Users need to set their own status
Aliases: manual presence status · self-reported availability · availability control
What it is
User-controlled availability lets people state how they wish to be contacted rather than letting presence or behavioral proxies speak for them. A setting includes meaning, duration, and exceptions—for example, focused until 15:00 while allowing an on-call contact. Control also means knowing the audience, overriding at any time, and automatic expiry.
Why it happens
Willingness is a first-person preference, and users know about off-device tasks, bodily state, and social context that sensors miss. Manual status corrects those blind spots but becomes stale when forgotten; constant maintenance creates burden. Expiring presets, calendar suggestions, and explicit override let automation reduce entry without taking the final decision.
Studying it
Diary and longitudinal logs can examine setting frequency, stale duration, overrides, exceptions, and interruption regret. Compare fixed presets, free text, and automated suggestions on expressive fit and maintenance effort. Correctness should be assessed with users and context rather than by the same system rule that generated the state.
Where it stops holding
Workplace pressure may make a nominal choice unsafe. Free text leaks private reasons and travels poorly across cultures; coarse presets miss channel and contact differences. Emergency override requires prior agreement and an auditable record.
Applying it
- Provide a small set of expiring presets with contact and channel exceptions.
- Never publish an automatic suggestion silently; allow one-step accept, edit, or reject.
- Return expired status to unknown rather than retaining false busy or available.
- Measure staleness, overrides, and interruption regret longitudinally.