Present and accounted for
See who’s online, away or not available.
Status settings let you set your own status and see if your contacts are available for a chat. It’s great when you don’t want to be disturbed, want to appear offline or see if that special guy or girl eight timezones away has woken up and signed in to Skype yet.
Let others know when you’re busy.
Go invisible when you don’t want to be disturbed.
See if a contact is online.
“Hi, are you there?”
Set your status so that your contacts know when you’re available to talk, or too busy to chat. There are seven to choose from so your contacts always know if it’s a good time to talk. And you can tell at a glance the status of your contacts.
- Online. This is the automatic status setting when you are online and available.
- Away. You’re signed in, but you’ve been away or haven’t used your computer for a while so probably won’t answer a call or instant message.
- Do not disturb. You’re busy and don’t want to be contacted right now. In this setting you won't get notifications for calls or instant messages.
- Invisible. When you don’t want users to know that you are really online, choose this one and you appear offline. You can still call and send and receive instant messages.
- Offline. You’re not signed in, and can’t call or send or receive instant messages.
- Calls forwarded. You’re not signed in, but your incoming calls will be forwarded to your phone.
- Voicemail. You’re not signed in, but people calling you will be sent to your voicemail.
- Blocked. Once you were friends, but no longer. Block your ex-buddy (or your ex), and they won’t be able to see if you’re online or call or instant message with you.
- Not on a computer. This is a bit of a special one. You see this status for phone or mobile numbers you've saved.
- Pending. Another special one. When you add someone to your contact list, they need to approve it. Until they’ve gotten around to that, this icon is shown.
With a live status indicator for all your contacts, you can tell who is signed in and whether it’s convenient to talk to them. No matter who you want to get in touch with, their status setting will show you when they're available to talk so it will never be a bad time to call again.
Want to change your status setting?
Simply click the little arrow next to your name at the top left of the main window in Skype. This will show all the status settings and you simply select the one you want to use.
Status FAQs
Presence works on Windows, Mac OS X, Linux, Windows Mobile, WiFi phones, Cordless phones, Nokia Internet Tablet, 3.
