Slack now lets you change your status to a custom message with an emoji
How Slack apps can use custom status to add context Andrew Dalton / Engadget : Slack adds status messages, a feature it should have had on day one Blair Hanley Frank / CIO.com : Slack makes it easier to say you're out to lunch Dayna Evans / New York Magazine : Now You Can Send Subtle Hints to Your Boss With Slack's New Away-Message Function Dan Thorp-Lancaster / Windows Central : Slack's new status feature lets you tell your teammates what you're up to Alex Kantrowitz / BuzzFeed : Slack Is Adding Custom Status Messages Nick Statt / The Verge : Slack is adding AIM-style custom status messages Matthew Lynley / TechCrunch : Custom status messages are coming to Slack Tweets: Alex Rainert / @arainert : Set your status in @SlackHQ. Exciting! This is both really useful *and* hits us olds right in that mid-late 90s AIM/ICQ special spot. http://twitter.com/... Justin / @bethejustin : Party like it's 1995 and AIM Away Messages are back? http://twitter.com/... Wiki Chaves / @wikichaves : Finally, we have @SlackHQ status to communicate important stuff http://slackhq.com/... http://twitter.com/... Ilya Abyzov / @ilyaabyzov : I request an option to set my status to passive-aggressive song lyrics to help me recapture the glory days of AIM cc @aunder http://twitter.com/... Ceci Stallsmith / @cecistalls : Fun week continues Current status: :yay: http://twitter.com/... Cap Watkins / @cap : Oh. My. God. Thank you, Slack! (Now, let me put music lyrics as my away message so I can fully relive my AIM days). <3 http://twitter.com/... Paul Rosania / @ptr : Current status: Finally able to tell teammates when I'm out of office: http://slackhq.com/... M.G. Siegler / @mgsiegler : BRB, setting my Slack Status. http://twitter.com/... @slackhq : HEY! You can now set your status to share what you're up to, where you're off to, or... whatever, really. https://slackhq.com/... #changelogpic.twitter.com/1jY6Fnr3AX
Context & Ripple Effects
Custom status closes one of Slack's oldest gaps: until now, saying you were out to lunch meant typing it into a channel or going silent. The framing across the coverage is explicitly nostalgic — The Verge calls it 'AIM-style' — and it lands on a product that has been steadily widening its surface, from the Posts revamp against email to the platform roadmap that told developers interactivity was the theme.
First-order effects
- Teammates get a lightweight availability signal — an emoji plus a message — replacing ad-hoc 'I'm away' posts with something glanceable at the top of the sidebar.
- Per the Engadget writeup, Slack apps can also set or read custom status, giving developers a new context field to build around rather than just end users.
Second-order effects
- The feature normalizes ambient presence data inside work chat, which shifts etiquette: reading someone's status replaces pinging them to ask if they're free.
- The pattern travels beyond workplace tools — five years later Jane Manchun Wong spotted Twitter building its own per-tweet and profile-level statuses under the codename Vibe, suggesting status proved portable from office software to social feeds.
Third-order effects
- If presence signaling keeps spreading, 'status' becomes table stakes across communication platforms — a small feature that defines whether a tool treats your attention as shared context or private state.
The trend: Communication platforms are converging on lightweight, user-set presence signals borrowed from AIM-era messaging, with Slack bringing them into the workplace and social networks like Twitter following.