Facebook testing new away messages

Facebook seems to want you to know if your friends are not actively using the giant social network.

According to The Verge, Facebook is testing a new sidebar feature that would allow users to show their current status — and, by extension, see if their friends are online or away.

Facebook told VentureBeat that the new features are being tested in Taiwan and Australia. Users will be able to see their friends’ most recent updates, either a post to News Feed or a new sidebar status.

Users will have up to a dozen or more small picture icons that they can use to accompany their status messages. They will expire after 12 hours or whenever a user posts a new status. The default privacy setting, Facebook said, is Friends, although users can choose who will be able to see their sidebar statuses.