Is there a way to IM when not in-world?

I would love to be able to send a quick IM to someone when not in world. Is this possible? And with the relatively frequent crashes - it would be nice to tell friends that I'm having trouble logging back in. Is there a way to IM from RL? I know we can teleport to friends from the website, but can we IM them? Thanks!

AFAIK, currently not. It's a pretty much-wished-for feature, though.

However, you may respond to IMs being converted to e-mails. Any e-mail sent back will reach the other party as an IM. Works like a charm. I'm using it all the time.

Yes, it does. But the mail-address that comes along with IM-mails qre just temporary available. After some time you can not use them anymore.

I think that they make not always available because they could misused very easily for spam.

Morwen.

Tigerlily~
Thank you for asking this! Thought I was the only one wishing for it, but apparently not. I so often would love to send an IM to someone in-world when I'm at the office (and can't get in-world). I hate that I can see who's online, but not communicate with them! Hopefully this is something that can happen in the future!
Kaly

tip for well skilled scripter, if that's possible would be a kinda magic business:
If it's possible implementing the http/rpc LSL to connect in-world objects to a php webpage..
what about implementing a webpage to work as a web-based chat client to send/recieve IM with ppl in-world?
Like an IRC web-client to chat with online people.. PHP web page to In-world IM
Is that possible? ^^

It is quite easy to do, I have built a scripted device which allows me to email into SL and generate an object-to-avatar IM.

There are limitations however. The IM that the avatar recieves will not be an IM from you, it will be from the object you are sending through. They cannot 'reply' to it, they have to initiate an IM session to you to reply. The IM does not appear in the IM 'box' but rather, in chat, with the green object text.

And finaly, you have to know the key of the avatar you wish to contact, not their name.

Because of all these limitations I have not bothered to fine-tune it or sell it - I don't even use it myself, outside of testing purposes.

-Atashi

I would love to have such a feature like that... but as before in this thread, could this not also be misused for spamming masive to SL citizens? That would be bad.

Morwen.

You might also look into the SLeek text-only client available at: http://delta.slinked.net/programming/sleek/

And don't forget that there is a Twitter Box available that allows owners to get twitters in SL!

Kam

Thank you for the information on SLeek! Will have to look into that.
As far as a Twitter Box.....I must be way too new, yet - I have no clue what you are talking about there...
Kaly

My friends in SL know that I'm always on the other end of IMs even if I'm not in SL. They'll just send me an IM and once they send it, I get the email and can chat with them no problem ...I can also initiate the chats to people in world as long as I have their IM address (which shows as a typical email).....or until LL changes the IM address ...which is usually around every two weeks or so.
When that happens I have to wait for my friends to contact me again

I don't understand how you receive IMs in your email? Am I missing something? Mine don't go to my email, I only receive them when I log back in. ? Sorry if this is obvious to everyone else.... Thanks.
Kaly

Slghtly OFF TOPIC question but related,

Can you send a IM without the IM box, like in the normal text chat box with a for example

/MSG USER ID message

Thank you so much!
Kaly

Yes I do it all the time. Go to email settings and check the box that says send IM'S to email. I respond to people in my email and it goes to their IM in-world. Great feature.

Message Boards are another option. Hippotech (Hippotell) do a nice one that allows messages to be posted inworld from any browser anywhere.

Rock

Hello,

If you are hardcore and super-addicted like some of us there are ways to get over the SL shakes when away from your computer.

I set my IMs to reoute to my email account. Then, if you buy a BlackBerry (preferrably, but Treo, Pocket PCs, DASH, MDA, Sidekick III, and other PDA phones with email support work) you can route those emails to your phone.

You can then reply, but as was mentioned earlier in the post the email addresses you reply to are only temporarly usable. At first I tried to store the address to friends and use them later for IMing. It didnt work. Too bad, all I need is a permanant address and I can literally IM back to the game real time witha blackberry.

By 'temporary' does this mean a fixed timeout (if so what is it set to?), or temporary meaning while the resident is inworld (like dynamic DMS)?

The downside to answering IMs from offline is that sometimes people assume the "the user is offline" message they're getting from you means you're hiding your status, not that you're actually 20 miles away from your SL computer. Then they get upset when you don't come see them. Even after you explain.

Handy for friends, though just giving them your gmail chat or whatever is probably simpler.

I have used Sleek, but it logs you into SL, so you can miss things like invites, inventory offers, I think- there are some events you can't react to with it, anyway, and you could "lose" them, not knowing they happened.