Microsoft Teams Status: Unlocking All Features in One Guide

If you use Microsoft Teams, you know that it’s a hub for all sorts of activity; files are shared, files are edited/worked on by multiple people, polls are run, meetings are held, calls are made, and one-on-one chat/text-based conversations happen. If you, and everyone at work, use the app as their main communication tool, you likely have notifications popping up all the time.

Microsoft Teams is a stand-in for a virtual meeting in many ways and much like meetings in the physical world, you should be able to stop other messages/calls/or meetings from interrupting you. In the absence of a door to keep people out, you can utilize a status that basically announces to your team that you’re busy and won’t be able to answer messages and/or calls right away.

Types of Microsoft Teams Statuses

Your Microsoft Teams status allows you to set a status that is visible to everyone on your team, and tell them if you’re likely to reply to them any time soon. The status that you set doesn’t act as any sort of deterrent i.e., it isn’t going to block messages however, it will limit them depending on the type of status you’ve set. 

Microsoft Teams has six different status types;

• Available
• Busy
• Do not disturb
• Be right back
• Appear away
• Appear offline

Microsoft Teams Available status

Microsoft Teams ‘Available’ status is the default status that is set for a user. When this status is set, a user will get all notifications; messages, calls, video calls, invites, etc. 

Microsoft Teams Busy status

Microsoft Teams ‘Busy’ status will change the otherwise green Available status indicator to red. It won’t block messages but it will be visible to everyone in your team and they will have to choose to not message or call you.

Microsoft Teams Do not disturb status

The Microsoft Teams ‘Do not disturb‘ status will turn the green ‘Available’ status indicator to red but, it will also block messages and calls from everyone unless they are urgent.

Microsoft Teams Be right back status

Microsoft Teams Be right back status will change the red or green status icon to yellow indicating that you’re away or unlikely to respond but messages and alerts will continue to arrive. It only tells your team members that you’re not at your desk.

Microsoft Teams Appear away status

The Microsoft Teams Appear away status mimics what happens if you’re signed into Microsoft Teams but have been idle too long. Instead of waiting or actually going idle, the Appear away status will change it so that you appear to have been idle to other team members

Microsoft Teams Appear offline status

The Microsoft Teams Appear offline status allows users to sign in to the app but remain invisible or offline to all others in their team. Of course, if you reply to a message or join a call, you’ll give yourself away.

Why Does Microsoft Teams Automatically Set My Status to Away?

If your computer is idle for five minutes or more, Microsoft Teams will automatically change the status to Away. There isn’t any way to change this behavior, so you can’t set your availability status manually and expect it to stick around forever. This is a feature, not a bug. You can, however, set a custom Available status to override it and force your status to stay green.

Below are directions for doing that, and some other useful methods we recommend for making Teams status active, including modifying the sleep options on your computer or phone and using a tool that moves your mouse automatically to simulate screen activity.

Block Microsoft Teams Away Status Message

To override or block the Microsoft Teams Away status message from being set, follow these steps to set a custom message:

1. Open Microsoft Teams and select your profile icon at the upper right corner.
2. Next to Available, click Set status message.
3. Change your status message to any message you’d like. In fact, it doesn’t even have to be a real status message; you can enter a period for your availability status if you don’t want to write anything.
4. Open the Clear status message after dropdown and set it to Never.
5. Click Done to save your new custom status message.

Now, your Microsoft Teams status will not change to Away while you work in other apps.

Note: If you lock your system, or it goes to sleep, your status will change to Away.

Prevent Sleep Mode on Your Computer

The above fix for Away status won’t work if your computer screen keeps going to sleep, which, if you’re using your system, shouldn’t happen. If you’d like to step away but prevent it from going to sleep, follow these steps to adjust your PC’s sleep settings.

1. Open File Explorer.
2. Paste this in the location bar and press Enter:

   Control Panel\Hardware and Sound\Power Options

3. Click Change Plan settings next to the active plan.
4. Open the ‘Put the computer to sleep’ drop-down and select Never.
5. Click Save Changes to commit the sleep mode settings change.

Keep the App Open in the Foreground

Do you need to keep the Teams app active on your mobile device? It’s really easy because all you have to do is keep the app open. You’ll be told when people message you, and the app works just the way you’d expect it to.

Here are some things to remember:

• Keep Teams active — i.e., don’t let it become a background app. All this means is that you should ensure that you can see the app all the time. Don’t “minimize” it by opening another app. Keep it front and center, or else it will become a background app and will change the current status to Away.
• Don’t manually lock your phone or open any other apps. As long as your phone’s screen is on and showing the Teams app, you won’t have to worry that it’ll become a background app and go into idle mode.
• Change the screen timeout setting to stop your phone from going to sleep. Similar to the Windows method above, this will keep your phone on and active so that the app will remain active as well.

Run a Mouse Moving App

This is a smart technique to prevent Microsoft Teams from changing your status automatically. At its core, it just fools your computer into thinking you’re using your PC, and thus won’t set status to Away. It’s akin to you moving your mouse yourself, but the program will do it for you! And don’t worry, it’ll only move it a small amount; you won’t even notice it, but it does a great job at making your computer stay awake.

