Does Teams Show Last Seen to External Users?
By default, yes. Microsoft says anyone in any organization using Teams can see your presence, and Last seen is part of the Away status. Your admin decides who outside the company sees it: all organizations, only some, or none with privacy mode. What guests, federated contacts and personal Teams accounts see, and how to check your company's setting.
By default, yes. Microsoft's own admin documentation says that "anyone in any organization using Teams can see (in nearly real time) if other users are available online", and it lists the Last seen time as part of the Away status. So a contact at another company who chats with you through Teams external access can see that you are Away and, where their Teams shows it, since when. Whether that happens is your admin's choice, not yours: external access can share presence with all organizations, only some, or none, and a tenant-wide privacy mode stops your presence from leaving the company at all. Guests in your own teams see your status like coworkers do.
Slack has no Last seen line for anyone, inside or outside your workspace. It shows a green or grey dot, and the dot turns grey after 10 minutes without keyboard or mouse input.
Who outside your company can see your Teams status
| Who | How they reach you | Sees your status and Last seen? |
|---|---|---|
| Guest in your team | Added to your organization as a guest | Yes, like a coworker, in the teams and chats they share with you |
| External access (federated) contact | Chats from their own company's Teams | Yes by default, if your admin shares presence with their organization |
| Personal Teams account (Teams free) | Chats from a personal Microsoft account | Only if your admin allows chats with unmanaged accounts |
| Anyone outside, with privacy mode on | Any of the above except guests | No. Presence is never shared outside the organization |
Guests are the case people forget. A client added as a guest to a shared channel or team counts as a member of your organization for presence, so they see your status, your Last seen time and your status message.
What Last seen shows to anyone who can see your presence
Last seen is the most recent time any of your devices was active. People see it next to your status when you are Away or Offline, such as "Away, Last seen 25m ago", in a chat header and on your profile card. It disappears when you turn Available. What does Last seen mean on Teams has the details, and does Teams show your location covers the other profile fields people ask about.
Microsoft does not document a separate Last seen rule for external contacts. Its presence page treats Last seen as part of the Away state, so plan on this: anyone who can see your presence can see your Last seen time.
How admins control presence for external users
Two settings decide it, both admin-only:
- External access in the Teams admin center (Users > External access). It allows chat and presence with all external organizations, only listed domains, or none. It also has a switch for chats with people using personal Teams accounts.
- Privacy mode, set in the Teams PowerShell module. With it on, presence is never shared outside the organization, whatever external access says:
# hide all presence from people outside the organization
Set-CsPrivacyConfiguration -Identity global -EnablePrivacyMode $True
# check the current value
Get-CsPrivacyConfiguration -Identity global | Select-Object EnablePrivacyModeMicrosoft notes that privacy mode changes can take several hours to reach everyone. Nothing in the Teams app lets a user hide Last seen from outside people only. Your status choices apply to everyone at once.
What you can do as a user
If the concern is how your hours look to a client, remember what drives the status: Teams on a computer goes Away after a few minutes without input or when you lock it, and on a phone whenever Teams is in the background. Many people who look this up also want to know how Last seen compares with Offline and whether Teams shows when you are typing.
FAQ
Can people outside my company see my Teams status? By default, yes, if they use Teams and your admin shares presence through external access. With privacy mode on, no one outside sees it.
Can guests see my Last seen time on Teams? Yes. Guests are treated like members of your organization in the teams and chats they share with you.
Can I hide my Teams status from external users only? Not from the app. Only your admin can, with external access settings or privacy mode.
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