Outside SL making Contact within SL

Hi
I dont know if this is in the right place, but sometimes, I am online, not able to go into SL and I see that some of my friends are in SL, and I want to make contact with them. Is there any feature that is added to the "Friends online" that we can use to send them a message and for them to communicate with us, without having to actually log in?

Hope this makes sense?

Thanks

You can send IMs using e-mail if you wish. If your friend's IM you while you're offline and you get an e-mail copy of it, you can simply reply and your friend will get your reply as an IM, though I think it has limited length.

There are various tools that let you do this automatically as well (without needing an e-mail to reply to), I know there are widgets for OS X, I'm sure something exists for Windows too.

Thanks for this, I will try that, although I remember in the past trying - that was end of last year and it didnt work, but havent tried since.

I reply to the emails all the time. Thing is, you have 5 days before the reply-to address becomes invalid.

I liked the old method better, it was [userfirst][userlast]@im.secondlife.com

It meant I could START conversations...

The new design to support SL inter-operating with OpenSim and other virtual worlds will include the ability to login "halfway" and use group and personal IM as part of the fundamental design within needing to have your avatar appear in-world anywhere.

Read the various wiki stuff about OGP (Open Grid Protocol) for more info (there's an awful lot).

you can also use something like sleek
i think it will sent IMs

It's still beta software, but if you're interested in voice chat without logging in (you really don't have to log in at all, except once to get the voice credentials), check out the VoiceBox software in my signature