Outlook Status Colors Meaning: Green, Red, Yellow, Grey, Purple
In Outlook, green means Available, red Busy, In a meeting or Do not disturb, yellow Away, grey Offline or unknown, and purple Out of office. The dot comes from Microsoft Teams presence, not from Outlook. What sets each color, why the status is greyed out, whether you can hide it, and how calendar Show as colors differ.
The coloured dot on a person's photo in Outlook is their Microsoft 365 presence, and each colour has one meaning. Green with a check is Available. Red is Busy, In a meeting or In a call, and red with a white bar is Do not disturb or Presenting. Yellow with a clock is Away or Be right back. Grey with an x is Offline, and a plain grey ring means Outlook cannot read the status. Purple with an arrow is Out of office. Outlook does not calculate any of it. Microsoft Teams sets presence from your activity, your calls and your Outlook calendar, and Outlook displays the result.
Every Outlook status color and what sets it
| Color | Status | What sets it |
|---|---|---|
| Green | Available | You used the computer in the last few minutes with Teams running |
| Red | Busy, In a meeting, In a call | A Busy calendar event, a Teams call, or you chose Busy |
| Red with a white bar | Do not disturb, Presenting, Focusing | You chose it, you are sharing your screen, or focus time is on |
| Yellow | Away, Be right back (the yellow clock) | A few minutes idle, a locked computer, or you chose it |
| Grey with an x | Offline, Appear offline | Teams signed out, the computer asleep, or you chose Appear offline |
| Grey outline | Status unknown | Outlook cannot read presence for that person |
| Purple | Out of office | Automatic replies are on, or an Out of office calendar event is running |
We drew the figure above from Microsoft's own files. Its open-source Fluent UI library ships the presence badge as the PresenceBadge component (@fluentui/react-badge 9.5.6, read on npm on 7 October 2026), with the icons from Microsoft's Fluent system icons and the colours from the Teams light theme in @fluentui/tokens: green #13a10e, red #d13438, yellow #eaa300, grey #616161 and purple #c239b3. The same code shows one case the colour table hides. When automatic replies are on while someone is Busy or in a call, the badge becomes an open red ring with a white middle, not the purple arrow; see white circle with a red outline on Teams.
Microsoft's presence rules decide which one wins. A status you pick by hand can only be less available than the calculated one, so choosing Available does not stop Away when you go idle. Why that happens, and how long each state lasts, is in how to keep your Outlook status green. The icon set is the same one Teams uses; Microsoft Teams status icons meaning shows each icon shape. The steps to pick a status in each Outlook version are in how to change your status in Outlook.
How does Outlook status work?
- Teams is the source. When you sign in to Teams, Microsoft 365 starts tracking your presence. If Teams is closed or signed out, you show as Offline, or as Away for a while after you stop using it.
- Activity. Teams watches for keyboard and mouse input anywhere on the computer. After a few minutes without it, or the moment the screen locks, you turn yellow. The timeline is in does Outlook show Away when idle.
- Calendar. Any event in your Outlook calendar set to Show as Busy turns you red, In a meeting, for its length. An event set to Out of office turns you purple.
- Calls and sharing. A Teams call turns you red, In a call. Sharing your screen sets Presenting, with notifications muted.
- Automatic replies. Turning on automatic replies in Outlook sets Out of office in presence until you turn them off.
- • Teams is not registered as the chat app for Office. In Teams, open Settings, General, turn on Register Teams as the chat app for Office, then restart Outlook. If the status is still missing, the full checklist with the registry fix is in Teams status not showing in Outlook.
- • Presence display is off. In classic Outlook, File, Options, People, check Display online status next to name.
- • The other person is outside your organization. Presence for external contacts shows only if both companies allow it in Teams.
- • Teams is signed out on your computer, or signed in with a different account than Outlook.
Outlook on the web, the new Outlook for Windows, classic Outlook and Outlook mobile all read the same presence. What differs is where the dot appears: on the contact photo in messages, in the people card, and in the To line when you write an email.
Outlook status greyed out or unknown
A grey outline, or no status at all, usually means Outlook cannot read presence. The common causes in classic Outlook for Windows:
If only your own status shows grey, and everyone else is fine, check that Teams is running and signed in. Teams set to start with Windows avoids most of it.
Can you hide your online status in Outlook?
Not from Outlook itself. The only setting in Outlook, Display online status next to name, hides other people's dots from your own view. It does not hide yours. To hide your status from others, open Teams, select your profile picture, and choose Appear offline. Colleagues then see you as Offline in Teams and Outlook, and you still receive messages. How long it lasts and what others see is in how to appear offline on Teams.
Calendar Show as colors are a different status
Outlook uses "status" for a second thing: the Show as value on each calendar event. It controls how the event looks to people who check your free/busy time, and whether Teams turns you red.
| Show as | How the event looks | What presence shows |
|---|---|---|
| Free | No shading | No change |
| Working elsewhere | Dotted bar | No change |
| Tentative | Striped bar | No change |
| Busy | Solid bar | In a meeting, red |
| Out of office | Purple bar | Out of office, purple |
That is why a block of focus time set to Busy makes you look busy in Outlook and Teams, and why a tentative invite does not. It also drives Slack's status if you use the Outlook Calendar app for Slack; see Slack Outlook Calendar integration. What a Tentative reply means for the organizer, and why unanswered invites show striped, is in what does Tentative mean in Outlook.
FAQ
What does the yellow status mean in Outlook?
Away or Be right back. Teams sets Away after a few minutes without input on the computer, or when the screen locks.
What does a red dot with a white line mean in Outlook?
Do not disturb, or Presenting when you share your screen. Teams notifications are muted; Outlook mail alerts are not, as covered in Outlook do not disturb.
Why does Outlook show me offline when I am online?
Teams is not running, is signed out, or is signed in with another account. Outlook takes your status from Teams.
What does purple mean in Outlook?
Out of office, from automatic replies or an Out of office calendar event.
Does Outlook status show if someone read my email?
No. Presence shows availability only. Read receipts are a separate email option the recipient can decline.
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