Nearby Chat Bar in Official Viewer
planned
Sasy Scarborough
In other 3rd party viewers there is a visible nearby chat bar to type into and nearby chat is toasted on screen. This gives people the ability to not only see conversations around them without doing anything to do so, but also gives people the opportunity to respond without having to find the correct place to do so.
New Residents especially have confusion when it comes to taking in all that is going on when arriving new to Second Life, and the chat button is so small compared to everything else, and with no nearby chat, they are unaware they are being communicated with, the world is silent, they are unable to know they are also being IMd as they do not get the same popups as other viewers letting them know something is happening, other than the chat button changes colour. Once they do find it and are able to see things, it can be too late, for them to get the help or understanding needed, it also limits them on understanding how to ask for help, they are just trapped in silence.
https://gyazo.com/f47bb71a356e8ec48f159a9d54236587 an example of chat occuring in other viewers , even the messages that people are entering and exiting a region is something if new and you are not sure what is going on, it gives you a sense of things are happening around you.
It also makes it very confusing for older residents when jumping from viewer to viewer when the most obvious thing is just not there.
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SarahKB7 Koskinen
For reference of what SL Viewer 1's Chat Bar looked like, it was a horizontal white chat bar with a toggle button (a speech bubble) which when clicked either lowered or raised the bar from view.
IM's and Group Chats could also both be read as scrolling text in the main console as well. Text scrolled upwards and the white text had a subtle half-transparent dark surrounding which helped to contrast the white chat text better.
IM's and Group Chats could also be read in the main console, but only replied to by using the Communicate window and their relevant tabs.
Chat Bar photos (up & down) and Console Chat Scroll attached: (Photos taken from Firestorm's current "Vintage" UI skin emulation of SL Viewer V1.23)
Signal Linden
planned
Signal Linden
Merged in a post:
Add Chatbar back to the Official viewer.
Zia Underwood
What it says in the title. in 2011 you guys removed the chatbar which consequently marked the last time i used the official viewer. Not everyone wants to voice especially the rp community, most rp sims don't even have voice on. I think that it would be beneficial for the official viewer to support text rpers with a proper chatbar. And if that chatbar was expandable both horizontally and vertically that would also be useful. Many of us end up typing long posts in a notecard just so we can proof the posts.
Secret Foxtail
I very much like Alchemy's implementation of the floating chat bar, and prefer it to Firestorms.
Zia Underwood
This but make its height and width expandable.
SarahKB7 Koskinen
Yes. A popup/down chatbar would negate the need to have a large Conversations window open all the time, blocking a large portion of the screen area.
Ai Austin
On mobile, I found the separate screen to view chat not very helpful. You had to keep going to that separate screen, losing the 3D view of surrounding avatars, to see if chat was continued. A way to see what is being said nearby, say in bubbles over avatars heads (that fade after a while), and a simple type in box visible on the 3D screen to enter nearby chat would be more useful. It also looks like chat coming from objects and attachments, even translators, is not showing in nearby chat. All things that show in nearby chat on desktop ought also to show on mobile.
SarahKB7 Koskinen
Yes, a Chat Bar is badly needed. The Official viewer did actually used to have a Chat Bar before 2010, but was stupidly removed in Viewer 2! Using the Conversation window in SL Viewer uses too much space and obscures the background. Please reintroduce a horizontal Chat Bar along the bottom of the viewer screen, with a toggle on/off button too. Almost every other viewer has a Chat Bar.
Spidey Linden
tracked
Issue tracked. We have no estimate when it may be implemented. Please see future updates here.
Sasy Scarborough
EDIT:
In other 3rd party viewers there is a visible nearby chat bar to type into and nearby chat is toasted on screen. This gives people the ability to not only see conversations around them without doing anything to do so, but also gives people the opportunity to respond without having to find the correct place to do so.
If you turn on bubble chat in the SL viewer it removes all toasts, therefore you do not see anything being written in nearby or IM you just have the button changing colour.
I still think that people would benefit from the chat bar, being present, and a fix to the bubble feature would also help, as it is a helpful tool to use, to know when people are in the process of typing to you, in case they may take a little longer than is expected.
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