Away Timers in Slack, Teams, Zoom and Google Chat

Slack: 10 minutes on desktop

Slack’s help center says you are active while Slack is open on your desktop or phone, and set to away after 10 minutes of desktop inactivity, or when you navigate away from or close the mobile app.

Activity means using Slack itself, not just having the computer on. If you set yourself away by hand, you stay away until you switch back.

Microsoft Teams: about five minutes, or at once when you lock

Microsoft’s Teams troubleshooting guide says your status changes to Away when the desktop is inactive for more than five minutes. Microsoft Support adds that Teams sets Away when you lock the computer or it goes idle or to sleep, and on mobile when the app is in the background.

Teams combines presence from every signed-in device. A status you choose yourself, such as Busy or Do not disturb for a set time, overrides the automatic one until it expires.

Zoom Workplace: 15 minutes, and you can change it

Zoom changes your presence to Away after 15 minutes of inactivity by default. In the desktop app open Settings, then General, and under Presence status adjust “Change status to Away when inactive for”. In the Zoom web app the same switch is under Settings, Chat, Chat preferences.

Away clears automatically as soon as you are active again in the Zoom desktop app, mobile app or web app.

Google Chat: Idle at 5 minutes, Away after 10

Google Chat shows Idle when you have been inactive in Gmail or Chat for 5 minutes; Idle only appears on desktop. After more than 10 minutes idle, or when you are not connected to the internet, it shows Away. You can also pick Set as away yourself. Our Google Chat availability guide covers its status settings and API.

ClickUp and Discord: no published timer

ClickUp’s Who’s Online ClickApp shows a green dot on the avatars of people who are online, but ClickUp does not publish how long it waits before showing you offline.

Discord says you switch to Idle automatically when you are away from the keyboard for a certain amount of time, without giving a number. In both apps, test it yourself before relying on a figure from elsewhere.

Why keeping the computer awake doesn’t reset these timers

The timers count activity inside the app or on the computer, not whether the screen is on. Tools such as caffeinate or Amphetamine stop a Mac from sleeping but do not type or move the mouse, so Slack and Teams still mark you away. Mouse jigglers fake input, but they need the computer running and unlocked, stop when the lid closes, and your organization may treat simulated input as a policy question.

OnlineHours takes a different route for Slack, ClickUp and Teams: during the hours you choose it sets your presence from its servers through each app’s own connection, so the laptop can be closed. Outside your hours it stops, and the timers above apply again.

How we keep this page current

Every figure comes from the vendor’s own documentation, never from forums or other blogs. Where a vendor does not publish a number, the table says so instead of guessing. We recheck the sources every quarter and when an app changes its presence rules; if you spot a change, email support@onlinehours.app and we will update the table.