LinkedIn Active status and Green Dot Meaning Explained

Written by: Emily Anderson
Last updated:

Determining a great time to initiate a conversation can be quite tricky sometimes. Fortunately, LinkedIn’s new feature allows you to see who is online within your network, allowing you to discover which people are currently available for a chat.

This article will discuss the LinkedIn active status, including essential information about how it works and how you can turn off the Active Status on Linkedin.

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What is LinkedIn Active status?

The LinkedIn Active Status is the platform’s latest feature which is represented by a green circle, showing you when a user is either online or free to converse with through the messaging medium.

There’s a reason why this new feature is interesting and helpful to many. In LinkedIn, the path to seizing opportunities usually begins with a conversation. Actively talking to the people within your network, introducing yourself to a potential connection, or merely sending a simple note to your friend about a possible job offer can already carve a significant difference.

The LinkedIn active status is a simple improvement that can exponentially alter how users see the platform itself. Moreover, it also changes how LinkedIn users handle certain issues should you prefer to keep your privacy settings intact for job searches.

Messaging is a vital feature for any major platform such as LinkedIn, but even with this, the platform still lagged behind. The active status in LinkedIn helps make it more useful for recruiters, colleagues, and candidates alike.

The feature is also turned on by default, though users have the option to turn it off any time they want if they prefer.

How to know if someone is online on LinkedIn, and what does the green dot mean?

You may ask yourself: what does the green dot mean on LinkedIn? Does it simply mean someone is online?

Essentially, LinkedIn introduced their new active status feature for you to see whether your connections are online while providing you the opportunity to contact them at the best time.

Like what you may initially have thought of, the green circle you see on a user’s profile picture means that the person is online either on their mobile phones or desktop. When you send an online user a message, this means that they will be immediately notified of the message and will read it sooner than usual.

Now, you might notice two kinds of green dots: solidly green one, while the other seems like a green doughnut. The hollow green circle means that the person is available on mobile only. Though the user isn’t currently online, they will receive push notification messages sent to their account to notify them of incoming texts.

How the hollow green dot works is similar to when you’re receiving Facebook notifications from Messenger: you receive message notifications even though you’re not actually on the Facebook platform, browsing at that moment.

How to turn off Linkedin Active Status?

While the LinkedIn Active Status is a feature turned on by default, you can still turn them off easily. However, you must know that doing so will also mean that you lose the ability to see active or online connections. This is just the same as turning off your Whatsapp read receipts.

To turn off your active status on LinkedIn, here’s what you should do:

  1. Go to the platform’s Settings & Privacy page, which you will find on the dropdown menu.
  2. Click on the Privacy tab.
  3. Under the section that says “Profile Privacy,” select “Change.” You can find this near the Manage Active Status.
  4. Hover your toggle to the ‘No’ option that is located under the ‘Display your active status’ heading.

Why can’t I see the active status on Linkedin?

If you can’t see an active status or green dot beside a user’s display picture, that simply means that they’re currently offline or unavailable.

Moreover, it can also be that they have chosen to disable their LinkedIn active status feature. While you can still send messages to an offline user, it might still take a while for them to read what you have sent. They will only see your message when they access the messaging platform either on their mobiles or desktop.

Other information related to LinkedIn active status

The active status that LinkedIn has recently implemented is having a significant impact on the platform’s algorithm. In fact, it seems like the engagements, shares, and content of users who are online more frequently tend to take up more prominence in other users’ feeds – perhaps in an attempt to encourage the LinkedIn users to interact with one another.

Such isn’t only limited to likes and comments on various posts, but also when you’re sending InMails or messages as well.

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