The Free Extension Cluster, Explained
Search the Chrome Web Store for "Teams always available" and you'll find roughly a dozen near-identical free extensions: Teams Always Available, AlwaysOn – Keep MS Teams Alive, Teams Caffeine, KeepTeamsAwake, Teams Stay Active, keep-teams-online and others that come and go. They have different names and icons but do essentially the same thing.
Under the hood, each one runs a content script against the Teams web client (teams.microsoft.com). On a loop — every minute or two — it either simulates a small interaction or pings the page so the client keeps reporting input. Because Teams marks you Away after about 5 minutes of no activity, resetting that clock before it expires keeps your dot green. Simple, and for a casual "I'm at my desk anyway" use case, it does work.
That's the appeal: free, one-click install, no account. But the architecture sets a hard ceiling.
The Ceiling Every Extension Hits
An extension is code running inside your browser. That single fact dictates every limitation:
- Tab must stay open. Close the Teams web tab and the script stops. You go Away.
- Browser must stay running. Quit Chrome at the end of the day, or it crashes, and there's nothing left to keep you green.
- Computer must be on and unlocked. Lock your PC or shut the lid and the browser suspends — extension included. Locking flips Teams to Away instantly.
- Web only. These don't touch the Teams desktop app. If your company runs desktop Teams, the extension is keeping a second, browser session green, which can look odd.
- No real schedule. Most are on whenever the tab is loaded — you can't say "Available 9–5, away after".
- Churn. They break when Teams updates its web client and disappear from the Store. The one you rely on today may be gone next month.
In other words: an extension keeps you green only in exactly the situation where you barely needed help — sitting at an awake computer with Teams open. The moment you actually step away and close things down, it can't follow you.
A Word on Safety
These extensions request permission to read and change your data on the Teams web page — which, in practice, is access to your live Teams session. Most are small, free, single-developer projects, frequently unmaintained. On a company-managed machine, installed browser extensions can also be inventoried by IT. None of that makes them malware, but it's a real exposure surface to weigh against "free."
Extension vs Cloud: Side by Side
| Free Chrome extension | Cloud app (Stay Green) | |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Paid (free trial) |
| Green with browser closed | No | Yes |
| Green when PC locked / lid shut | No | Yes |
| Schedulable hours & timezone | Rarely | Yes |
| Works without your device awake | No | Yes |
| Touches your live Teams tab all day | Yes | No |
| Maintained against Teams changes | Hit or miss | Yes |
Why the Cloud Clears the Ceiling
A cloud presence app moves the "keep me green" job off your browser and onto a server. Stay Green On Teams uses a one-time browser extension only to capture your Teams session — then our cloud workers maintain your Available status from our infrastructure. After setup, you don't keep any tab open and you don't keep the extension working against your live Teams page. You can quit Chrome entirely.
That single architectural difference removes every limitation above at once: browser closed, PC locked, lid shut, even powered off — your status stays green because the thing keeping it green isn't on your machine. And because it runs server-side, you get genuine scheduling (days, hours, timezone, or 24/7) and updates that track Teams as Microsoft changes it.
So Which Should You Use?
If you only ever need to look active while you're physically at an awake computer with Teams open in Chrome, a free extension is a reasonable, zero-cost option — just pick a maintained one and accept it'll break eventually. If you want to close your laptop and still appear Available, schedule your hours, keep desktop Teams as your real client, or avoid an extension touching your session all day, the cloud is the version that actually does the job.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do Teams "always available" Chrome extensions work?
They can keep your status green — but only while Chrome is running, the Teams web tab is open, and your computer is on. Most of them either nudge the Teams web client at intervals or simulate activity so the ~5-minute idle timer never fires. The moment you close the tab, quit the browser, lock the PC, or shut the lid, the extension stops and you go Away. They also don't run on the desktop Teams app, only on teams.microsoft.com in the browser.
Which Chrome extension keeps Microsoft Teams active?
There are around a dozen free ones — Teams Always Available, AlwaysOn (Keep MS Teams Alive), Teams Caffeine, KeepTeamsAwake, Teams Stay Active and similar. They work the same way and have the same ceiling: they only keep you green while the browser tab is open on an awake machine. None can hold your status once the device is locked, asleep or off, because the code runs inside your browser, not in the cloud.
Are Teams keep-active extensions safe?
Be cautious. These are mostly small, free, single-developer extensions that ask for permission to read and change data on the Teams web page — which means access to your session. Many are unmaintained, and Chrome periodically removes ones that break or change ownership. On a company-managed machine, browser extensions can also be inventoried by IT. A cloud service that you sign in to, with no browser extension running against your live Teams tab all day, avoids that exposure surface.
What's the difference between a keep-active extension and a cloud presence app?
An extension runs inside your browser and keeps you green only while that browser tab is open on an awake computer. A cloud presence app like Stay Green On Teams maintains your Available status from a server, so you can close the browser, lock the PC and shut the lid and still appear green for the hours you schedule. The extension is free but tethered to your device; the cloud app is paid but device-independent and schedulable.
Why do these extensions keep disappearing from the Chrome Web Store?
Most are hobby projects. They break when Teams changes its web client, get abandoned, or fall foul of Chrome Web Store policy reviews, so the lineup churns constantly — the extension you installed last year may be gone today. A maintained cloud service doesn't have that single-point-of-failure problem; it's updated server-side to track Teams changes.