How to Make Microsoft Teams Not Display You as Available

With Microsoft Teams, you can interact with your colleagues and let them know when you're available or busy by displaying your activity status. If your employer requires you to be available at all times, you must stop your status from changing to "Away." Fortunately, this predicament can be handled in a few ways.

Why Does Your Team Status Change Automatically?

You are marked as "Available" by Microsoft Teams until it senses inactivity or your device goes into sleep mode. You then have your status changed to "Away." Furthermore, your status will change to "Away" if you haven't used Teams in five minutes or if it is running in the background.

Based on your calendar events and activity, Microsoft Teams modifies your status. Teams will automatically set your status to "In a meeting" or "On a call" if you are in one, unless you are in Do Not Disturb mode. With the Do Not Disturb status, you can ignore messages while concentrating or using your screen.

You can manually change your status to "Be Right Back" to signify that you're going to be temporarily unavailable. It is up to you to select this status; teams won't do it for you.

Regretfully, when your computer goes into idle mode or you are not using it for longer than five minutes, there is no easy solution to keep your status set to "Available". Nevertheless, whether you're using Mac or Windows, there are ways to stop this.

Put "Available" As The Status For Your Team

Changing your user presence in Microsoft Teams is the first and simplest action you can do. In the event that your status is not "Available," you must become active on the Teams screen. After that, using the user presence options, you can manually set your status to "Available".

Click on your profile photo in the Team's interface to change your status. Next, choose your current state and click the drop-down box to choose "Available".

You cannot ensure that your status won't automatically change to "Away" even if you have explicitly changed it to "Available."

Your status will revert to "Away" mode, for instance, if you lock your system or put your computer in sleep mode. You may fix this problem by creating a custom status message that you can edit at any time to make it permanent.

Stop Your Computer From Sleeping

If you frequently use Microsoft Teams on your computer for business, you might want to take a quick break from your work to get a cup of coffee. Regretfully, because your PC has been idle, if someone were to check the status of your Team during this period, they would find that it is set to "Away". You can increase the amount of time before your PC goes into sleep mode to stop this from happening and to spare yourself any possible embarrassment.

Click the "System" area in Windows settings after opening the program to change the power and sleep settings. Next, go to the Power settings and choose "Screen and Sleep". The amount of time that your computer sleeps and enters idle mode can be adjusted here.Access the "Battery" option by going to the "Preferences" menu on a Mac. Next, make adjustments to the "Turn Display Off After" slider by selecting the "Power Adapter" option.

You can now adjust your status to "Available" to stop Microsoft Teams from displaying you as away after extending the sleep time.

Continue Using Teams on Your Phone

You can also indicate that you are available by being active on the Microsoft Team mobile application. In the event that you become active via phone instead of PC, your team status will stay at "Available."

On the other hand, you must ensure that the Microsoft Team app on your smartphone is not running in the background. Your status will change to "Away" if your phone closes the window or if you navigate to another app.

If you can't always sit in front of your computer, using the Team mobile app to stay engaged is a wonderful way to let your coworkers know that you are available.

Moreover, you may stop your phone from being idle by adjusting the screen timeout settings. This will make sure that your phone stays on and active, just like the Windows technique that was previously described, which will allow the Microsoft Teams app to keep active as well.

Play a Slideshow or a Background Music Video

Another way to always have Microsoft Teams available on your computer is to have a video playing in the background. Set your Microsoft Teams status to "Available" to get started. Then, play a lengthy video on YouTube or another media player. The video plays when the screen is on, thus your status will stay "Available."

Another option is to open a PowerPoint slide and have it displayed to you in full screen mode. Use the Alt+Tab key to navigate to another application after that. As a result, Teams will believe that you are still using your PC because PowerPoint will continue to run in the background.

Call an Audience with Yourself

Putting yourself in a meeting and setting it from "In a Call" to "Available" can also stop Teams from letting you go. Even if Microsoft Teams is minimized, your status won't change to "Away" during the meeting.

Rather than logging off after every five minutes, this is a terrific way to stay engaged on Teams. To avoid appearing unusual, make sure to update the meeting status to "Available" before spending an extended amount of time in a meeting.

Get the Third-Party App

You can also disable Microsoft Teams' automatic status update feature by using third-party programs like Caffeine or Amphetamine. When these programs are running in the background, they will move your mouse or push a specific key after a predetermined amount of time. By doing this, you may prevent your PC from going into "Away" mode and keep it engaged in teams.

For instance, a small symbol will appear in the lower-right area of your screen when you install Caffeine. Simply click its symbol to utilize it. The duration for which you want your computer to remain awake is up to you. If you are active on Teams or decide you no longer need it, you can also disable it.

Additionally, if you use a Mac, you can experiment with amphetamine, which is comparable to coffee.

Utilize a Jiggler USB Mouse

To stay out of the "Away" condition, you can also move your mouse around frequently. You have two options: either move the mouse manually or use an app like MoveMouse or Mouse Jiggler to have your mouse move and remain available on its own.

This is especially helpful if you need to take a brief break from your computer but still want your status to be updated. As long as your computer is open and in use, these apps keep it from slipping into idle mode, enabling you to receive messages and notifications from Teams.

Divided Screen

You may continue working on Microsoft Teams while using other apps by utilizing the split screen capability. You can, for instance, reposition the Teams window to one side of your screen while using the other to launch a different application or browser.

You may multitask your work and maintain a "Available" status on Microsoft Teams by utilizing the split screen capability.

Why Not Make Busy the Current Status?

Rather of depending exclusively on the "Available" status signal, it is preferable to let your teammates know when you are available. You can easily adjust the status to "Busy" or "Do Not Disturb" mode if you need to concentrate on a task without being distracted. To let them know that you're working on something essential and will get back to them as soon as possible, you can also simply leave a customs status note.