Disable Presence In Teams

Question

How do I disable automatically sharing my presence information with others in Teams?

Answer 1

Dear @Denise Haunert Marshall,

Welcome to Microsoft Q&A. 

Thank you for your question. I understand you’re looking for a way to disable or stop sharing your presence (such as Available, Away, Busy) with others in Microsoft Teams.

At the moment, Microsoft Teams does not provide an option to completely disable presence sharing. Presence is a core part of Teams and Microsoft 365 collaboration, and it is automatically managed based on your activity, calendar status, and device usage. There is no user or admin setting to turn it off entirely for internal users.

What you can do instead (supported options)

1. Appear offline (manual control)

You can manually set your status to Appear offline, which hides your real-time availability from others:

Click your profile picture in Teams > Select your current status > Choose Appear offline

This setting stays in effect until you change it.

2. Use “Do not disturb” (reduce interruptions)

If your main concern is interruptions rather than visibility: Set your status to Do not disturb. This still shows presence, but suppresses notifications

3. Set a status message (context for others)

You can add a custom status message to explain availability (for example, “Focusing on work”):

Profile picture > Set status message

This helps manage expectations even though presence is still visible

I hope this information helps point you in the right direction. If you run into any issues while trying the steps, or if something still doesn’t feel quite right, please don’t hesitate to reach out again. I’ll do my best to support you however I can.  

Looking forward to hearing back from you with any updates or additional details. 

Warm regards, 

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