Second Life 26.5 Beta makes it easier to pick up conversations across desktop and mobile. It also improves camera behavior while travelling, adds account creation within the Viewer, and includes fixes for chat history, Voice, Linux memory handling, and Viewer stability.
Chat Modernization
We’re improving Second Life chat so it’s easier to keep up with your conversations across desktop and mobile. Recent direct messages will be available across supported clients (mobile and desktop), so you can more easily pick up where you left off when you switch devices or log back in later.
What’s new?
Recent conversations follow you seamlessly. A direct message you receive on mobile can also be available when you return to desktop, and vice versa.*
Recent direct message history will be available when you log in.
Your existing desktop chat logs are preserved. Previously saved local history isn’t being replaced or removed.
Your conversation history feels continuous. On desktop, your existing local history and newer message history are brought together into a single conversation.
These initial improvements apply to one-to-one direct messages between Residents. Group chat and multi-person conversations are not yet supported.
*A supported client like this current Beta is required to view cross-device DM history.
Camera and Travel Improvements
Several fixes improve camera behavior while riding vehicles and following moving objects:
Reduced lag and wobble when focusing on moving linked objects, including their seated avatars and attachments.
Fixed cases where the camera could remain stuck after being unexpectedly unseated or when a vehicle disappears.
Improved follow-camera continuity when avatars briefly disappear while crossing parcel visibility boundaries.
Fixed difficulty zooming back in after reaching the maximum camera distance while travelling.
Viewer Improvements
Create an account within the Viewer. Selecting Create account opens a sign-up window inside the Viewer, with separate windows for the Terms of Service and Privacy pages.
Updated Destination Guide. The Destinations window now displays the new Destination Guide with an adjusted window size.
More mouse-binding options. Added support for assigning and saving double-click actions for the right and middle mouse buttons.
Full profiles from Legacy Search. Added a menu option to open a Resident’s full profile from People results.
360° snapshot sound. Taking a 360° snapshot now produces an inworld camera sound.
Portable Viewer storage. Portable installations now store their data within the portable Viewer’s folder.
LEAP camera information. Added an API for requesting the camera’s position and orientation.
Fixes and Stability
Corrected Linux memory reporting to prevent unnecessary texture quality and draw-distance reductions when usable memory remains available.
Fixed gesture deactivation when working with inventory links.
Fixed Voice settings not being reapplied when switching back to the default device.
Corrected title-bar scaling and emoji display in tooltips.
Preserved newer notifications when trimming saved notification history.
Fixed closing a minimized Search window unexpectedly reopening a script window.
Fixed crashes involving removal of worn items, renaming contents of a deleted object, environment changes, Voice playback, shutdown, and file paths containing Unicode characters.
Prevented sensitive login SLapp parameters from being written to the Viewer log.
Please try this Beta and share your feedback, especially on direct-message history across devices, camera behavior while travelling, Linux performance, and Viewer stability.