• Hey Guest. Check out your NeoGAF Wrapped 2025 results here!

Battle.net Appear Offline + New Social Features Now in BETA

Strakt

Member
https://news.blizzard.com/en-us/bli...n-beta-in-the-blizzard-battle-net-desktop-app

Introducing new social features now available in the beta version of the Blizzard Battle.net® desktop app: the new Social tab, Blizzard Groups, profiles, avatars, and the ability to appear offline! To help get these into as many players' hands as possible, starting today the beta version of the app is open to you and your friends—no invitation required.

To switch to the beta version of the Blizzard Battle.net app, simply open your app settings, click on the Beta tab, and then click Switch to Beta Version.

These features are designed to give Blizzard players even more ways to stay connected, and we're looking forward to continuing to evolve the app and build even more ways for you to stay in touch and join forces for your next adventure.

Social Tab

Our new Social tab is your one-stop-shop for managing all your various social interactions. Whether you're chatting with a friend or engaged in our new Blizzard Groups, you'll easily be able to pick up where you left off in all of your conversations.

Blizzard Groups

Blizzard Groups are a new way for you to connect with your friends and plan your next mission. Players can create and join Groups based on their common interests. There, they can keep in touch, share strategies, and catch up on conversations they might have missed while offline.

Each Group can have multiple text and voice chat channels, and Group administrators have a variety of tools to help manage membership, send out invitation links, and more.

The Groups beta is available now in the Americas region. Head to the new Social tab to get the party started!


S2F6MEPBQHSP1507150275642.jpg


Profiles

Let the Blizzard world know a little bit more about you by customizing your profile!

Your profile will allow you to select an avatar, share what's on your mind with an About message, add links to where people can find you on social media, and more! You can also view profiles of other players if you're curious about a pending friend request or what games a friend plays.

Players using the beta in the Americas region can customize their profile through the View Profile button in the app header and Friends List drop-downs.

OXT0JIUYAZO01507150282621.jpg



Appear Offline

Appear offline allows you to set your status to show you as "offline" to your Blizzard friends while remaining connected to Battle.net. This means you can launch the app and game away without distraction.

Appearing offline will show you as offline to everyone in your Blizzard friends list. Once you have joined a game, the experience of appearing offline might be slightly different depending on which game you are playing. In the case of World of Warcraft, your guildmates will see your character come online and enter WoW's in-game chat channels, and anyone who has you as a character-level friend will see you online on their friends list. Everyone outside of the same game as you will not see you online or playing any games.

Do you see a friend who's offline but you really want to send them a message while it's on your mind? You can now send offline friends messages and they will receive them the next time they come online! While appearing offline you can still send and receive messages in the app, but it is up to you when you want to respond.

YJ7sb0x.png
 
Show as offline is FINALLY coming? Holy shit, I have been craving this since the release of Cataclysm.
 
Wow looks like Discord. Oh well, at least theres another option if Discord experiences interruptions
 
Oh good, you can finally send offline friends messages. That's helpful for seeing when people want to run dungeons.
 
Looks nice enough, and I expect it to get some use w/ Destiny 2 coming out, but I'm probably just gonna stick to Discord.
 
I still remember the Diablo 3 post from 2012 saying it was coming in the coming months on bnet lol.

Exactly! There were so many times I just wanted to play a game myself without being distracted or group up with people. Can finally do that now :D
 
Finally I can blow off my friends to play WoW without them seeing me online. I was still going to do it but now they have less ammo.
 
It's about time. I can't believe we're just now getting the ability to appear offline. The profiles are a nice addition too.
 
Between this and hosting destiny it really seems like blizzard is organically gearing up to be a competitor to steam and discord.

At least they'll sort of be stupid not to take this and run with it.

But I assume it's all planned anyway, the first hint being the name change(and then back).
 
Between this and the new Twitch app it feels more and more that companies are trying to take away users from Discord, which.... I don't think will work?

Watch Steam get a Community/Friends update in six months that turns it into Discord too

But anyway hooray for appearing offline
 
Dang the Overwatch ones are just the 3D models. I need some awesome hand-drawn illustrations stat
Every new app looks like Discord
After two years of everyone saying "Discord looks like Slack", I'm guessing Discord must be pretty psyched people are calling other apps copycats of them instead.
 
Dang the Overwatch ones are just the 3D models. I need some awesome hand-drawn illustrations stat
After two years of everyone saying "Discord looks like Slack", I'm guessing Discord must be pretty psyched people are calling other apps copycats of them instead.
Sorry, I'm not familiar with Slack.

Looked it up though, and you're right. That's kind of crazy how similar Discord looks to Slack.

Never mind then, guess every new app looks like Slack.
 
Did they fix friends lists among multiple regions yet? All the social features in the world don't matter until they make that less of a hassle.
 
Nice! When I made my thread this morning I didn't expect it to be released in beta the same day lol. It seems good, although I wish there was more to the profiles. Hopefully they'll build on it in the future.
 
It's absolutely, rolling on floor hilarious that it took them until 2017 to implement this. I still remember my best friend, a hardcore Blizzard fanboy, defending their decision to prevent you from appearing offline... like five years ago.
 
Top Bottom