Use the Status options to specify how your contacts view your status in Microsoft Lync Online communications software.

What do you want to do?

Open Status options

From the Lync main window, you can open the Status options in one of two ways:

  • Click the Options button, and then click Status.

  • Next to the Options button, click the Show Menu arrow, click Tools, click Options, and then click Status.

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Set options for Inactive and Away status changes

When you have been inactive on your computer, Lync Online automatically changes your status. If you have not done a mouse or keyboard action on your computer for a period of time, Lync displays a yellow status indicator and the word “Inactive.” After your status has been “Inactive” for a period of time, Lync continues to show the yellow status indicator and displays the word “Away.” Five minutes is the default period for these options, but you can specify a longer time.

  1. Open Status options, and, next to Show me as Inactive when my computer has been idle for this many minutes, click the up or down arrows to specify how long Lync should wait before changing your status to Inactive. The maximum interval of time you can enter is 360 minutes.

  2. Next to Show me as Away when my status has been Inactive for this many minutes, click the up or down arrows to specify how long Lync should wait before changing your status to Away. The maximum interval of time you can enter is 360 minutes.

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Specify who can see my presence status

By default, everyone except Blocked Contacts can see your presence status. You can change this by opening the Status options and choosing one of the following options:

  • I want everyone to be able to see my presence regardless of system settings (override default settings)

  • I want the system administrator to decide–currently everyone can see my presence but this could change in the future

Your organization may have enabled Privacy Mode in Lync. If this is the case, you will see the following options instead of the previous ones. You can use these options to choose whether to limit visibility of your presence information to only those people whom you’ve added to your Contacts list:

  • I want everyone to be able to see my presence

  • I only want people in my Contacts list to see my presence

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