether they are logged into the virtual world or offline. While the Second Life viewer will still serve as the primary inworld communication engine, SLim is capable of running on most computers, and offers users a voice-enabled instant messaging client that extends the value of the Second Life Grid beyond the virtual world.

SLim significantly lowers the barriers between virtual world and real world communication and ensures that Second Life Residents will always be able to connect to friends, regardless of location or broadband connection. SLim is also a compelling tool for the Second Life Grid enterprise offering, which will enable employees to communicate and collaborate with colleagues meeting inworld without having the Second Life application running.

SLim’s features include:

• Access to your Second Life friends list with real-time “presence” status updates
• Seamless migration from a text conversation into a voice call
• Ability to leave voice mails for offline friends

Learn more about SLim in our Knowledge Base article

Because this is a First Look, there are a few known but not serious issues with this release.  We hope you’ll report any new ones to this PJIRA.

We’re happy to see how voice has taken off in Second Life and to give Second Life Residents alternatives in how they choose to communicate with other. Voice concurrency rates are about 50% of our total inworld concurrency:  for example, when total inworld concurrency on Sunday is 70,000 Residents, the total number of concurrent voice speakers is 35,000. Vivox, our partner in SL Voice, recently  added more voice servers to keep up with demand.

We hope that SLim will be yet another bridge between inworld and out-of-world and other online activities.