A Teams in/out board is a shared status board inside Teams, usually a channel tab or an app, that shows who is in, out, away, or in a meeting right now. Presify is a Microsoft Teams presence tracker that keeps the history instead: who was online, when, and for how long.
In/out boards are the office magnet board by the front door, moved into Teams. A board answers a real, everyday question: is the account lead in today, and when are they back? For a front desk, a small office, or a team that shares phones, that is often exactly the right tool.
The short version: a board shows the moment, and Presify keeps the record. The two answer different questions, and this guide is about which question is yours.
What does a Teams in/out board show?
A Teams in/out board shows the current status of each person on the team in one shared view. Products differ in where that status comes from. Some sync each person's Teams presence through the Microsoft Graph presence API. Others rely on people setting a status by hand, such as In, Out, At lunch, or Working from home. Some mix the two, with a note like "back at 2pm".
Most boards sit where the team already works, in a channel tab or a Teams app that everyone on the team can open. The view is usually shared, so colleagues see each other's status before they call or message. That shared view is the whole point of a board.
Teams sets presence on its own from activity, calls, and the Outlook calendar, and people can also change their status by hand. Microsoft's guide to presence in Teams explains how the automatic and manual states combine. A board that syncs presence reflects those states, sometimes mapped to its own labels. A manual board shows whatever each person last set.
Can an in/out board show Teams status history?
Usually not in any depth. Many in/out boards show only the current status, so the earlier part of the day is gone once someone's status changes. Some keep a status log you can download, and turning that log into trends is usually left to you.
The missing history matters because the green dot shows one moment, not the whole story. Someone can stay green all day and barely be around, since a mouse jiggler is enough to keep Teams showing Available. Someone who always looks yellow might be doing their best work at 11pm. A view of the moment can't show either pattern, and a presence history can.
Manual statuses add a second limit. A status someone set by hand is only as current as the last time they remembered to change it. That is fine for a front desk, and less useful when the question is how much a team is online across a month.
In/out board vs presence history
Teams in/out board Right now
One status per person for the current moment, synced from Teams or set by hand. Many boards keep no history.
Presify Presence history
One read-only Microsoft sign-in
AvailableAwayBusyOffline
Presence states: available, away, busy, offline, with timestamps.
| Criterion | Teams in/out board | Presify |
|---|---|---|
| Core question | Who is in, out, or away right now? | Who was online, when, and for how long? |
| Time view | The current moment; some products keep a downloadable status log | Every status change on a 24-hour day view, plus online-time totals and weekly trends |
| Where status comes from | Synced from Teams presence, set by hand, or both, depending on the product | Teams presence, sampled through Microsoft Graph on a short, regular interval |
| Manual notes (at lunch, back at 2pm) | Often a core feature | Not offered; Presify shows Teams presence, with no manual statuses or notes |
| Who sees it | Usually the whole team, in a channel tab or app | The workspace owner, plus additional admins and scoped monitors on Pro and up; the people tracked never need to sign in |
| Business hours | Varies by product | Each person's working hours on the day view (from Outlook, or the workspace default), with time in and after business hours on their member page |
| Presence that looks gamed | Not what a board is for | Six automatic flags on Pro and up, each showing how it’s calculated; Standard runs one |
| Coverage across time zones | Varies by product | A heatmap of how many people were online by weekday and hour, on Pro and up |
| Reports | Varies; some export a status log | PDF and Excel reports on Standard and up; scheduled reports on Pro and up |
| Setup | Usually a Teams app added to a team or channel | One read-only Microsoft sign-in, about five minutes, nothing installed |
| Best at | A shared, live view of who is in | Presence history, online time, and presence patterns |
What Presify is: a Microsoft Teams presence tracker
Presify tracks Microsoft Teams presence for your whole team and keeps the history. Presify samples presence through the same Graph presence API on a short, regular interval, stores each change, and gives you:
See the pattern.
