Mouse jiggler vs Slack always-active app.

For about a decade, the standard trick for beating the Slack 30-minute inactivity timeout was a physical or software mouse jiggler. In 2026, dedicated Slack always-active apps have largely replaced them. Both still work — but only one survives a closed laptop. Here's the side-by-side, including the part of keeping Slack active that jigglers can't solve.

How a mouse jiggler beats Slack

A mouse jiggler simulates input. It comes in two flavors:

• Physical (USB): a small dongle that physically moves the cursor by a pixel or two every minute. Tape your real mouse to it, plug it in, and the OS sees continuous activity. The Slack desktop client detects this input via OS-level keyboard/mouse events, so the 30-minute timer resets every time the jiggler nudges the cursor.
• Software: apps like Mouse Jiggler, Caffeine, or Amphetamine simulate the same input without hardware. Functionally identical from Slack's perspective.

Where mouse jigglers break

Every mouse jiggler — physical or software — has the same dependency: your laptop must be on, unlocked, and running. The moment any of those fail, the jiggler stops resetting the timer and Slack flips you to Away within 30 minutes.

• Laptop sleeps after 10–20 minutes of "no real activity." Some OSes detect synthetic input differently and sleep anyway.
• Screen locks if your organization enforces a lock timeout. Jiggler keeps cursor moving but Slack stops registering it.
• Laptop shuts down overnight or during updates.
• You take the laptop somewhere. Jiggler still in the office, you out for lunch — Away.
• IT pushes an update that restarts the machine.

Physical jigglers have one extra problem: they're visible. Anyone walking past your desk sees a little USB device doing nothing useful next to your keyboard. In a hybrid office, that's a conversation you don't want.

How a Slack always-active app beats this

A Slack always-active app — also called a cloud presence service — moves the connection off your laptop entirely. Instead of simulating mouse input, it holds the Slack WebSocket connection on a remote server. Slack sees that connection as a real client (because it is — it uses the same APIs Slack's own desktop app uses) and reports you as active.

Because the connection lives in the cloud:

• Your laptop can be off entirely
• You can be on a flight, asleep, or on holiday
• There's nothing visible at your desk
• OS sleep, screen lock, and restarts don't affect it

Detection risk: jiggler vs cloud app

Both are essentially undetectable to your IT team or workspace admin:

• Jiggler: Slack sees normal OS-level input events. Identical to a human moving the mouse.
• Cloud app: Slack sees a normal WebSocket connection. Identical to the Slack desktop app.

The cloud app has a small edge: there's no physical device anyone can see at your desk. The jiggler has a small edge: nothing leaves your machine, so you don't have to trust a third party with your session.

Cost comparison

• Physical jiggler: $15–$40 one-time. Lasts years. Cheap.
• Software jiggler (e.g. Caffeine): Free.
• Cloud always-active app: ~$3.99/month after a free trial. Roughly $48/year.

If you only need Slack active during the workday and you're always at your desk anyway, a free software jiggler is genuinely fine. If you want green-when-laptop-is-closed, you need the cloud app — no jiggler can do that.

Verdict

Mouse jigglers are a perfectly good answer to "I want Slack active while I step away from my desk for 10 minutes." They're a bad answer to "I want Slack active when my laptop is closed, when I'm offsite, or when I'm asleep." For that, a Slack always-active app is the only option that actually works.

For the broader landscape of tools, see our roundup of apps that keep Slack active and green.