Slack’s availability status is an important feature that allows users to communicate when they are available for conversations. This is helpful for balancing work-life commitments and can help avoid colleagues feeling overburdened by incoming messages. The way Slack determines whether someone is active depends on the amount of activity they have in the app as well as the platform that it’s being used on. While Slack has several ways to display your availability status, some users are finding inventive ways to spoof the system to keep their status active even when they are not on the platform.
The Slack status emoji next to a user’s name is how colleagues will know that they are able to be reached on the messaging platform. The default status is “active,” which shows that you are currently online and able to receive conversations in Slack. The status can be changed manually to away or do not disturb, which indicate that you are offline or busy respectively. The “active” status is indicated by a green dot and the “away” or "do not disturb" status is indicated by an empty circle.
While Slack can automatically set your status to away or do not disturb after a certain period of inactivity, it is possible to manually change your status to active at any time by clicking on your profile picture and selecting the option “Set yourself as active.” This will immediately update your availability status and your teammates will see a green dot next to your name when they click into your profile or hover their mouse over your status emoji on desktop.
