Comment 0 for bug 1090419

When I wan't to be available online, I would like to use the messaging indicator to become available (ie set my status to be "Available"). However, doing so has no effect if I haven't previously opened Empathy (or perhaps another properly registered chat program). Also, I am not told that the action I just performed had no effect. I have to guess or learn over time.

Weirdly, if I open empathy and subsequently closes the empathy window, the messaging indicator DOES work to the desired effect, that is, I can change my availability status and it will reflect in my online status in Empathy.

Also, if I have successfully becomed available online, this status is not remembered across reboots. To regain availability after reboot I would, as described above, have to manually open the Empathy window, and then perhaps close it again if I don't wan't to look at it (I only opened it to achieve the side effect of becomning available for chat, so I don't want to actually look at it).

How cumbersome.