I'm currently using EssentialsX and BetterSleep, BetterSleep hooks into essentials to check if a player is AFK to adjust it's logic.
I'd like to set an automatic AFK in the essentials config but players and myself find it too spammy/clogging up chat, especially considering this status can already be seen in /list.

For now, you can set userIsAway in messages.properties to a blank message if you'd like to hide the message.

This has been implemented in #2780 and is present in EssentialsX versions 2.17.2.56 and above.