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Linden Lab launches Avaline
The Second Life Avaline service beta has come to a close, and the product is now launching properly. Avaline allows callers on a land-line or mobile to call a logged-in user within Second Life. Connecting to your user of choice is as straightforward as calling into a teleconferencing system. You call an access-number, and then tap in the code for the user you want to speak to. They're notified of the call, and shown the caller's number and then may accept and be placed in a voice session with the caller. If the called user is not online, the call goes to voice-mail (available as an additional service).
What or who is Second Life's Avaline for?
We've been giving a lot of thought to Second Life's new voice service, Avaline (currently undergoing an early beta). Avaline will allow you to pay to reserve the ability for someone on an external phone to call a voice-user through their avatar, by dialing an access phone number and entering a code (much like your basic teleconferencing service, though with just the two of you, apparently). The phone number of the caller is presented before you choose to accept the call. What, exactly, seems to be the use-case here? If the caller is a Second Life user themselves, it is probably more convenient (and cheaper) to fire up Second Life and establish a voice session directly with you, if you're online. Otherwise, we're a bit stumped. Do you tell people, "No, don't call my office. Dial my Second Life avatar instead, because it will be just like talking on the phone!" – Pretty much that would be because it is talking on the phone. It seems hard to envision a niche that the service fits into. We're open to suggestions. Are you a part of the most widely-known collaborative virtual environment or keeping a close eye on it? Massively's Second Life coverage keeps you in the loop.
Second Life racks up 1 billion voice minutes last month. Linden Lab announces new services
Linden Lab has announced that it is currently averaging one billion voice-minutes per month. That's time actively engaged in a voice session, not just time spent with voice support enabled. That's quite a statistic. That puts Second Life's voice service right up there among the top VoIP providers, and around 12% of Skype. That's very impressive. In the 18 months since voice was introduced, roughly 15 billion voice-minutes have been served, through Vivox's voice services for Second Life. Additionally there are new products/services. Some available from today, and some scheduled for later this year.
