I would like a physical version of the status message. An e-ink or other low res display with up to 160 char, connected to the internet, which I can place on my desk and can update from my phone to let my co-workers know where I am. Does something like this already exist?
There was an interesting startup from a few years back that would basically issue everybody in your company a dedicated android tablet on a stand that shipped with a customized collaboration software.
I'm not sure I'd like to use it myself, but it had some interesting UX ideas around always on video (but blurred out and audio muted) so you and your team were more "present".
I can't find it now, but a part of it was a better away message setup for the same reasons.
In the past, I had a small whiteboard on my door I could write my away messages on (lunch, meeting, vacation, etc) and people could leave short replies on it when they didn't want to send an email (call me, borrowed your charger. It worked great but only really works when you work in an office all day and can update it when you get back from wherever you went.
