Feature request: Set user status while in call

[doersino]

(My company is running Mattermost Server 7.1.4, so if this feature has been added in newer versions, disregard this issue - a brief google and a look at the code has yielded nothing relevant, though.)

As far as I can tell, if users call each other in DM channels (or private channels that a third user has no access to), there's no way for a third user to tell they're in a call. Are there plans to introduce a special user status (in addition to "online", "away", "do not disturb") for users currently participating in a call to indicate to their collegues that they might be unavailable?

[streamer45]

Hi there. This has been brought up a couple of times in internal discussions but no concrete plans have been made yet. Overall I think it would makes sense to either have a dedicated status for calls or at least an option to automatically set the user's status to "do not disturb" mode while in a call.

@tanmay-des @itao What do you think?

[itao]

I think there are two goals for the user here:

1. Set expectation with other colleagues that their response may be delayed
2. Mute notification to avoid potential disruption to the ongoing call

The Do Not Disturb status accomplishes both of those, while a custom status would more narrowly focus on the former. So I think it'd make sense to start with automatically set/clear Do Not Disturb status as the user joins/leaves a call, and keep an eye out for feedback to inform future iterations such as a setting to make this option or to set custom status instead.