"SLIM" - chat app?

I noticed it is possible to email people and they will receive them as in-game IMs.

Is there any kind of web and/or Windows app that lets you IM people when you are not in-game?

I'd love to have something like AIM to chat with SL friends when I am busy working... and if there was a web version for when I'm behind the firewall at work, even better.

Has someone made something like this or is it possible to create?

I haven't seen this yet, but it's been on my hotline for awhile. I also like the name of SLIM for two reasons... Second Life Instant Messenger is a VERY nice acronym, and communicates the need for it to be compact and elegant, insofar as software solutions go.

As Second Life grows, I would hope that so does bidirectionality. In and out!

I am looking for something better, more reliable, but I have found this . . .

If your IMs are forwarded to your email box, you can reply and the person will get it back as an IM ingame. However, this does not seem to work for all IM/emails, for reasons I do not yet understand.

Also, there is a device you can purchase in-game called E-MAIL TO IM BRIDGE. It requires that your friends touch it to collect their keys, then you can send an IM via an external email. Again, it sometimes does not work.

If anyone has any other methods, I would love to hear them.

Baron

Max Case has a method he uses... see http://www.maxcase.info/ and look on the right.

To the best of my knowledge, E-MAIL to IM Bridge always works.
Usually if there is a problem, it is user error.

I might have completely misnderstood. I thought that when you log onto SL your av gets a unique key identifier which is different for each logon session. So you can reply to an IM sent to your email if the person is still in world. But if they logged out and back in, they wouldn't get the email because the key would be different.

Perhaps....I'm just in a drunken stupor. lol

Almost When you IM somebody who is offline a unique session ID is generated which represents a one way link between two avatars. Any email that is sent to [email]sessionid@im.secondlife.com[/email] will show up as an IM from the recipient of the email to the sender of the original IM.

I have received different information regarding the length of time these sessions are valid, some say 3 days, other say 7; some say the time starts when the IM is originally sent and others say it is reset every time you use it. From my own experience in the past there was a time when months would go by and the session was still valid without any use so I think perhaps the sessions aren't cleaned up on a strict schedule, or at least that used to be the case.

Wasn't there a page that listed all of our keys at one pint? I remember folks complaining about it. Does anyone still have that link?

It was Ulrikas, she left

Note that the keys on Ulrika's site are Avatar keys, not Session Keys - very different.

The session key is what you would need to volley a reply back into SL. From my experience, they seem to go stale after 24 hours.

This question comes up from time to time, it seems. Sadly (or gladly) it is not as easy as that. Let me summarize what is possible and what is not:

1. You can send an email to any object, if you know the objects key (UID). This does not work with avatars, even of you have their keys.
   
   
   
2. Whenever an avatar sends you an IM and you are offline, you get an email. The key, that is embedded in the reply adress, is not the avatars key.
   
   It is a key that is generated individually for this email. You can reply to it but only for a time of 48 hours or so. After this time the key is useless. The algorithm that generates this key is not disclosed by LL. These keys can not be generated outside of SL. This is done so to reduce the chance of easy spamming all SL residents for which you know the key.
   
   
   
3. It is possible to set up a system, with which you can send emails to any avatar, that you know the key for.
   
   This involves sending an email to an object, which you place on your land in SL. When this object receives the email, a script forwards the email as an IM to the resident. (An LSL script can send an IM to any avatar if it has the key of this avatar.) There is a number of products available that do this.
   
   
   
4. There is no public database available anymore that gives you the key if you know only the avatars name. Ulrika once published one on her website. But this website was closed when she left SL.
   
   There are a number of residents which offer to sell or rent you such a list, though.
   
   It is easy to determine this key with a little LSL script, if the resident agrees to it, or if you are near to this resident.

So the answer to the original posters question is "yes" and "no". No, there is no web or windows app which can send IMs to any avatar inworld. "Yes", you can build such a system by combining a commercially available product inworld with email software on your PC.

Kinda like in-game switchrooms and trunks all over SL to keep the communication up and running.

Wow, just had one of those moments where the tv pulls out of the tv and when it pulls out again there is another tv and keeps going and finally when you get the the very end you have no idea what the first tv looked like.