Custom statuses now live on Google Chat for mobile devices

There has been a lot of back and forth with Google Chat, as it is replacing Google Hangouts despite having much fewer features. Google seems to be addressing this by releasing new features to the app. The latest one is having a custom status live on Google Chat and Gmail, even on Android devices.

This feature was initially teased as part of the ‘Spaces’ tweak that was set to roll out to users this summer. But, this feature has just gone live in both Gmail and Google Chat. This feature allows emojis, custom text, and dates for your status. This feature arrived on the web versions earlier this summer already and has now been released to all Android clients as well.

The process was made as simple as possible by developers. In the Google Chat and Gmail web app, you have the option to set your status in the top right corner. When clicking on it, you will get the usual responses such as ‘Do Not Disturb’ and ‘Away’, but there will also be a new option called ‘Add a Status’ where you can add your own customized status. You will also have the opportunity to set a time to clear the custom status, which is useful when setting vacation statuses and notifications.

When setting your status on one app, such as Google Chat, it will automatically sync to Gmail as well, and once in the other app, you will see your set status. It took nearly a month and a half for these features to cross from web only to Android versions, but we are happy to see these catching up to each other, especially with Google Hangouts being replaced with the Chat app.

Closing words

Although we have been waiting for what seems like forever for this feature to come to Android, it has finally arrived. Google Chat and Gmail now allow custom statuses containing text, emojis, and times. I look forward to seeing if Google will be adding more features to the Chat app, especially if they want it to replace Hangouts.

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