IMVU Compatibility Guide

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Wondering what is the best IMVU Version that will work well on your device? Check out the following Compatibility Guide for different IMVU Platforms: 

IMVU Mobile

Android

OS: 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 and 13

Supported for 3D:

• Devices with OpenGL v3.0 and above get 3D chat rooms by default
• We have removed the support of OS 9 Adreno phones with GL driver bugs to reduce crash rate, that happens on those devices because of a bug on the GPU driver that ships with Android 9 (use of GLSL 3.0 + Android 9 exposes the bug which makes the app code to crash)

Devices:

• Our design supports phones only. Not designed or downloadable for tablet.  (ref: decision made on 17 July 2018 iOS and Android Product Decision Log)
• However, some Android tablets (like Pixel C tablet) do not "report" themselves as tablets, so they can download the app from the Play Store (We just need to verify nothing crashes or breaks)

iOS

OS: 14, 15, and 16

• iOS 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13 are not supported in any capacity. IMVU app for iOS cannot even be downloaded. 

Supported for 3D:

• Devices with A8X processor chip or newer get HD 3D Avatars enabled by default

Supported Models:

Phones:

Supported to download new updated versions:

• iPod touch 7th gen 
• iPhone6S  (2015)
• iPhone6S Plus (2015)
• iPhone 7 (2016)
• iPhone 7 Plus (2016)
• iPhone 8 (2017)
• iPhone 8 Plus (2017)
• iPhone X (2017)
• iPhone XS (2018)
• iPhone XR (2018) 
• iPhone 11 (2019)
• iPhone 11 Pro
• iPhone 11 Max
• iPhone SE (second gen)
• iPhone 12
• iPhone 12 Pro
• iPhone 12 Pro Max
• iPhone 13
• iPhone 13 mini
• iPhone 13 Pro
• iPhone 13 Pro Max
• iPhone 14
• iPhone 14 Pro
• iPhone 14 mini

iPads:

Supported to download new updated versions:

• iPad 5th to 9th gen
• iPadAir 3rd to 5th gen
• iPadAir 2 
• iPadMini 4 
• iPad mini 5th and 6th gen
• iPadPro (9.7in)  
• iPad Pro (10.5in)
• iPad Pro (11in) 1st to 3rd gen
• iPadPro (12.9in) 1st to 5th gen

IMVU Classic (IMVU Client) & IMVU Classic Website (minimum requirements)

Windows

• Windows 7 SP 1 (Service Pack 1) or later
• 1 GHz Processor
• 512 MB RAM
• Intel GMA 950 video card or better
• 2 GB free disk space
• Consistent Internet connection

Mac

• 2 GB RAM
• Intel Core 2 Duo
• Intel GMA 950 video card
• Basically, if you have a Mac Mini or later, you should be set 
• For your iDevice, download our IMVU Mobile app from iTunes
• Consistent internet connection

Note: Mojave should run IMVU Classic Mac Client. macOS 10.14 Mojave (10.14) was the last version of macOS to support 32-bit applications, and Apple dropped support for it in October 2021. Starting with macOS 10.15 Catalina in 2019, macOS no longer supports 32-bit software and plug-ins. However, for many users, Catalina blocks apps that they've relied on for years, especially games that developers have not updated to support 64-bit executables.

IMVU Desktop & IMVU Studio (minimum requirements)

Windows

• Windows 7 SP 1 or later
• 1.4 GHz Processor
• 6GB RAM
• Integrated Graphics
• 5 GB free disk space
• Consistent Internet connection

Mac

• Core i3 1.5GHz Processor
• 2GB of memory
• 5 GB of available storage
• Integrated Graphics
• Basically, if you have a Mac Mini or later, you should be set 
• For your iDevice, download our IMVU Mobile app from iTunes
• Constant Broadband Internet connection

Recommended Windows

• Windows 10 or later
• 2.0 GHz Processor
• 8GB RAM
• Dedicated Graphics with 2GB VRAM or better
• 100 GB free disk space
• Greater than 100Mbps Internet connection

Recommended Mac

• Core i5 2.0GHz Processor
• 8GB of memory
• 100GB of available storage
• Dedicated Graphics with 2GB VRAM or better
• For your iDevice, download our IMVU Mobile app from iTunes
• Greater than 100Mbps Internet connection

Mac Version Reference

• OS X 10.9 Mavericks (Unsupported)
• OS X 10.10 Yosemite (Unsupported)
• OS X 10.11 El Capitan (Unsupported)
• macOS 10.12 Sierra (Unsupported)
• macOS 10.13 High Sierra
• macOS 10.14 Mojave
• macOS 10.15 Catalina
• macOS 11.6.5 Big Sur
• macOS 12.3.1 Monterey

IMVU Website

• Windows 7-10 (Microsoft support for Windows 7 ended on January 14th, 2020)
• Mac OS Mojave and Catalina and Big Sur 
• Desktop Browsers: Edge, Chrome, Safari, Firefox. Make sure you upgrade to the latest browser version.
• Mobile Browsers: Chrome and Safari (both iOS and Android). Make sure you upgrade to the latest browser version.
• Support for Internet Explorer 11 was dropped on September 1st, 2020.

Other Comparison: 

32-bit versus 64-bit

• IMVU Classic will run on both 32-bit or 64-bit Windows systems. 64-bit Windows is able to run 32-bit programs in compatibility mode.
• IMVU Classic will run on both 32-bit or 64-bit Mac systems. However, starting with macOS 10.15 Catalina, 32-bit support is completely dropped and IMVU Classic will NOT run on it.
• IMVU Desktop will run on both 32-bit or 64-bit Windows systems and on 64-bit Mac systems only.
• IMVU Studio will run on 64-bit Windows and Mac systems only.

Windows 7 versus Windows 10

Even though Windows 7 is no longer supported by Microsoft, it's still viable to run the IMVU Classic (IMVU Client) on it. There would be no real benefit to changing the minimum support we list on the download tiles for IMVU Classic to be Windows 10, since it still works on Windows 7 and it's still going to be around for a long time.

2D versus 3D modes

IMVU Website and IMVU Desktop can be run in both 2D and 3D modes.

2D

• Its minimum requirements are almost identical to 3D.
• It uses slightly less network bandwidth than 3D (doesn't have to download Northstar, which is 1 MB+).
• It is somewhat less CPU-intensive. We only load server-side rendered images (SSR), rather than render real time 3D scenes.
• Browsers will still use 3D hardware acceleration, if available, to speed up 2D rendering.

3D

• Requires a 3D card with a GPU capable of processing shaders. In Windows terminology, this is "roughly DirectX 9 level".
• In 2020, almost every device with a GPU has satisfied this requirement for 7 years or more.