Your presence indicates your availability in the workspace. It has two parts:
Presence: A colored dot that shows your availability state (Online, Away, Busy, or Offline).
Status text: An optional custom message that appears next to your name.
The two are independent. You can be Online with the text "Out for lunch," or Busy with the text "Deep work mode."
Presence types
Rocket.Chat has four built-in presence options:
Online (green dot): You are connected and available. Set automatically when you are active, or set manually.
Away (yellow dot): You are idle or have stepped away. Set automatically after a period of inactivity, or set manually. The idle time limit can be configured in Default User Preferences.
Busy (red dot): You do not want to be disturbed. Set manually, or set automatically by Outlook calendar integration on Desktop.
Offline (grey dot): You are disconnected.
Invisible: You are offline but remain connected.
Manual and automatic presence
Rocket.Chat manages your presence in one of two ways:
Automatic: Active when your status is Online. The auto-away timer runs, and on Desktop, system events such as screen lock or sleep can change your presence.
Manual: Active when you set your status to Busy or Away. Your status persists across sessions, reconnections, and logout/login. Auto-away is suspended.
To return to automatic management, set your status back to Online.
Auto-away
When your status is Online, Rocket.Chat automatically changes your presence to Away after a period of inactivity.
Default idle time: 5 minutes
Minimum idle time: 60 seconds
Where to configure: My Account → Preferences
If you have manually set your status to Busy or Away, auto-away is suspended until you set your status back to Online.
The following events change your presence automatically when auto-away is enabled:
Event | Effect |
|---|---|
Idle for configured time | Away |
Computer sleeps (Desktop) | Away, then Offline |
Screen locked (Desktop) | Away |
App moved to background (Mobile) | Away |
Network disconnected | Away |
Idle is not the same as Offline. When you go idle, you remain connected, only your presence changes from Online to Away. Offline only happens when the connection is actually lost.
Screen lock (Desktop) and app moved to background (Mobile) are explicit system events. They change your presence even when auto-away is disabled.
What counts as activity depends on your platform. See Platform differences section for more details
Status
Status text is an optional custom message that appears alongside your presence.
Maximum length: 120 characters
Emoji: Supported
Visibility: Not shown when you are Offline or Invisible
Status text persists across sessions and reconnections. When you select a built-in presence (Online, Away, Busy, or Offline) from the status menu, your custom status text is cleared. When you select an admin-created custom status, your status text is set to the name of that custom status.
Workspace administrators can disable custom status text by turning off Allow Custom Status Message under Manage → Workspace → Settings → Accounts.
Set a status message
Click your avatar at the top left of the workspace.
From the drop-down menu, select Custom Status.
In the Edit Status dialog, enter your status message.
Click Save.
Custom status
Workspace administrators can create organization-wide custom statuses in addition to the four built-in presence options. Each custom status maps to one built-in presence type. When a user selects a custom status, the presence dot reflects the mapped type, and the custom status name appears as their status text.
For example:
Custom status | Mapped presence | Result for the user |
|---|---|---|
On Vacation | Away | Yellow dot, text "On Vacation" |
In a Meeting | Busy | Red dot, text "In a Meeting" |
Working Remotely | Online | Green dot, text "Working Remotely" |
To access the User Status setting, go to Manage → Workspace → User Status.
Add a custom status
On the User Status page, click New custom status.
Enter a name for the status.
Select the presence to map it to: Online, Away, Busy, or Offline.
Click Save.
Edit or delete a custom status
Go to Manage → Workspace → User Status.
Search for and click the custom status you want to modify.
To edit, update the details and click Save. To delete, click Delete.
You can also manage user statuses using the Custom User Status API endpoints.
