Upcoming Status System Changes

Tupper
VRChat
Published in
4 min readFeb 24, 2020

--

A while back, we introduced “VRChat Status”, which was a quick way to let your friends know what you were up to, and to modify your status so you could help enforce how invitations worked. If you wanted to be somewhere and not be bothered, we wanted to give you that ability. However, we’ve got some changes on the way!

These changes will make it easier for you to be in a “do not disturb” mode a lot more reliably, and control when friends can join on you. We’re also going to introduce a new status type. These are big changes, so please read, inform yourselves, and tell others about these changes!

These changes will roll out in two stages, as some of them require a VRChat client update. We’ll split it into two sections — changes that are coming today, and changes that are coming later. We don’t have a date for the update for “later” just yet, but we’ll let you know when we do!

Changes Coming Today

One of the biggest changes to the status system is how the Red status works. First, we’re going to change the name. Currently, this is called “Busy” status, and we’re going to change the name to “Do Not Disturb”. The name won’t change until we update the client.

However, we’re also changing how this status works, and that change is happening right now!

Currently, the Red status will prevent invite requests or notifications from popping up on your screen.

However, with changes we are rolling out very soon, Do Not Disturb status will also hide your location from all other users (including friends). This means you can be in a Public instance with others, and others will only see you as online in a private world.

This user is in a Public world, but they show in a Private when they’re in Do Not Disturb mode. Note: Until we have the new update, this will read as “Busy”. Later, it will be called “Do Not Disturb”.

This is the status to use if you want to explore on your own.

Keep in mind that DND status will also hide notifications, so you won’t see “Request Invite” notifications when using this status.

The change to the Do Not Disturb / Red Status will be rolling out very soon, and will likely be out by the time you’ve read this!

If you want your location to be hidden but still receive invite requests, we’ve got that change lined up too!

Let’s move on to what’s coming Soon (but this time, with a ™).

Upcoming Changes

In an upcoming VRChat client update, we’ll be making changes to some of our status types! Here’s a summary of how they will work with these changes.

Please keep in mind that these changes are still in development, and may change before they are released to Live. These changes below are not currently live or available yet, as they require a client update. Soon™!

The Online or “Green” status will remain the same. Friends can join on you like normal, depending on what instance you’re in. There’s not really any changes here.

If you’re roaming around VRChat, or don’t care to mess around with settings too much, this is the setting to use.

Join Me or “Blue” status also remains the same. This status encourages others to join you. When in Join Me status mode, if a friend requests to join on you and you have the ability to invite them, the invitation will be automatically accepted.

If you’re throwing a party or looking to hang out, this is the status to use.

Ask Me or “Orange” status is a new status type! When in Ask Me status mode, your location will be hidden, but you’ll still get Invite Requests.

If you want to have some time exploring on your own but don’t mind if friends ask to tag along, this is the status to use.

For all the status types, we also tweaked the colors a bit to differentiate them and improve contrast.

Paint Me a Picture

These descriptions might be a bit much, so we made this to summarize the changes:

The changes that are going into place right now are that when you’re in “Red” status, you are always going to be shown as being in a private instance, no matter where you are. The rest of the changes are coming later.

We hope these changes will give everyone more control over how experiencing their time in the VRChat universe.

We’ve got a lot of other features in the pipe, so please stay tuned for more info as we move forward!

--

--