Overwatch director Jeff Kaplan has laid out in writing plans for new customization functionalities, including selecting skins in-match.
In the “Add ‘Random’ To Hero Emote Selection” forum on their website, following discussion about adding “Random” selection to skins and some other suggested changes for Overwatch, Kaplan explained that Blizzard “want[s] to work on the ability to allow you to have access to more of your customization options (i.e. multiple sprays, emotes etc…)” When asked about the status of the project, Kaplan elaborated, “We have a design. We’re waiting for resources to free up to implement…. so half done?”
More concretely, in response to a comment about changing skins before a match, Kaplan had this to say: “We also would like to give you this option. Our design for it allows for changing skins during “Assemble your heroes” but not after that phase. […] We have two reasons for this: 1) Your team needs you. Go help them[.] 2) We don’t want to add confusion to the “read” of the game by having people constantly changing appearances during the map. This feature has been on our list for a very long time[…] It usually gets deprioritized for other things (such as the Season 2 competitive changes). It’s something we really want to do though.”
Kaplan has previously shown that he has an ear to the ground when it comes to Overwatch players’ experiences, from teases of new updates to responding to player-discovered bugs. With any luck, even a “deprioritized” feature like this will find its way into the game soon.