User Presence: What It Is & How It Works for Businesses
Corey McCraw is a staff writer covering VoIP and Unified Communications. Corey has over a decade of experience in marketing, tech writing, and corporate communications and has even penned content for the former First Lady Michelle Obama’s Let’s Move initiative.
This article is part of a larger series on Unified Communications.
User presence is a useful tool seen through various chat user interfaces (UIs), showing the status of connected users and coworkers. This visibility into what team members are doing gives an impression of how quickly they can respond to your needs and whether they will be willing to participate in a conversation. Anyone within the organization can see this status, and it’s updated in real time, so new statuses will be updated when the page is refreshed.
This functionality is essential as teams become more remote and international members are added. Moreover, no one wants to disturb a colleague at 4:00 a.m. local time. Read on to find out how user presence transforms the way teams interact regardless of location and time zone.
In most applications, user status can be quickly set with optional status messages.
(Source: Microsoft)
The Chief Benefits of User Presence for Businesses
One of the chief benefits of presence is visibility. With an increasing percentage of the workforce working from home, it’s critical for colleagues to understand when a coworker is available and when they are not. It’s not as easy these days to visit a colleague’s desk to pitch an idea, so we now use presence to determine availability.
For example, when someone has paid time off (PTO), they can set their unified communications as a service (UCaaS) solution to let others know they are away. Presence even allows the employee to set a return date, provide details about current projects, or forward colleagues to related shareholders picking up the slack.
Types of Statuses You Can Set With Presence
Statuses, also sometimes called “states,” denote your availability to colleagues or customers who are trying to reach you. This doesn’t just apply to team chat. In fact, some UCaaS solutions, like the ones provided by Mitel and Microsoft Teams, allow your presence to be broadcast on a variety of communications channels.
Here are a few statuses that a solution that offers user presence might be able to broadcast:
Available
This establishes that you’re available for anything work-related, like assignments, chats, video or audio conferences, or file transfers. Some providers, like Google Chat, refer to this as “active.” Typically, this is the default setting on most UC platforms.
Know when a colleague is ready to chat through the “Active” status.
(Source: Google Chat)
Busy
This is a status for those unavailable for immediate communication. For example, when you’re in a call or a meeting, you can set this as your current state. Some providers, like Microsoft Teams, will do this automatically when you’re using the service for a call or conference. The “busy” state won’t prevent notifications from popping up on your user interface (UI).
Do Not Disturb
While this might seem similar to the “busy” state, do not disturb is decidedly different in both purpose and how it handles incoming communications. With this status, the intent is to mute any notifications completely.
A provider like Google Chat, for example, provides a drop-down menu that allows you to decide how long to remain in this mode. Some providers also have a setting that allows you to routinely set this status during specific times when you need to focus on tasks. This status is beneficial when you’re presenting or when you’re just focusing on an important project.
With Google Chat, you can set the duration of your do-not-disturb status. During this time, all chat notifications are automatically muted.
(Source: Google)
Away
“Away” is a status that will automatically set when you leave your computer long enough for it to go into sleep mode. However, it can also be set manually when you leave the desk for the night. This is the option to use for things like vacations and paid time off (PTO). There is also a “last seen” option to let others know the last time you were available.
Be Right Back
This status is used when you need to leave your desk for a short period of time. This could be used for lunch, a short break, or an appointment out of the office. This state is particularly useful for those looking to be proactive and who would rather not wait for their computer to automatically set to “away” when sleep mode engages.
Appear Offline
This is used when you wish to appear that you’re not logged into your device. For example, if you’re looking to check up on projects or browse channels without being contacted by colleagues, you can set this state.
From a coworker’s perspective, you’ll appear to be entirely offline and unavailable for communications. This makes this option something of a variation of the “do not disturb” status. Any messages that you might have received while you appear offline will be delivered when your status is “available.”
Some team chat programs also have an “Automatic” setting that automatically sets your status as “away” when there’s no activity. For most providers, this will happen when your computer enters sleep mode. This is useful if you’re stepping away from your desk for a protracted amount of time. When you return, and the software detects activity, it’ll set your state as “available.”
Most states in unified communications also have expirations. For example, if you set your status as “busy,” there’s an automatic time limit. With Microsoft Teams, this is limited to a single day, and when the status expires, you’ll be returned to an “available” state.
How to Use Presence for Increased Business Efficiency
The experience of setting user presence on various UCaaS platforms varies. For example, not every solution provides slash commands, and some don’t have drop-down settings. Here’s a quick rundown of how you might set user presence in Slack, Microsoft Teams, and Google Chat:
Slack
Slack, which was recently purchased by Salesforce, is one of the leading Microsoft Teams alternatives. With Slack, there are a few options for sharing your availability with others. The easiest means of doing this requires you to simply click on the profile picture aligned in the top right of the Slack app. Once clicked, there’s an update status field that includes an emoji.
Slack’s user interface makes it simple to set a quick status.
(Source: Slack)
There are even organization-specific statuses that you can select based on your company’s own unique culture. Pausing notifications for a “do not disturb” experience is also easily done via a drop-down menu that allows you to set a period for focus.
Microsoft Teams
One of the standout features of Teams is the inclusion of slash commands. For example, setting yourself to “do not disturb” is done by merely typing /dnd in the command box. Here’s a list of additional available presence commands:
- /available
- /busy
- /brb
- /away
- /offline
A selection of the /commands available through Microsoft Teams.
(Source: Microsoft)
Teams also allow users to configure dual presences. For example, when a user is working remotely, Teams allows for an “Out of office, available” presence state that explains that you’re still available for work while you may be away.
Google Chat
In Google Chat, which is part of Google Workspace, setting presence is relatively simple. At the top right of the screen, you’ll see an “Active” drop-down list. When clicked, you’ll see this:
A view of the drop-down menu in Google Chat.
(Source: Google)
From here, changing state is simple. While there’s no implicit “busy” option in Chat, it does feature “away” and “do not disturb” options. When you click “do not disturb,” you’re provided with a listing of periods to have the status active. This scales from 30 minutes up to 24 hours, so you have options.
You can also set specific statuses from the “Add a status” submenu. This includes writing a customizable status. There are also additional options, which include the following:
- Be right back: Preset for 30-minute intervals
- Commuting: Preconfigured for an hour
- Out sick: Set for a day
- Vacationing: Starts out at a full week
Bottom Line
As you can see, user presence status provides you and your team with multiple options for communicating with coworkers. In addition to the providers we listed, you’ll find that many voice-over-internet-protocol (VoIP)/UCaaS providers, such as RingCentral and Nextiva, also have options for communicating availability with colleagues. With remote work becoming the norm, you and your team must learn how to use this feature to ensure that communications remain streamlined.