A timeline per person and per team, online-time totals and weekly trends, and every status change on a 24-hour day view, with up to a year of history depending on plan. Each person's working hours (their Outlook working hours, or the workspace default when those are unknown) sit on the day view, so time in and after business hours reads at a glance. On Pro and up, a coverage heatmap shows how many people were online by weekday and hour.
Spot presence that looks gamed.
Six automatic flags surface unusual presence patterns, and each one shows how it’s calculated. Four of them (unbroken Available, no idle time, robotic regularity, no activity variation) are the patterns a mouse jiggler or keep-alive script tends to leave. Two, overnight presence and weekend uniformity, mark unusual hours, which can just as easily be someone working late. All six run on Pro and up; Standard runs the Idle suppression flag, and Basic and the free trial run none.
Quick and light.
One read-only Microsoft sign-in, no Teams app to add, nothing installed on anyone's device, no screenshots, no keystrokes, no message content.
Ask your AI assistant.
A read-only connector built on the open Model Context Protocol (MCP) lets Claude, ChatGPT, Microsoft Copilot (through Copilot Studio), and other MCP clients answer your questions in plain language. It is on every plan and covers presence history, online time, flags, and coverage (flag and coverage answers follow your plan). It sees only what the signed-in person can already see in Presify (a monitor sees only their own people) and can be revoked at any time. Connections are recorded in the audit log (viewable on Pro and up), and the AI assistants guide covers setup.
Presify is not a live board. The dashboard shows an Online now count and today's timeline as of the latest sample, with a refresh button, and there are no manual statuses or notes. If the job is a shared board the team checks before calling someone, a board does it better.
Presify reads presence (status and activity, such as In a call), basic directory fields, and group membership to label and scope users. Presify also reads each person's Outlook time zone and working hours. It never reads message, chat, file, or calendar content.
Presify is built and hosted in the US, and data is tenant-isolated. Every state-changing action lands in an append-only audit log (viewable and exportable on Pro and up). Retention is trimmed automatically by plan, and per-user and workspace-wide deletion are built in.
The people you track can be in most countries except the European Economic Area, the UK, Switzerland, and Canada. Users whose Microsoft 365 directory location is set to one of those are excluded automatically, and guests are never tracked.
Presence isn't productivity. Presify gives you a directional read on when people are online and how much, and flags patterns worth a look.
A flag is a pattern, not proof, and a starting point for a conversation.
Wherever your people are, tell them their Teams presence is tracked before you start, and handle any consent or lawful basis local law requires. Some US states require advance written notice, and Presify includes a ready-to-adapt employee-notice template.
Who each is for
This is a fit decision, not a contest. A board and a presence history sit side by side and answer different questions.
Teams in/out board
Use a Teams in/out board if your question is who is in right now. A board gives the whole team a shared view to check before calling someone, often with notes like where people are and when they are back. For a front desk, a small office, or a team that shares phones, a board is the right tool.
Presify
Use Presify if your question is the pattern over time: who was online, when, and how much, across the day and the week, and whether anyone's presence looks gamed. A board shows the moment and Presify keeps the record, and on every plan you can ask Claude, ChatGPT, or Microsoft Copilot about that history in plain language.
Plenty of teams will use both: a board for the shared, live view of who is in, and Presify when the question is who is online, when, and how much.
All comparisonsSetup takes about five minutes.
One read-only Microsoft sign-in by a Microsoft 365 admin, nothing installed on anyone’s device. Presence is sampled on a short, regular interval, and the history builds from the moment you connect.
- Minute 0An admin connects Microsoft
- Minute 2Pick who to track
- Minute 5The history starts building
- Day 7Your first full week to read
If presence history is what you are after, see how Presify works or start with one Microsoft sign-in. For the wider landscape, including the DIY route, our pillar guide covers how to see Teams status history.
In/out board features vary by product, so check the one you are weighing. Microsoft Teams behavior described here reflects Microsoft's documentation as of September 2026 and can change. Presify is an independent product and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by Microsoft.