Microsoft Teams Status Icons Meaning: Every Colour and Symbol

In Microsoft Teams, a green check means Available, solid red means Busy, red with a white bar means Do not disturb, a yellow clock means Away, a grey circle with an x means Offline, and a purple arrow means Out of office. When Out of office is on, the icon turns hollow: a white circle with a green check is Available, and a white circle with a red outline is Busy.

Colour shows availability and the mark shows the reason. Solid red covers Busy, In a meeting and In a call. Red with a white bar covers Do not disturb, Presenting and Focusing, when notifications are muted. The yellow clock covers Away and Be right back. The grey x covers Offline and Appear offline. The purple arrow comes from automatic replies or an out-of-office calendar event, and it can show alongside another status.

If you also use Slack, its icons work differently: a solid green dot for active and a hollow dot for away; see Slack status icons meaning.

Microsoft Teams status icons list

Microsoft Learn lists the states and notes that Out of office can show next to another status while you use Teams during your automatic-reply period. When that happens the icon turns open: a white circle with a red outline is Busy or In a call with Out of office on, covered in white circle with a red outline on Teams. A white circle with a green check is Available with Out of office on; see white circle with a green check on Teams.

What the icons look like with Out of office on

Microsoft publishes these badges in its open-source Fluent UI library as the PresenceBadge component, so you can read exactly which icon each status gets. We downloaded @fluentui/react-badge 9.5.6 from npm on 7 October 2026 and read its usePresenceBadge.js. When Out of office is on, it swaps the filled icon for a hollow one:

case 'available':
    return outOfOffice ? presenceAvailableRegular[size] : presenceAvailableFilled[size];
case 'away':
    return outOfOffice ? presenceOofRegular[size] : presenceAwayFilled[size];
case 'busy':
    return outOfOffice ? presenceUnknownRegular[size] : presenceBusyFilled[size];
case 'do-not-disturb':
    return outOfOffice ? presenceDndRegular[size] : presenceDndFilled[size];
case 'offline':
    return outOfOffice ? presenceOofRegular[size] : presenceOfflineRegular[size];

We then drew each icon from Microsoft's Fluent system icons with the Teams light theme colours from @fluentui/tokens (green #13a10e, red #d13438, yellow #eaa300, grey #616161, purple #c239b3):

So the purple arrow only shows on its own when you are Away or Offline. While you are Available or Busy, Out of office only hollows out your normal icon. That is why people see a white circle with a red outline and do not recognise it.

Which statuses Teams sets for you

• • Available and Away follow your activity: on a computer you go Away after a few minutes without input or when you lock it; see how long before Teams shows you as Away.
• • In a meeting comes from your Outlook calendar, In a call and Presenting from what you are doing in Teams, and Focusing from focus time booked through Viva Insights (what Focusing means).
• • Offline appears when you are not signed in on any device for a few minutes, or when the computer sleeps.
• • Be right back is never set automatically. Away set by Teams itself is what people call inactive, covered in what does inactive mean on Teams. What Presenting mutes, and how it differs from the Presenter role, is in what does Presenting mean in Teams.
• • The icon is separate from your status message, the line of text you set yourself; ideas for that are in funny Teams status messages.

Which status wins

Microsoft lists the order from most to least available: Available, Busy, In a meeting, In a call, Do not disturb, Be right back, Away, Offline. It also notes that a status you set with a duration does not override a less available one, so a Busy duration will not replace an Away. What the red dot with a white bar blocks, and how long it lasts, is in Teams Do not disturb. How Busy, In a meeting and In a call differ, when each one is set, and why Teams can show Busy with no meeting, is in Teams Busy vs In a meeting.

Teams status grey circle

A grey circle with an x means Offline or Appear offline; how to set it, and what it still shows, is in how to appear offline on Teams. A plain grey or blank icon usually means Status unknown, for example for people outside your organization whose presence you cannot see. Next to Away or Offline, coworkers also see a "Last seen" time; how it is set and why it can look wrong is in what does Last seen mean on Teams. Every cause of the grey x, and how to fix it on your own dot, is in what the grey x means on Teams. What causes Status unknown, and what it does not say about someone leaving, is in Teams status unknown.

Teams status yellow clock

Yellow with a clock is Away or Be right back. Outlook shows the same icon next to names, and a clock on an email means something else; see what does the yellow clock mean in Outlook. If you see it on yourself while you work, see Teams status stuck on Away, and for ways to stay Available, how to keep Teams status available. Skype for Business used the same yellow for Away and a red star for Out of office; see Skype for Business status icons, before Teams.

8x8 Work uses almost the same set: a green check, red for busy, an amber clock for away and a grey X for offline. The differences are in 8x8 status icons meaning.

Skype for Business status icons, before Teams

Teams replaced Skype for Business, and most of the colors carried over. Microsoft's support page "Change your presence status in Skype for Business" lists these states:

The red star sits next to the normal color, so someone can be green with a red star: automatic replies are on, but they are still signed in. Teams shows the same case as an open icon with a purple arrow. Both Skype for Business idle timers can be raised to 360 minutes in Options > Status; see how to keep your Skype status active.

Consumer Skype used round badges: a green check for Active, a yellow clock for Away, a red minus for Do not disturb and an empty circle for Invisible or Offline. Microsoft shut consumer Skype down on May 5, 2025 and moved accounts to Teams Free, which uses the Teams icons above.

Teams status icons not updating

Presence can lag a few minutes. Reset your status, close Teams on other devices, or sign out and back in. Outlook shows the same status; see how to keep your Outlook status green, and for a greyed-out or unknown dot in Outlook, Outlook status colors meaning. Microsoft notes that for mailboxes hosted on-premises, delays of up to an hour are expected. If you use Zoom too, its icons are decoded in Zoom status icons meaning. To show the same status on your desk or door, see Teams status light.

FAQ

What do the Teams status colours mean?

Green available, red busy or do not disturb, yellow away, grey offline, purple out of office. How to set Busy, In a meeting or Focusing on purpose is in how to look busy on Teams.

What does a red circle with a white line mean in Teams?

Do not disturb, Presenting or Focusing. Notifications are muted.

What does the purple arrow mean in Teams?

Out of office, from automatic replies or an out-of-office calendar event. How to clear one that stays is in what does the purple arrow mean on Teams.

What does the yellow clock mean in Teams?

Away or Be right back.

Does Teams show when someone was last active?

Microsoft lists an "Away, last seen" state that shows the time.