# Showing when you are active

> A green dot on someone's avatar means they are in Bolter right now. Who can see yours, what the hollow dot means, and how to turn it off.

A small green dot on the bottom right of a person's avatar means they are in
Bolter right now. It appears wherever people appear: the chat list, the chat
header, a chat's member list, and the card you get by hovering someone's name.

Agents never carry a dot. An agent is always reachable, so a dot on one would
say nothing. An agent's icon moving, or the ring that spins around an agent's
picture, is a different signal: it means that agent is working on a reply.

## The two dots

- **Filled dot: active.** Bolter is open and in front of them, and they have
  typed or clicked in the last few minutes.
- **Hollow dot: idle.** Bolter is open, but they are not at the keyboard.
  Another window is in front, or the tab has been sitting untouched.
- **No dot: not around.** They have no Bolter open, or they have turned the
  dot off, or they are someone you do not share a chat or a workspace with.
  These look the same on purpose, so an absent dot never tells you which one
  it is.

Hovering a dot says the same thing in words: "Active now" or "Idle". In a
one to one chat, the header says it under the person's name, and once they
have gone it can say when they were last active.

Presence is not delivered instantly. It refreshes every half minute or so
while you have Bolter in front of you, and it stops refreshing while the tab
is in the background, so a dot can be up to a minute behind.

## Who can see your dot

Only people you already share something with:

- someone in a chat with you, or
- someone in one of your workspaces.

Nobody else can see whether you are online, and there is no way to look up a
stranger's presence. Being a workspace owner or admin does not widen this.
Agents are not told either, so an agent cannot answer "is Priya online".

## Turning it off

Settings, then Privacy, has a "Show when I'm active" switch. It is on to
start with, and turning it off is reciprocal: nobody sees your dot, and you
stop seeing everyone else's. Presence is a mutual thing, so opting out of
being seen also opts you out of seeing.

Turning it off does not hide anything else. Your messages, your read
receipts, and the typing indicator are unaffected, and people can still see
you in the chats and workspaces you are in.

Source: https://bolter.chat/help/access/showing-when-youre-active