How to keep your Teams status green,and what actually works in 2026.

Teams decides you're Away when there's been no keyboard or mouse input on your computer for more than five minutes. Microsoft's troubleshooting page gives that number, and neither you nor your admin can change it. Locking the computer makes you Away straight away, and sleep makes you Offline. Microsoft's support article also lists minimizing the Teams window as a cause.

Two less obvious ones: your phone and the browser. On the mobile app you're Away as soon as Teams is in the background. And when you're signed in on several devices, the one you used last decides your status, so scrolling Teams on your phone can make the laptop show you Away. In Teams on the web, working in another tab used to look like being away, until a new setting fixed that (see the official ways below).

This is where most people get stuck. Teams only lets a status you pick by hand be less available than the one it works out itself. You can choose Busy while you're active, but you can't choose Available while Teams thinks you're Away. So picking Available doesn't stop the five-minute timer.

The Duration option doesn't help either. Microsoft is explicit: you can set a duration for every status except Available. Guides that tell you to “set Available for a week” are wrong. Without a duration, Busy and Do not disturb last a day, Appear offline lasts until you change it, and the others last seven days.

Teams on the web: turn on activity outside Teams. Since December 2025 the web version can use your activity anywhere on the computer. Open Settings and more (the three dots) > Settings > Notifications and activity, then under Presence turn on Keep my current status when I'm active outside of Teams on the web, and click Allow when the browser asks. It's off by default and needs Chrome 94 or Edge 114 or newer. The desktop app already works this way.

Keep the Teams window open, not minimized. Microsoft's own advice is to keep it visible, for example on a second screen or with Windows split screen.

Say it in a status message. The dot only measures input, so tell people what it can't: click your profile picture > Set status message, write something like “Heads down on the release, I reply within the hour”, tick Show when people message me, and pick when it clears. It shows next to your name and pops up when someone starts a chat with you.

Stop the lock and sleep causes. If your screen locks or the laptop sleeps after five minutes, you'll be Away or Offline even while you read a long document. Lengthening those timeouts in Windows or macOS settings helps, if your company's security policy allows it. On a managed laptop it often won't.

PowerToys Awake no longer works. It keeps the computer from sleeping, but it doesn't send input, and since new Teams updates in early 2024 Teams ignores it. The PowerToys maintainers have said it's working as intended and that they have no plans to make it control Teams.

Playing a video doesn't work for the same reason: it keeps the screen on but sends no keystrokes. “Mouse mover” websites can't move your real cursor, so they don't work either.

What does work is anything that creates real input. Caffeine for Windows presses F15 (a key nothing uses) every 59 seconds; a PowerShell script can do the same; software jigglers nudge the mouse; a USB jiggler pretends to be a mouse. Teams can't tell the difference, so you stay green.

But your IT team may be able to tell. A USB jiggler shows up as a new device, software jigglers and scripts send input that Windows marks as simulated, and endpoint tools on company laptops look for both. In 2024 Wells Fargo fired more than a dozen employees for “simulation of keyboard activity”. If you're thinking of using one, read your company's policy first. On a personal computer you're free to do what you like.

Microsoft's rules say that during a call or meeting you can pick any status, and it holds until the call ends. That's why the old tip is to start a Meet now meeting with just yourself and leave it running. In practice people report that Teams shows In a call (red), not green, and the meeting can show up in reports. It keeps you from going yellow, but it signals Busy, which defeats the point if you want people to message you.

When you really are away, use the status that says so. In Teams, click your profile picture > Set status message > Schedule out of office, or go to Settings and more > Settings > General > Out of office > Schedule. Turn on Turn on automatic replies, write a message, and tick Send replies only during a time period to set the dates. Save, and you're purple for exactly those days.

It's the same setting as Outlook's automatic replies, so setting it in one sets it in the other. An all-day event in your Outlook calendar shown as Out of office turns you purple too. Need words for the message? The out-of-office message generator writes one for Teams in a few clicks.

Stuck on Away or Offline while you're working: sign out and back in, and make sure you're not also active on your phone, since the device you used last wins. Admins can run the Teams presence diagnostic in the Microsoft 365 admin center.

Status unknown: the person isn't signed in, is set to Appear offline, has left the directory, or is outside your organization (in Outlook). If it's everyone, it's usually a network or presence-service problem that clears on its own.

Teams status not showing in Outlook: Teams must be installed, running and set as the default chat app for Office, and your Teams and Outlook sign-ins must be the same address. If it's still missing, reinstalling Teams usually restores the presence add-in.