Slack Green Blog

Teams quiet hours is a phone setting: profile picture, Notifications, Block during quiet hours. It mutes Teams on your phone at set hours or on set days, and nobody else can tell. The desktop app has no quiet hours; here is what to use instead.

Presenting on Microsoft Teams is a status Teams sets while someone shares their screen, a window or PowerPoint Live slides in a meeting or call. It shows as a red circle with a white bar, mutes their notification banners, and ends when they stop sharing. It is different from the Presenter role in a meeting. What each means, how Presenting compares with In a meeting and Busy, and why it sometimes does not show.

No, not in the Teams desktop app. When you minimize it, Teams asks your computer every 20 seconds how long it has been idle and keeps you Available until 5 minutes pass with no keyboard or mouse input anywhere (Teams client code, read 4 Nov 2026). Teams on the web can show Away in a background tab unless you turn on its activity setting, and the phone app shows Away as soon as it goes to the background.

Amphetamine is free and covers almost every keep-awake case, so switch only for a reason: open source, one click, Shortcuts, a lid-closed setup without Enhancer, or nothing to install. The alternative for each, compared on price and features.

Move Mouse is a free, open-source Windows app by Steve Williams that moves, clicks or scrolls on a timer so your PC does not lock or sleep. Get it from the Microsoft Store or GitHub, not from look-alike download sites. It keeps Microsoft Teams and the Slack desktop app green while the PC is unlocked. Settings, why it stops working, and alternatives for Mac.

To turn off or remove the screen saver on a Mac with macOS Tahoe or 27, open System Settings, Wallpaper, Screen Saver..., and set Start Screen Saver to Never. On Ventura to Sequoia it sits under Lock Screen. The display-off timer, the password delay and Hot Corners are separate, plus a Terminal command.

Classic Outlook for Windows shows Teams status only while Teams runs on the same PC and is registered as the chat app. Check that first, then the Outlook option, the registry value and the contact's address.

Yes. When you type in a Microsoft Teams chat, the other people see three animated dots and your name. Teams has no setting to turn the typing indicator off, for users or admins; Microsoft's moderators confirmed it in 2026. Read receipts are a separate feature that you can turn off. How the indicator works, how to write without showing it, and why the dots sometimes go missing.

Your employer can see your keystrokes only if a keylogging tool runs on the computer you type on, such as Teramind, Veriato or InterGuard. Hubstaff, Time Doctor and ActivTrak count activity without recording which keys you press, and Slack and Teams record neither. On a company laptop, keystroke logging is legal in most US states; New York, Connecticut and Delaware require written notice.

ActivTrak detects mouse jigglers three ways: known jiggler apps running on the computer, uniform input patterns from software or USB devices, and 45 minutes on one screen. Flagged time drops out of reports even when no alarm is on.

Teams on a Mac turns Away after about 5 minutes with no keyboard or mouse input anywhere on the Mac, and at once when the screen locks. Lock Screen settings, caffeinate and Amphetamine stop the lock but not that timer, so Teams still goes yellow. A jiggler app, a one-line cliclick script or a USB jiggler creates input and keeps Teams Available. Setup for each.

Status unknown on Microsoft Teams means Teams could not get a presence answer for that person. Microsoft lists four causes: they have not signed in, they set Appear offline, a network problem with the presence service, or they use Skype for Business. It is common for people in other organizations. What it says, and does not say, about someone leaving, and how to fix it when it is your own status.

Discord has five status colors. Green means online, a yellow crescent moon means idle, a red circle with a line means Do Not Disturb, purple means streaming, and grey means offline or invisible. A green phone shape means the person is online on mobile only. What each icon means, plus the mute, deafen, LIVE, crown and gem icons next to names.

The purple circle with a left-pointing arrow in Microsoft Teams means Out of office. Teams shows it while automatic replies are on, or while an Outlook event marked Out of office is running. How to set it, remove it and fix one that is stuck.

