[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":116},["ShallowReactive",2],{"guide-\u002Fguides\u002Fkeep-microsoft-teams-green-mac":3},{"id":4,"title":5,"body":6,"description":106,"extension":107,"meta":108,"navigation":109,"order":110,"path":111,"seo":112,"stem":113,"updated":114,"__hash__":115},"guides\u002Fguides\u002Fkeep-microsoft-teams-green-mac.md","Keep Microsoft Teams green on Mac (without a mouse jiggler)",{"type":7,"value":8,"toc":97},"minimark",[9,13,22,25,30,33,40,44,51,54,58,69,73,76,79,83],[10,11,5],"h1",{"id":12},"keep-microsoft-teams-green-on-mac-without-a-mouse-jiggler",[14,15,16,17,21],"p",{},"Microsoft Teams shows you as ",[18,19,20],"strong",{},"Away"," after about five minutes without input.\nStep away to read, take a call on your phone, or grab a coffee, and your dot\ngoes yellow, even though you are right there.",[14,23,24],{},"Most people try a keep-awake app first. It does not work. Here is why, and what\nactually keeps you green.",[26,27,29],"h2",{"id":28},"why-amphetamine-and-caffeine-do-not-keep-you-green","Why Amphetamine and Caffeine do not keep you green",[14,31,32],{},"Apps like Amphetamine, Caffeine and KeepingYouAwake stop your Mac from sleeping\nand stop the screensaver. That is all they do. They are great for long downloads\nor watching a video.",[14,34,35,36,39],{},"But Teams does not decide you are away because your Mac slept. It watches for\n",[18,37,38],{},"input",": keyboard, mouse, and which app has focus. Preventing sleep changes\nnone of that, so Teams still flips you to Away on the five-minute timer. Your\nscreen stays on, your dot still goes yellow.",[26,41,43],{"id":42},"what-actually-keeps-you-green","What actually keeps you green",[14,45,46,47,50],{},"To stay green, something has to reset the system ",[18,48,49],{},"idle timer",", the count of\nseconds since your last keypress or mouse move. Reset it and every\npresence-aware app (Teams, Slack, Zoom, Discord) reads you as active at once,\nbecause they all read the same system idle timer.",[14,52,53],{},"Stay Green does exactly that, quietly. When you have genuinely gone idle, it\nsends one harmless keystroke (F15, which does nothing visible) and a\nzero-distance mouse move to reset the timer. Nothing jumps on screen, there is no\ndongle, and it lives in the menu bar with no Dock icon.",[26,55,57],{"id":56},"why-not-a-mouse-jiggler","Why not a mouse jiggler",[14,59,60,61,64,65,68],{},"A physical mouse jiggler or a cursor-moving app works, but it is crude: your\npointer drifts across the screen, it can fight you while you work, and a USB\ndongle is one more thing to carry. Stay Green is invisible, and it is ",[18,62,63],{},"smart",":\nit only nudges the idle timer once you are actually idle, and ",[18,66,67],{},"auto-pauses","\nwhen you have really left (so you are not shown as available at 2am).",[26,70,72],{"id":71},"is-it-safe-and-is-it-allowed","Is it safe, and is it allowed?",[14,74,75],{},"Stay Green reads nothing, logs no keystrokes, and never looks at your screen.\nEverything stays on your Mac; the only things that leave are an update check and\na license check. On the safety side it is about as minimal as a tool can be.",[14,77,78],{},"Whether to run it is your call: some workplaces have policies about activity\nsimulation, so check yours if you are unsure. Stay Green is built for the honest\ncase, not dropping to Away during a long build, a document read, a call, or a\ndemo, and it pauses itself when you actually step away for the day.",[26,80,82],{"id":81},"keep-slack-zoom-and-discord-green-too","Keep Slack, Zoom and Discord green too",[14,84,85,86,91,92,96],{},"Because Stay Green works at the system level, one nudge keeps every chat app\nactive at the same time. See also: ",[87,88,90],"a",{"href":89},"\u002Fguides\u002Fkeep-slack-green-mac","Keep Slack green on Mac","\nand ",[87,93,95],{"href":94},"\u002Fguides\u002Fmouse-jiggler-alternative-mac","a mouse jiggler alternative for Mac",".",{"title":98,"searchDepth":99,"depth":99,"links":100},"",2,[101,102,103,104,105],{"id":28,"depth":99,"text":29},{"id":42,"depth":99,"text":43},{"id":56,"depth":99,"text":57},{"id":71,"depth":99,"text":72},{"id":81,"depth":99,"text":82},"Microsoft Teams flips you to Away after about 5 minutes idle. Here is why keep-awake apps like Amphetamine do not fix it, and how to actually stay green on a Mac.","md",{},true,1,"\u002Fguides\u002Fkeep-microsoft-teams-green-mac",{"title":5,"description":106},"guides\u002Fkeep-microsoft-teams-green-mac","2026-06-30","0JMwcHUyG5Wt69-JgsMA9aap7NfXtSdKxqvjdyooGD4",1782859942765]