Slack is adding AIM-style custom status messages
Team collaboration app Slack is adding a subtle but important feature to its service today that borrows from age-old chat traditions: the status message. Once a staple of AOL Instant Messenger (RIP), to let your friends know what you were up to or to share very tacky late-‘90s emo lyrics, this feature should be pretty useful for organizations of diehard Slack users. Now you can let your co-workers now when you’ve gone to lunch or are out for the day or, most importantly, when you’re on vacation and would much rather not be bothered.
If it sounds somewhat trivial, it’s worth remembering how Slack users have handled this in the past. Right now, you can only denote yourself as online (green dot), busy (red dot), or offline (no dot). So if…