immediate future?

In everyday spoken French, future tense is used far less often by younger people than previous generations. There is no hard and fast rule - but present and future proche convey more certainty of something happening in the near to foreseeable future, while future tense often is used nowadays to suggest more something further ahead in time/maybe in the planning. 

Don't get hung up on the 'immediate' future alone as the determinant.

Hi Chris,

It's a matter of context.

If one uses the expression "ç'arrive" for example. This could mean, "It's happening" or

"It will happen".      We don't know which is appropriate without understanding the context of the dialogue.

You raise an interesting point  --- Let's see the comments of other contributors?

Jim

What Maarten and Jim write is absolutely correct. The immediacy is determined by the speaker and what he wants to express. If he wants to make something sound more immediate, then he is free to use la future proche or even present tense. It's all about context and style.