A public record of meaningful product improvements during beta. Dates reflect when changes became part of the Presence product, not third-party marketplace approval dates.
LATEST
Instant beta access and a clearer first setup
New users can start the personal beta immediately with a verified Google or Microsoft sign-in while Presence still records the signup for CEO visibility.
Exact-email team invitations now return the invited person to the team invitation after sign-in instead of dropping them into the old approval wait.
Added a four-step first-run checklist for connecting a calendar, seeing or testing a status, opening a live shared view, and confirming that another person or device saw it.
Added a privacy-safe Create your own Presence link to personal, Reception, and Team views, and kept guided Church Office Pilot and nonprofit organization requests on their own personally reviewed path.
BETA
Optional status GIFs powered by GIPHY
Added an official GIPHY search and picker with up to 50 workplace-safe results for each core Presence status.
Added separate opt-in controls for Tablet Display, spouse and trusted links, and Reception View; existing status logic and integration priorities remain unchanged.
Added team-lead approval before a member's GIF can appear on Reception or Group Views.
Presence stores official GIPHY references rather than rehosting GIF files, displays required attribution, and provides a still-image experience when reduced motion is requested.
BETA
Private feedback and approved customer stories
Added a signed-in feedback form that sends each response privately to Arron and saves it in the CEO dashboard.
Added optional photo uploads with hidden metadata removed before storage, plus explicit publication permission that is off by default.
Added a one-click CEO review queue; only consented and personally approved reviews can appear publicly.
Added a homepage customer-review section that remains completely hidden until the first review is approved.
MILESTONE
The Presence Journal launches
Published the founder story behind Presence: a privacy-safe office status system built after working from home with a seven-year-old.
Added a shareable Journal home and article pages with structured data for search and AI discovery.
Added a quiet, dismissible review request in Settings that invites honest public or private feedback without rewards, star gating, or disruptive popups.
BETA
BUSY Bar Focus handoff enters beta
Added an encrypted connection to the official BUSY Cloud API with device verification, pause, test, and disconnect controls.
Presence can now start the user's configured BUSY profile when the trusted core status resolves to Focus and stop it when Focus ends.
Kept meetings, calls, recordings, Busy, and Away from unexpectedly starting app blocking; existing Presence priority rules remain unchanged.
BUSY App remains responsible for its own cross-device notification and app-blocking settings, while Presence deliberately avoids collecting app lists, browsing history, or blocked-open attempts.
BETA
Digital Knock comes to Presence for Mac
Added native Mac notifications that show who knocked and the privacy-safe request message.
Added Come on in and Not right now actions in both the notification and Presence menu-bar menu.
Added a visible exclamation indicator beside the Presence menu-bar status dot until the knock is handled.
Updated the installer to package Presence as a proper background Mac app so notification permission and menu-bar startup work reliably.
Kept Chrome notification delivery available so users can receive a knock even when the Presence website is closed.
MILESTONE
Presence for Zapier private beta is live
Uploaded Presence for Zapier as an installable private integration with secure OAuth account linking.
Added the native Presence Status Changed trigger plus Set a Presence Status and Return Presence to Automatic actions.
Passed all 16 structural validation checks with no failed checks or publishing blockers; the remaining date-format notice clears after the first successful beta Zap run.
Added a private-beta invitation to the Presence dashboard while keeping supported Zapier and IFTTT webhook workflows available.
BETA
Clearer third-party brand and integration notices
Published one centralized notice explaining that Presence is independent from the third-party companies it connects with or references.
Clarified that compatibility, OAuth verification, skill certification, and marketplace review do not by themselves mean sponsorship or endorsement.
Added the notice to the site footer, Terms, integrations directory, and sitemap.
Replaced potentially confusing partner language with the more accurate marketplace-review label.
BETA
Native Zapier and IFTTT connections are ready for marketplace review
Built a production OAuth 2.0 connection shared by the native Zapier and IFTTT integrations.
Added a privacy-safe Status Changed trigger plus Set Status and Return to Automatic actions.
Published production API documentation and prepared platform-specific integration packages and review materials.
Kept the working encrypted webhook beta available while public directory timing remains subject to each platform’s review.
BETA
Presence for Mac becomes a menu-bar app
Added a visible Mac menu-bar experience with the user's live Presence status and current message.
Added one-click Available, Focus, and Away controls plus Return to Automatic without opening the dashboard.
Kept the existing privacy-safe iPhone call, OBS recording and streaming, and user-selected Focus App signals in the same lightweight app.
Added device-authenticated status controls and automatic startup at Mac login; the downloadable beta is not yet Apple-signed or notarized.
BETA
Zapier and IFTTT automation webhooks enter beta
Added encrypted outgoing webhook connections for Zapier Catch Hooks and IFTTT Webhooks.
Status-change events include only the final simplified status, display message, color, and event time.
Automation failures remain isolated and cannot interrupt Presence status calculation or other connected outputs.
BETA
BusyTag status lights enter beta
Added a direct BusyTag connection using Luxafor’s official cloud webhook.
BusyTag mirrors the final Presence status color only after calendar, meeting, call, Focus, Away, custom-status, and manual-override logic has resolved.
Added encrypted per-user setup, a purple connection test, pause and disconnect controls, duplicate-update protection, and visible connection health.
BusyTag remains an output only: it cannot change Presence, and a device or Luxafor outage cannot interrupt status calculation.
