But how did you see me there? I was invisible!

December 24, 2012 3:00 PM

Is there any way to 1) have an Android phone that is always on and connected with your gmail account and 2) be invisible in gchat at the same time?

I use gchat through the gmail window in my browser, which I always have open. I am almost always offline, though on occasion someone will call or email wanting to chat, and I will sign on invisibly to talk to that one person. I am very rarely anything other than offline or invisible.

Since I acquired my Android phone, however, some of my contacts have reported seeing me online at various times. From their reports, I suspect that I show up as Available when I'm actively using my phone. If I leave it alone for a while, I go yellow (Away), and if I leave it alone a while after that, I go Offline. This is true whether or not I'm actively using gchat on my browser (though this may only happen when I've accidentally left gchat on), which means that I can be Available while I'm not at my computer, or Away while I'm actively chatting with someone.

There doesn't seem to be an option to set my Gtalk to invisible on my phone (for what it's worth, it's an HTC One S). Is there any other hack I can use to stay invisible while using my phone to browse, check my email, etc, short of disconnecting my phone from my gmail account? Does being offline in my browser make a difference?

Failing that, does anyone know what actions exactly register as me going Available or Away on my phone, and how long it takes for me to automatically go Offline?

posted by segfault to Computers & Internet (5 answers total)

There's a chat app on your phone. It should be called "Talk", I think (at least it is on mine). If you click on your name at the top of the list, it should let you change your setting to invisible (or offline). (That said, mine seems to use whatever the current gchat setting is, I think, so there's a chance this won't work for you.)
posted by inigo2 at 3:08 PM on December 24, 2012 [2 favorites]

I just sign out of gchat - set notifications for gmail
posted by the noob at 3:15 PM on December 24, 2012 [4 favorites]

inigo2 is right. Just set your status to invisible.
posted by Susan PG at 3:52 PM on December 24, 2012

mrs. mmascolino has the HTC One S as well. Go into the Talk app, tap your name (which should be the first item in the list and change your status there to Invisible. When I do this for her phone, she disappears from my GTalk list almost immediately.
posted by mmascolino at 5:52 PM on December 24, 2012

Response by poster: Hello! Thanks for all your help. I followed your instructions and found that I had already set myself to invisible via mmascolino's methods previously, probably the last time I got frustrated by this. This time I decided to sign myself off gchat completely, a la the noob. Maybe this will do the trick?
posted by segfault at 6:52 PM on December 24, 2012