Google Chat may not be popular among general consumers, but it does have more use in enterprise settings, especially since G Suite admins picked up the ability to migrate to it from Hangouts earlier this year. It's a small quality of live improvement, but for teams using Google Chat, you can now set your status to away directly from Gmail.

Domains still using Hangouts can indirectly get in on the action as well by disabling the "show when you were last active setting." According to Google, the feature is rolling out as we speak to Gmail's web client, as well as the iOS app. It isn't live yet on Android, but it's coming soon. Update: And it's live in Android.

Admins also don't need to do anything to turn this on (in fact, they have no control over it at all), but end-users can now toggle to a distraction-free "away" state when and as required. The feature is available to most G Suite customers, excluding Essentials.

Earlier this year, Google started finally started tidying up the mess that is the Hangouts to Chat transition, which is expected to kick into full swing early next year.

UPDATE: 2020/12/21 12:09pm PST BY RYNE HAGER

Android support

This feature was previously only available on iOS and Gmail for the web, but you can now set your Chat status to "away" from Gmail in Android as well — a revolutionary new feature only 2020 could deliver.

Source: Google