BETA
Digital Knock gets louder and more reliable
Added an optional two-note Digital Knock chime alongside Chrome's system notification and persistent red badge.
Added a one-click Digital Knock test so each Chrome profile can confirm notifications and sound before receiving a real request.
Extended the delivery window to three minutes to better tolerate sleeping computers and delayed Chrome background checks, while keeping accepted and declined results on Reception View for only one minute.
Added installed-versus-latest Chrome version guidance, clearer profile naming, and a v0.7.0 release package with the recent meeting cleanup fixes.
BETA
Microsoft Teams browser meetings
Added privacy-safe Microsoft Teams meeting detection to Presence for Chrome v0.6.
Presence checks only for the leave or hang-up control that indicates an active Teams browser session—never meeting names, participants, chat, audio, or video.
Improved calendar connection health so a failed connection no longer makes Presence appear fully connected.
BETA
Optional display themes, with Default left alone
The existing tablet and office display is now named Default and remains the starting experience.
Added opt-in Neon Sign, Color Wash, Broadcast Studio, and Executive Lobby layouts from the display controls.
Neon Sign uses a self-hosted Neonderthaw script face, status-colored room glow, and a restrained occasional flicker with a reduced-motion fallback. Longer statuses automatically switch to a clearer tube-style face.
Theme choices are saved locally per display, so one office screen can look different without changing a spouse link, Reception View, or another device.
All layouts retain live status updates, custom status colors, fullscreen controls, screen-awake support, dimming behavior, and burn-in protection.
BETA
Custom statuses, without breaking the smart parts
Added a reusable Custom Status Builder with a personal display name, message, color, and default duration.
Every custom status maps to a trusted core behavior such as Focus, Busy, Away, or Available, so Digital Knock, Alexa routines, integrations, analytics, and weekly recaps continue to behave consistently.
Custom wording and color now follow the user across the dashboard, tablet and office displays, private spouse links, Reception and Group Views, and TRMNL output.
Custom statuses use the same clear expiration and Return to automatic controls as other manual choices, with a limit of five saved statuses per person.
BETA
Android displays stay awake more reliably
Added automatic Screen Wake Lock support to the dedicated Presence display on compatible Android browsers, including current Chromium-based tablet browsers.
Presence requests the lock again after the display returns to the foreground and retries after a user interaction if the browser releases it.
Added a quiet Keep screen awake recovery action when a browser or battery setting blocks the automatic request; device power-saving rules can still take priority.
BETA
A calmer, mobile-first dashboard
Organized the dashboard into Today, Connections, Sharing, Team, and Settings so everyday status controls remain easy to reach.
Added clean, remembered accordion sections for dense setup areas without hiding real behavior behind ambiguous toggles.
Improved Google Calendar selection and simplified named-place setup on narrow phone screens.
BETA
3CX call status enters beta
Added opt-in 3CX web-client detection to Presence for Chrome v0.5, limited to the exact 3CX site a user approves.
Added a 3CX Direct API connector for eligible Enterprise PBX systems, with the PBX secret kept on the customer-controlled computer.
Both paths send only connected or disconnected call state—never caller names, phone numbers, contacts, recordings, audio, or conversation content.
BETA
Todoist can now start a private Focus block
Added a native Todoist task action for 25, 50, 90, or custom Focus sessions.
Presence automatically returns to normal status logic when the selected Focus time ends.
Task names, projects, descriptions, labels, due dates, and comments are deliberately ignored and never stored.
MILESTONE
Presence is Google OAuth verified
Google approved Presence’s OAuth verification for read-only calendar events.
Google Calendar connections can now use the verified consent flow without the unverified-app warning once Google’s approval finishes propagating.
The approved access remains intentionally narrow: Presence reads calendar-event availability to calculate status while keeping event details off shared displays.
BETA
Working hours that match the real week
Added a clean day-by-day work schedule, so Tuesday can end at 3 PM while Thursday follows completely different hours.
Added simple Off days and a Copy Monday to weekdays shortcut.
After hours, Presence now calculates the next scheduled start in the user’s timezone while meetings, calls, live activity, and manual choices continue to take priority.
BETA
Digital Knock comes to trusted links
Added Digital Knock to the private spouse and trusted-person status view.
Knocks follow the same availability rules and preferred Chrome profile used by Reception View.
Visitors can see Come on in or Not right now without gaining access to calendar details.
BETA
Knocks now go to the right Chrome profile
Added a Primary Knock Device and optional fallback, so work knocks can stay in a work Chrome profile instead of appearing in every browser.
Reception View now clearly says when someone is not receiving knocks and offers their scheduling link when available.
Kept fallback delivery off unless the user explicitly chooses another connected Chrome profile.
BETA
Digital Knock and a smarter Reception View
Added status-gated Digital Knock: visitors can request a conversation only while someone is Available or Available if needed.
Added Chrome notifications with Come on in and Not right now responses, so the Presence website does not need to remain open. Digital Knock notification delivery is included in Chrome v0.4 and rolls out to existing extension users after Chrome Web Store approval.
Added a respectful Find a time fallback for every other status when a user provides their public scheduling link.
Added user-controlled job titles, workplace labels, and a simple option to hide from Reception View.
Added privacy-safe out-of-office matching with the person's expected return day shown in Reception View.
Prepared individual Google Calendar selection behind a compliance gate; primary-calendar connections remain live while the additional read-only permission awaits separate Google verification.