White Circle With a Green Check on Teams: Available + Out of Office

A white circle with a green outline and a green check mark on Microsoft Teams means the person is Available, with Out of office on. They are active in Teams right now, but their automatic replies are switched on, or their calendar has an event marked Out of office. Teams draws the out-of-office version of a status as an open icon: the same color and mark, with the middle left white. A solid green circle with a white check is plain Available, with no out-of-office.

Microsoft lists this state as "Available, Out of Office" in its admin docs on user presence. When the person stops using Teams, the icon turns into the purple Out of office arrow.

If you also use Slack, its dot follows other rules: solid green for active, hollow for away. Slack Green keeps your Slack dot green during your working hours, from our servers.

Open green check vs solid green check

The check mark is what separates the open green icon from Status unknown. An empty grey ring means Teams got no presence at all, often for people outside your organization, as covered in Teams status unknown. The open green ring always has a check.

Microsoft's Fluent UI design system, which Teams draws its icons from, has the same rule. Its PresenceBadge component takes a status and an outOfOffice flag, and with the flag set it draws the outlined version of the icon. The red version of the same rule is explained in white circle with a red outline on Teams.

Why the green check turned into a white circle

Two things are true at once when you see the open green check:

• Out of office is on. Microsoft says Out of office "is automatically set for the periods of time where the user sets automatic replies." A calendar event marked as Out of office in Outlook also sets it.
• The person is using Teams. Microsoft's note: "If the user is using Teams during these periods of time, the user's presence is shown alongside the Out of Office indicator."

So a coworker who is on leave but checks Teams from their phone shows the open green check. So does someone who scheduled automatic replies for a trip that starts tomorrow and set the start date wrong, or who forgot to turn them off after coming back.

Hover over the picture or open the profile card. Teams writes "Out of office" in words there, and often shows the out-of-office message and its end date.

How to remove the white circle from your own status

If your own icon shows the open green check and you are not away, turn off Out of office in one place. Teams and Outlook share the same automatic replies.

In Teams:

Select your profile picture at the top right.

Open Settings, then General, and find Out of office.

Select Schedule, turn off automatic replies, and save.

In Outlook:

• New Outlook and Outlook on the web: Settings > Account > Automatic replies, then turn them off.

• Classic Outlook on Windows: File > Automatic Replies, then choose "Do not send automatic replies".

Then check your calendar. An event with "Show as" set to Out of office also turns the marker on for its whole length, even with automatic replies off. Change it to Busy or Free, or delete it.

Teams can take a few minutes to redraw the icon after you change it. Microsoft also notes that for mailboxes hosted on-premises, "presence delays of one hour (maximum) are expected."

Is the person available or not?

They are signed in and active, so a message reaches them and shows as a notification like any other. But they told Outlook they are out, so they may not answer quickly. The kind thing is to check their out-of-office message on the profile card first. It usually says who covers for them.

If the icon changes from the open green check to the purple arrow, they have stopped using Teams, and the automatic reply is now the only answer you will get. What the purple arrow means on its own is in what does the purple arrow mean on Teams.

Other Teams icons people confuse with it

• Solid green with a white check: Available. The normal state while someone is active.

• Grey circle with an x: Offline or Appear offline. See what does the grey x mean on Teams.

• Yellow clock: Away or Be right back.

• Red with a white bar: Do not disturb.

Every Teams icon, with the order Teams uses when two statuses clash, is in Microsoft Teams status icons meaning.

White circle with green check questions

What does a hollow green circle with a check mean on Teams? Available with Out of office on. The person is using Teams while their automatic replies are active.

Why is my Teams status a white circle with a green check? Your automatic replies are on, or your calendar has an Out of office event. Turn off automatic replies in Teams or Outlook and check the calendar.

Is a green outline circle on Teams the same as Available? It is Available plus the Out of office marker. Plain Available is a solid green circle.

Can other people see my out-of-office message in Teams? Yes. It shows on your profile card and when someone starts a chat with you.