Wagner James Au / New World Notes

Interesting idea from readers, responding to the news that Linden Lab is restricting access to Second Life' many Adult-rated regions in the upcoming mobile viewer, mainly to satisfy Apple's App Store regulations against graphic sex/violence content: 

I had a somewhat skeptical reaction to that at first, seeing how large a userbase the App Store  has. But then reader "Phaethon" riffs on that idea with some specifics:

A helpful approach for an unrestricted Android Viewer would be to just make it downloadable as an APK package from the the Second Life website Viewers page.

This app would be unrestricted like the Alpha app and not require the extra permissions development work/testing.

Residents could easily install the downloaded APK package with a tap in the Files app. Just have to allow sideloading in Android Settings. Supplying it via the [Google] Play App store is not mandatory at all, unlike in Apple's iOS walled garden.

There are also other stores for Android apps as Kaylee mentioned. Linden could still offer a G-rated version for under-18s through Play Store if they wanted to for marketing and visibility reasons.

I hope the Lindens go this route with Android — especially as new high 3D performance Snapdragon Elite chips will be coming to Android phones and tablets soon-ish and will hopefully provide a very good SL experience with a Go-Anywhere app.

Now we're talking! (Maybe.) I definitely think offering multiple versions of the app for multiple devices is worth considering. (And I wouldn't be surprised if Linden Lab is already planning to do that very thing.)

One huge concern is around monetization — my impression is there's increased concern about making in-app payments in an Android app that's not officially hosted by Google. But then again, offering gift cards (both online and at retail) would be a way around that.  

But Phaethon is right that there's probably huge global market among billions of Android users for a Second Life Uncensored app. (I write while lasciviously twirling my mustache.)