---
title: "User Presence and Status"
slug: "user-presence-and-status"
description: "Learn how to manage user statuses in Rocket Chat. Ensure secure communication and improve collaboration visibility."
updated: 2026-08-27T16:48:47Z
published: 2026-08-27T16:48:47Z
canonical: "docs.rocket.chat/user-presence-and-status"
---

> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.rocket.chat/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# User Presence and Status

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.

> [!WARNING]
> The two are independent. You can be Online with the text "Out for lunch," or Busy with the text "Deep work mode."

> [!NOTE]
> **Reference:** For a full breakdown of how presence resolves across sources (internal, manual, and external claims), download
> 
> [](https://cdn.us.document360.io/6ae79a05-7252-45d0-96e8-8f375e07b1b2/Images/Documentation/Presence_Use_Case_Matrix.xlsx)Presence_Use_Case_Matrix15.98 KB[](https://cdn.us.document360.io/6ae79a05-7252-45d0-96e8-8f375e07b1b2/Images/Documentation/Presence_Use_Case_Matrix.xlsx)

Rocket.Chat supports four built-in presence states, plus Invisible:

- **Online** (green dot): You are connected and available. Set automatically when you are active, or set manually.
- **Busy** (red dot): You don't want to be disturbed. Set manually, automatically while you're in a voice call, or automatically by Outlook calendar integration on Desktop.
- **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](/v1/docs/accounts#set-default-user-preferences).
- **Offline** (grey dot): You are disconnected.
- **Invisible:** You appear offline but remain connected.

### How is your presence decided

Several things can set your presence. When more than one applies at the same time, [Rocket.Chat](http://Rocket.Chat) shows the highest-priority one, in this order:

**In-app events (such as a voice call) → A status you set manually → Outlook calendar → Automatic (your connection and on-screen activity).**

A lower-priority status isn't lost. When the higher-priority source ends, [Rocket.Chat](http://Rocket.Chat) restores the exact status it replaced, the same dot and text, instead of clearing it. **Invisible is the exception:** while you're Invisible, nothing else can change your presence until you change it yourself.

Some common situations:

| Situation | Presence shown | Why |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Connected and active, no status set | Online | Automatic |
| No activity for 5+ minutes by default | Away | Automatic |
| Active on phone, idle on desktop (signed in on both) | Online | Automatic — the most-available device wins |
| You set Busy with the note "Focusing" | Busy — "Focusing" | Manual |
| You have "Busy — Focusing" and an Outlook meeting starts | Busy — "Focusing" (unchanged) | Manual outranks the calendar |
| No status set, and an Outlook meeting starts | Busy — "In a meeting" | Outlook calendar |
| You have "Busy — Focusing" and join a voice call | Busy — "On a call" | A voice call outranks a manual status; "Focusing" is saved |
| That voice call ends | Busy — "Focusing" (restored) | The saved status returns |
| You set "Busy until 4:30pm" and 4:30 passes | Previous status (or Online) | The status expires and clears |
| You're Invisible and a call or meeting starts | Offline (unchanged) | Invisible blocks all other sources |

### 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**](/v1/docs/manage-your-account-settings#user-presence)

If you have manually set your status to Busy or Away, auto-away is suspended until you set your status back to Online.

When auto-away is enabled, the following events change your presence automatically:

| 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 |

> [!WARNING]
> 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](/v1/docs/user-presence-and-status#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**: Shown alongside your presence. If you're Offline and have set custom text, that text is still shown; with no custom text, only the grey dot appears. Not shown when you're Invisible.

A status can also have an **expiration**. Its a real end time after which it clears itself and your previous status returns automatically. This is different from writing "until 3pm" in the text, which is just words; an expiration makes [Rocket.Chat](http://Rocket.Chat) revert on its own when the time arrives.

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 text is cleared. When you select an admin-created custom status, your text is set to the name of that status.

> [!WARNING]
> Workspace administrators can disable custom status text by turning off **Allow Custom Status Message** under **Manage** → **Workspace** → **Settings** → [**Accounts**](/v1/docs/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 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

1. Go to **Manage → Workspace → User Status.**
2. Search for and click the custom status you want to modify.
3. To edit, update the details and click **Save**. To delete, click **Delete**.

You can also manage user statuses using the [Custom User Status API](https://developer.rocket.chat/apidocs/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 |
| **Video conference panel** | Yes | No | Real-time |
| **Video conference ringing dialog** | Yes | No | 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:

1. Click your avatar at the top left of the workspace.
2. 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.

### Status visibility ![](https://cdn.us.document360.io/6ae79a05-7252-45d0-96e8-8f375e07b1b2/Images/Documentation/Premium(7).svg)

> [!NOTE]
> **This feature is available since Rocket.Chat 8.8.0. A workspace administrator must enable it under Manage → Workspace → Settings → Accounts →Privacy. It is off by default.**

Status visibility lets you hide your presence and status text from specific people. Anyone on your list sees you as Offline, whether you are Online, Away, or Busy, and your status text is not shown to them. Everyone else keeps seeing your real presence.

**To hide your status from someone:**

1. Click your avatar at the top left of the workspace.
2. Select **Hide from...** (below **Custom Status**).
3. Select the people you want to hide from and save.

You can also manage the list from **My Account → Profile → Hide status from users**.

**What the people on your list see**

- You appear Offline in the sidebar, room member lists, user cards, direct messages, and search results.
- Your status text is not shown.
- There is no indication that you hid your status; you look the same as someone who is genuinely offline.
- Changes apply immediately for both of you, without a reload.

To stop hiding, open **Hide from...** again, remove the person, and save. Your real presence becomes visible to them again immediately.

> [!WARNING]
> Status visibility is not the same as blocking. People on your list can still message and mention you. Administrators are subject to the same rule: if you hide from an admin, they see you as Offline too. If the administrator turns **User status hiding** off, everyone sees real presence again; your list is kept and applies again if the setting is re-enabled.

---

## Voice and video calls

When you join a **voice call**, your presence is set to **Busy** with the status text **"On a call."** A voice call takes precedence over a status you set manually and over a calendar event, and your previous status is restored when the call ends.

> [!NOTE]
> **Video** conferencing does not currently change your presence. Support for video-driven presence is planned for a future release.

---

## 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 |
| **Voice call sets Busy** | Yes | Yes | Platform-dependent |

#### **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:

1. **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 |

1. **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](/v1/docs/outlook-calendar) enabled by your workspace administrator
- Calendar event marked as **Show as: Busy**

> [!NOTE]
> Outlook is the only supported calendar integration. Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and other providers are not supported.

> [!WARNING]
> Video conferencing inside [Rocket.Chat](http://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**](/v1/docs/our-plans) have no presence service limit. Community workspaces 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:

1. Go to **Manage → Workspace → User status → Presence service**
2. Click the **Presence service** button.
3. Enable the **Service status** option.

> [!WARNING]
> 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 broadcasting (you may still see others' last known statusuntil the service is re-enabled).
> - An administrator must manually re-enable the presence service after the connection count drops below 200.