Microsoft Teams presence report: what Microsoft 365 gives you, and what it doesn't
Microsoft 365 doesn't include a report of Teams status over time. What it does have: a Teams user activity report (counts of messages, calls and meetings, with names hidden by default since September 2021), Viva Insights (group-level collaboration trends, with a minimum group size of at least five) and meeting attendance reports (join and leave times, per meeting). For a status record, something has to collect it.
Is there a Teams presence report in Microsoft 365?
No. Teams presence is a live indicator of "the user's current availability and status" (Microsoft Learn: User presence in Teams), and Microsoft doesn't keep a history of it that admins can report on. We explain why, with Microsoft's own answers, in Can you see someone's Teams status history?
What Microsoft 365 does give you are three reports that sit near the question.
What does the Teams user activity report show?
In the Microsoft 365 admin center, go to Reports › Usage › Microsoft Teams › User activity (Microsoft Learn: Teams user activity report). For each person it counts channel messages, chat messages, 1:1 calls and meetings attended or organised, along with audio, video and screen-share time and a last activity date. You can view trends over the last 7, 30, 90 or 180 days, and export to a .csv file.
Things to know:
- No status, no hours. None of its columns is Teams status, time online or start and finish times.
- It's not live. Microsoft says usage reports "typically become available within 24 to 72 hours, but might sometimes take several days" (Microsoft Learn: usage reports overview).
- Names are hidden by default. "Starting September 1, 2021, we're hiding user information by default for all reports" (Microsoft Learn: reports show anonymous user names). To show names, a Global Administrator clears Conceal user, group, and site names in all reports under Settings › Org settings › Services › Reports. Microsoft notes that showing identifiable information is a logged event in the audit log (Microsoft Learn).
- Admins only. Viewing it needs an admin role such as Global Administrator, Teams Administrator or Reports Reader (Microsoft Learn).
What does Viva Insights show?
Viva Insights is, in Microsoft's words, "a collaboration analysis tool for analyzing behavior and network patterns", and "not a tool for human-resource planning" (Microsoft Learn: advanced analysis FAQ). Manager and leader views show group trends in things like meetings, email and chats.
Things to know:
- Groups, not individuals. The minimum group size is "the smallest number of people that Viva Insights considers a 'group'", and it must be set to "at least five" (Microsoft Learn: Viva Insights privacy settings). Advanced analysis uses "aggregated and de-identified metrics".
- Weekly, not daily. Collaboration data "is updated weekly for advanced analysis" (FAQ).
- Licences. Advanced analysis needs "at least 50 assigned Viva Insights licenses" for most customers (FAQ). That puts it out of reach for most small businesses.
- No status. It's about collaboration patterns, not Teams presence.
What does the meeting attendance report show?
For a single Teams meeting, the organiser can download an attendance report showing "who attended a meeting or event, along with the exact times each attendee joined and left" (Microsoft Learn: attendance and engagement report). It's under the Attendance tab of the meeting invite.
Things to know:
- One meeting at a time, and only for meetings the person organised. Microsoft says admins "can't view the attendance and engagement report for meetings and events that you didn't organize".
- Attendees can opt out by default. The default policy includes all attendees but lets them turn off Identify me in attendance reports in their Teams privacy settings.
- It covers meetings only. Time outside meetings doesn't appear.
How do they compare?
| Teams user activity report | Viva Insights | Meeting attendance report | A presence-recording app (such as Clockless) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| What it shows | Counts of messages, calls, meetings; last activity date | Group collaboration trends | Who joined one meeting, and when | Teams status over time; start and finish times |
| Per person? | Yes, once names are shown | No, groups of 5 or more | Yes, per meeting | Yes |
| Teams status or hours online? | No | No | No | Yes, from the day recording starts |
| How fresh? | Usually 24–72 hours behind | Weekly | After the meeting | About every 5 minutes (Clockless) |
| Who sees it | Admin roles | Managers, leaders, analysts (as set up) | The organiser | People your business chooses |
| Cost | Included in Microsoft 365 | Extra licences for advanced analysis | Included | Extra (Clockless: A$4 per person per month + GST) |
Sources: the Microsoft Learn pages linked in each section above.
So how do I get a Teams presence report?
You record presence from now on. Microsoft Graph, the API apps use to read Microsoft 365, can get presence for one person or many, and notify an app when it changes. Your IT provider can build that, or you can use an app that already does it.
Clockless does it for Australian small businesses: it reads Teams status about every 5 minutes, read-only, and sends a weekly report of active hours, start and finish times and how time was split across statuses, next to the message, call and meeting counts from the activity report. (Those counts need names shown in reports, as above.) Data stays in Microsoft Azure, Australia East. It's an availability record, not a timesheet.
Related guides
To see what a weekly Teams presence report looks like, open the sample report (made-up people and numbers). If it would help your business, book your free month.