Article
How to keep Teams showing as available
Teams gives you about five minutes before the dot turns yellow, and there's no setting anywhere to make that longer. So the honest list of what works is shorter than you'd hope.
The short answer
Teams shows you as available while your keyboard or pointer are being used. The five-minute window before it switches you to Away can't be lengthened, by you or by your IT department, and setting your status to Available by hand doesn't survive a locked or sleeping computer. What holds while you're away from the keys is being in a meeting, or running a small app that keeps your computer awake and its activity ticking over. A status message won't change the colour of the dot, but it does tell anyone who reads it where you are.
Three things that don't hold
Changing the timeout
There's no setting for it. Neither you nor your IT department can lengthen the five minutes, because Teams doesn't offer that control to anyone.
Setting your status by hand
You can pick "Available" yourself, and for a short stretch that's fine. The trouble comes when the computer locks or goes to sleep: that pulls the dot back to Away whatever you set by hand. It won't carry you through a long stretch on paper.
Power settings on their own
Stopping your computer sleeping keeps the screen on, which is worth doing anyway. It isn't enough by itself. The five-minute activity rule carries on regardless, so your screen can be lit all afternoon while Teams marks you Away.
What does hold
Being in a meeting
Joining or presenting in a meeting keeps you green, which is why your dot behaves during calls. Not much use for an afternoon of paperwork.
A status message, for the humans
Something like "At my desk working on paper. Message me, I'll see it" tells anyone who checks exactly where you are, and it costs nothing. What it won't do is change the colour of the dot, and the dot is mostly what people look at.
An app that keeps the activity ticking
The rule is about activity, so what holds is an app that supplies some. Ticking Along keeps your computer awake and moves your pointer a hair's width every few minutes, then puts it straight back where it was. You start it before you sit down with your paperwork. It stops at the time you picked, or at the end of the office hours you set.
One thing no option can do
Every option on this page needs your computer to be awake. A laptop with the lid closed is asleep, and a sleeping computer always shows as Away. That's the computer doing it, and no app can change it. So leave the lid open while you're at your desk, even if the screen goes dark.
Which one should you use?
For a short stretch, set yourself to Available by hand and don't pay for anything. It's when whole mornings go by with a pen in your hand that setting it once and forgetting about it earns its keep.
Slack works on the same idea with a gentler clock: how to keep Slack showing as active. For the detail on where the yellow dot comes from, see why Teams shows you as Away after 5 minutes. And if paper is a regular part of your week, there's keeping Teams available while working on paper.