Where your status appears
Your presence and status text appear in different parts of the workspace, with different update behaviors:
Location | Status dot | Status text | Updates |
|---|---|---|---|
Sidebar and DM conversation header | Yes | No | Real-time |
Room members list | Yes | No | Real-time |
User card (hover or click) | Yes | Yes | Real-time |
User info panel | Yes | Yes | Real-time (dot), on-load (text) |
@mentions autocomplete | Yes | No | Real-time |
Search results | Yes | No | Real-time |
Admin user list | Yes | No | On page load |
Your own status (header menu) | Yes | Yes | Real-time |
Real-time updates appear within a second. On-load updates appear when the component is opened or refreshed.
Invisible mode
Invisible mode lets you appear offline while remaining connected. Messaging, typing indicators, and read receipts work normally, and you do not appear in the online users count.
To set Invisible:
Click your avatar at the top left of the workspace.
From the drop-down menu, select Offline.
Like Busy and Away, Invisible suspends auto-away. You remain Invisible regardless of idle time or system events until you change your status manually.
Workspace administrators can disable Invisible mode. When disabled, users who were already invisible remain invisible until they change their status.
Platform differences
Presence behavior varies between Desktop, Web, and Mobile:
Feature | Desktop | Web | Mobile |
|---|---|---|---|
Manual presence change | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Status text | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Auto-away on idle | Yes | Yes | No |
Screen lock detection | Yes | No | No |
System sleep detection | Yes | No | No |
Outlook calendar integration | Yes | No | No |
How activity is detected
Platform | Activity source | Scope |
|---|---|---|
Desktop | Keyboard, mouse, system events | Entire computer (all applications) |
Web | Mouse and keyboard | Browser tab only |
Mobile | App foreground or background state | App only (no idle timer) |
Multiple devices
When you are signed in on multiple devices simultaneously, two rules determine your final status:
Connection priority: The best connection state across active devices is used, in this order: Online > Away > Offline.
Device 1 | Device 2 | Device 3 | Final status |
|---|---|---|---|
Online | Away | Offline | Online |
Away | Away | Offline | Away |
Offline | Offline | Offline | Offline |
Manual override: If you have manually set your status to Busy or Away, that status is shown regardless of connection priority, as long as at least one device is connected.
Limitations
Desktop on Linux: Locking the screen does not automatically trigger Away. You remain Online until the system detects a disconnect.
Web:
Activity in other browser tabs or applications does not prevent auto-away.
Locking the computer does not trigger Away in the browser.
Computer sleep is detected only when the connection drops.
Mobile:
No idle detection. You stay Online until the app is moved to the background.
Locking the phone does not automatically trigger Away.
Reconnect behavior
If you were idle (auto-away) when your connection dropped, you may briefly appear Online after reconnecting until the idle timer triggers Away again.
If you had manually set your status to Busy or Away before disconnecting, that status is preserved on reconnect.
Outlook Calendar integration
The Rocket.Chat Desktop app can integrate with Outlook to update your presence based on your calendar:
When a calendar event marked Show as: Busy starts, your presence is set to Busy.
When the event ends, your previous status is restored.
Requirements:
Rocket.Chat Desktop app with Outlook or Exchange connected
Outlook calendar integration enabled by your workspace administrator
Calendar event marked as Show as: Busy
Outlook is the only supported calendar integration. Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and other providers are not supported.
Video conferencing inside Rocket.Chat does not change your presence. Calls have their own state (Calling, Started, Ended, and so on) that is separate from presence.
Presence service cap
Premium plans have no presence service limit. Workspaces on the community plan are capped at 200 concurrent connections. When a workspace exceeds this cap, the presence service is disabled automatically, users can no longer see real-time status updates, but sending and receiving messages continues to work normally.
To enable the presence service:
Go to Manage → Workspace → User status → Presence service
Click the Presence service button.
Enable the Service status option.
When the presence service is disabled automatically due to the connection cap:
Workspace users and administrators are notified that presence is inactive.
Real-time status updates stop being broadcast. Users may continue to see the last known status of others until the service is re-enabled.
An administrator must manually re-enable the presence service after the connection count drops below 200.