Buddy List Messenger

Away messages are back. Set yours, see theirs, and know who's around — without a feed, an algorithm, or a single stranger.

A green dot next to a name. That's the whole idea.

Buddy List brings back the one thing instant messaging got right and every app since has thrown away: you could look at a list and see who was actually there. Not who posted three hours ago. Who's around, right now.

WHO'S AROUND Open the app and you have your answer before the screen finishes settling. Green means they're here. Amber means they stepped away. Every state carries a shape as well as a colour, so it reads the same if you can't tell green from amber.

AWAY MESSAGES, IN YOUR OWN HANDWRITING "brb, mom needs the phone." Set a status and it goes out to your buddies as a notification. Pick the font. Pick the colour. Six real typefaces, eight colours, and whatever you want to say in them. This is the part where the personality lives.

FRIENDS AND FAMILY Group your people and collapse the ones you're not looking at. Each group shows how many are around out of how many there are.

YOU CONTROL THE LIGHT Go invisible and you appear offline to everyone. Hide your presence and you stop seeing theirs — it works both ways, always, and no screen in the app can get around it. Auto-away marks you away after 24 hours.

We're also deliberately imprecise. "A few minutes ago," never a timestamp. Nobody needs to know you looked.

WHAT'S NOT IN HERE No feed. No algorithm. No recommended accounts, no follower counts, no strangers, no ads. There is nothing to scroll and nothing to catch up on. You add the people you actually talk to, and that's the whole app.

Buddy List needs a phone number to find your friends, and a notification permission to tell you when they're around. That's it.