PresenceScheduler vs Stay Green On Slack.

PresenceScheduler is a free Chrome extension that pings Slack every 15 minutes to keep your presence set to active. Stay Green On Slack is a cloud service that does the same thing — except it runs on a remote server, meaning your browser and laptop don't need to be on at all. Which one is right for you comes down to one question: do you need presence when Chrome is closed?

How PresenceScheduler works

PresenceScheduler is a Chrome extension (not cloud, not a server — just a browser extension). Every 15 minutes, it calls Slack's API to set your presence to "auto", which keeps the active indicator lit in your workspace. It supports multiple workspaces, stores everything in Chrome Storage (no external server), and lets you define time windows when it should and shouldn't run.

It's free, open-source in spirit, and requires no account signup. For what it does, it's genuinely well-built.

The fundamental constraint: Chrome must be open and the extension must be running. If you close Chrome, the extension stops. If your laptop sleeps, the extension stops. If Chrome crashes, it stops. This is the unavoidable reality of anything that runs inside a browser process.

How Stay Green On Slack works

Stay Green On Slack is a cloud service. You install a Chrome extension once to capture your Slack session token (a one-time action), and from that point on, all presence-maintenance happens on a remote server. The server holds the Slack connection, sends the API calls, and keeps you active — regardless of what your laptop is doing.

Close Chrome. Shut the lid. Put the laptop in a bag. Your Slack status stays green because the work is happening in the cloud, not in your browser.

Reliability

This is where the two products diverge most sharply.

PresenceScheduler reliability depends on your browser being open. If you step away from your desk and your laptop's screen timeout kicks in after 10 minutes, Chrome may be paused or throttled by the OS. If you close the lid on a MacBook, Chrome stops firing timers. You go Away.

Stay Green On Slack's reliability depends on the cloud service uptime, which is a very different proposition. The server doesn't sleep. It doesn't have a screen timeout. It doesn't get paused when you switch tasks. As long as the service is running, your presence is maintained — independent of anything happening on your device.

For most people with a standard hybrid workday — meetings in other rooms, laptop closed on the commute, working from a coffee shop on mobile — PresenceScheduler will fail silently at exactly the moments it matters most.

Setup

PresenceScheduler: install the extension from the Chrome Web Store, click the icon, configure your workspace and time windows. No account needed. Everything stays local. About 60 seconds to set up.

Stay Green On Slack: install the extension, sign into Slack (the extension captures your token), configure schedule on the dashboard. Around 90 seconds. After that, the extension isn't needed day-to-day — it's just used for the initial token capture (and re-capture if the token ever expires).

Both have low-friction setup. PresenceScheduler is slightly simpler because there's no account creation. Stay Green On Slack adds a brief account step but unlocks cloud-side scheduling and multi-platform support.

Cost

PresenceScheduler: free. No ongoing cost, no subscription, no server bills — because there's no server. This is a real advantage for anyone whose use case fits within the browser-must-be-open constraint.

Stay Green On Slack: subscription-based, around a few dollars per month after a 14-day free trial. The subscription also covers Microsoft Teams via the same account — useful if your organization uses both platforms.

If cost is the primary concern and you're genuinely always at your desk with Chrome open, PresenceScheduler is a reasonable choice. If you want presence when the browser is closed, you have to pay for cloud infrastructure.

Verdict

Use PresenceScheduler if: you're always at your desk during work hours, Chrome is always open, cost is a hard constraint, and you're comfortable with presence dropping whenever you close the browser or step away from the machine.

Use Stay Green On Slack if: you ever close your laptop, move between rooms, work from a phone or tablet, or want presence to hold without thinking about it. The cloud model solves all the failure modes PresenceScheduler can't — and adds Microsoft Teams coverage if you need that too.

PresenceScheduler is a good tool for a narrow use case. Stay Green On Slack is the right tool when your use case extends beyond "browser always open."