Note: If you’re using Teams for work, you might think twice about using apps like this one. Some companies track which software their employees install on their computers, and this would definitely raise some red flags and throw into question whether you’re being productive. Only proceed with this method if you’re absolutely sure that your app installs aren’t being tracked (or you might risk being fired — seriously!).

There are several mouse jiggler apps that can do this, but let’s look at how it works with one that’s appropriately called Move Mouse:

1. Install Mouse Move from the Microsoft Store. Feel free to look for other programs like this one; they all work similarly.
2. Open the program, hover your mouse cursor over the mouse image, and select the settings button.
3. Open the Behaviour tab to select the duration, although the default 30-second repeat action is fine. The time you choose here will define how often Teams thinks you’re actively working.
   
4. Feel free to poke around and change any other relevant options you’re interested in, such as the option to auto-launch the mouse jiggler when your PC starts up. Then, press Close to exit.
5. To start the automatic mouse mover, press the mouse icon. Your computer will automatically move the mouse a little bit according to the settings you set in Step 3.

Tip: An app like this one has no effect on how Microsoft Teams works, so you don’t have to open Microsoft Teams or deal with its settings at all for this method to work. Just set it up as we described above, and let it run in the background.

More Ways to Prevent System Idle

In addition to using a mouse mover app to control your current status in Teams are these methods that will stop your PC from going into idle mode and keep Microsoft Teams in use:

• Play something from a media app (e.g., VLC player) to stop the computer, and thus Microsoft Teams, from going to sleep. You can mute the volume if it bothers you. You can also play something on Netflix.
• Download or upload a big torrent file to prevent idle mode on the system.
• Get a “mouse jiggler”. Instead of a mouse moving app, there are also physical products that can move your mouse. 

Should I Trick the Microsoft Teams Status Message?

You probably fall into one of two possible camps: you’re genuinely being productive, but Teams thinks you’re going idle; or you’re looking for ways to make your Teams status green so you can slack off.

Whether you should follow the directions above isn’t really a question for us to answer. But we want to remind you, again, that the techniques we’ve described for keeping your computer active might violate policies that your company has put into place to curb time theft.

How to Set Out of Office in Teams

Chat services can’t be turned off. Unlike social media accounts that you can deactivate for a short (or extended) period of time, a chat service will continue to work even if you’re signed out.  An Out of Office (OOO) message is an automatic message you can set up to let senders know you won’t respond to their message right away. This message is automatically sent to anyone who tries to contact you and can be configured to send on certain dates. 

How to Change Out of Office from Settings

One way to set up your Teams Out of Office message is through the app’s settings. Note that this isn’t available for all Teams accounts, specifically personal accounts.

1. Select the three dots(called Settings and more) at the top right of Teams and choose Settings.
   
2. Go to General.
3. From the Out of Office section near the bottom, choose Scheduleto open the Out of Office options.
4. Switch on Turn on automatic replies.
5. Type a message in the box provided. This is your OOO message.
6. Tick the box next to Send replies only during a time period.
7. Pick the start and end time for your Out of Office message.

Set Microsoft Teams Out of Office status via Teams Profile

Another way to set your Out of Office status in Microsoft Teams is from your profile. This, again, looks different depending on the Teams plan you’re on. We’ve included both sets of directions here:

1. Open Microsoft Teams.

2. Select your profile image at the top right.

3. Select Set status message from the menu.

4. Write a message in the space provided. You can mention a team member people should contact in your place if you want, but the whole message can not exceed 280 characters.

Note: Depending on the kind of Teams account you have, there might be a button below the text box called Scheduled out of office (see the steps above). Press that and then toggle Turn on automatic replies on before you type your message. You can then fill out the start and end date/time as you see fit.

5. Select the drop-down menu under Clear status message after. 

6. Choose when your Out of Office message should expire. For example, 4 hours.

7. Select Done to save your Teams OOO message.

Turn Off Microsoft Teams Out of Office Status

Turning the Out of Office status off in Microsoft Teams is easy, though you should know you only have to turn it off if you want to stop sending it before the preset date. If the end date for the message has passed, the message will automatically stop displaying.

To disable your OOO message in Microsoft Teams, simply select your profile image at the top right and then click the trash icon next to the status.

Microsoft Teams Status Stuck on Out of Office

1. Reset Microsoft Teams status

Microsoft Teams doesn’t have its own Out of Office status but it does have an option to reset its status.

1. Open Microsoft Teams.
2. Click your profile at the top right.
3. Go to Available (or whatever status you see), and click Reset status.

2. Check Outlook invites

During your Out Of Office period, if you received a meeting invite that fell on those dates, but also extended beyond them to dates when you’d be back in the office, they will all be marked as Out of Office. You will have to remove this invites to get rid of the Out of Office status in Microsoft Teams.

1. Open Outlook on your desktop or in your browser.
2. Select the Outlook calendar.
3. Double-click a meeting invite or event that is set to Out of Office.
4. Once the event is open, open the Show As dropdown.
5. Change the status from Out of Office to Free.

Conclusion

Microsoft Teams statuses are a useful way to let your coworkers know about your availability and response time. Understanding how to keep your status active when you’re away from your computer or how to set an ‘Out of Office’ message can enhance your communication and productivity while using Teams.