Visibility profiles associated with a substantially real time messaging environment are disclosed. Additionally, techniques for managing visibility profiles are disclosed, which include associating a first visibility profile with a first situation, and associating a second visibility profile with a second situation, A visibility profile indicates a set of friends, of a particular user, that are allowed, or disallowed, to view the particular user as available when the particular user is in the associated situation. A situation refers to one or more of a particular time period that a user is logged in, a particular location of the user, a particular device that the user is currently using, or a particular log-in that the user is currently using. Visibility profiles are used to manage the appearance of a user to other users/friends for communication using applications such as instant messaging, electronic mail, web-based mail programs, or other types of data communication exchange applications.