A terminal status subscription method, apparatus, and system. The method includes receiving a notification message sent by a presence server serving a first terminal, acquiring identifiers of N terminals according to the notification message, sending N second subscription messages to a presence server separately serving the N terminals, to separately subscribe to status of the N terminals, receiving a status change notification message that is sent by a presence server serving a second terminal, and sending, according to the status change notification message, a publish message to the presence server serving the first terminal such that the presence server serving the first terminal notifies status of the second terminal of the first terminal, and hence subscription does not need to be separately performed such that subscription to status of multiple terminals of a user is implemented, and user operation complexity is reduced.