The x on a Microsoft Teams photo means Offline: the person is not signed in on any device, their computer is asleep, or they set Appear offline, which uses the same icon. It is dark grey on the light theme and light grey on the dark theme, which is why people call it a black or white x. We read the colours from Microsoft's Fluent UI files.

In Microsoft Teams, Busy is a status you set by hand, and it lasts one day unless you pick a duration. In a meeting comes from an Outlook event, and In a call comes from a live call, so both end on their own. All three show a red dot and still let notifications through. How they differ from Do not disturb and Away, and why Teams shows Busy when you are free.

Focusing in Microsoft Teams means the person has a Viva Insights focus time block on their calendar right now. Their notifications are muted until it ends. You cannot pick Focusing from the status menu yourself.

Yes. With Hubstaff Insights, Hubstaff flags known mouse jiggler apps by name and uses an AI check to flag input that looks automated. Hardware jigglers trip pattern checks such as mouse use with no keyboard for 50 minutes. What Hubstaff records, what it does not, and what managers see.

A PowerShell script that presses F15 once a minute keeps Microsoft Teams Available, because Teams goes Away only after about 5 minutes with no input anywhere on the PC. Copy-ready scripts for PowerShell (F15, Num Lock, stop at a set time), Python and Mac, why SetThreadExecutionState does not work for Teams, and what the script cannot hide.

A mouse jiggler keeps Microsoft Teams green on a Windows or Mac computer, because Teams counts input from the whole system. It does nothing for the phone app, and Teams on the web needs one setting first.

Set a Discord custom status from your profile picture: Add Status, up to 128 characters, an emoji and a Clear After time (Today, 4 hours, 1 hour, 30 minutes or Don't clear), read from Discord's web app code on 2 November 2026.

Do Not Disturb on Discord sets a red status and silences Discord's desktop pop-ups and sounds, including mentions, DMs and the call ring. Messages and calls still arrive, unread badges still count, and Discord says mobile push notifications still come through. How to set it with a timer, how it differs from Invisible and Idle, and why it can turn on by itself.

Teams says "Your status is set to do not disturb. You'll only get notifications for urgent messages and from your priority contacts." Banners stop and calls go to voicemail, but messages still arrive. What gets through, how long it lasts, Busy vs Do not disturb, and how to turn it off, checked in the Teams client code.

Caffeine for Windows presses F15 every 59 seconds, and Teams counts that as keyboard input, so it usually keeps you Available while the PC stays unlocked. Caffeine for Mac and Amphetamine only stop sleep by default, so Teams still sets Away after about 5 minutes unless you turn on their optional cursor setting, such as Caffeine's Keep apps active. The Teams Caffeine Chrome extension works only for Teams on the web.

Last seen on Microsoft Teams is the time Teams last saw you active. It appears next to Away or Offline in a chat header or profile card, never while you are Available, and any device resets it, including a quick look at Teams on your phone. There is no setting to turn it off. What moves the time, why it looks wrong, and what admins see instead.

The Teams spoon trick puts an optical mouse on a shiny spoon. The curved metal confuses the sensor, the cursor jitters, and Teams and the Slack desktop app count that as input. Why it works, why a spoon on a trackpad rarely does, and when it stops.

In the US it is mostly legal for an employer to monitor company devices, accounts and premises, often without asking. The limits are state notice laws in New York, Connecticut and Delaware, consent rules for audio recording and biometrics, bans on cameras in restrooms, and your personal devices. The EU, UK and parts of Canada and Australia add notice and proportionality rules.

Slack has no calendar of its own. The best calendar app for most teams is Slack's free Google Calendar or Outlook Calendar app, whichever matches your email: reminders, invites, a daily agenda and automatic In a meeting status. Add Calendly, Reclaim, a leave tracker or a birthday bot only for the job those miss.

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.

Your employer cannot look up a second job in any government or payroll database. They find out through employment verification services such as The Work Number, the multiple-jobs box on your W-4, LinkedIn, activity on the work laptop, and overlapping hours. What each channel shows, what it does not, and how to check your own record.