<p>If you appear available/online for GMail chat (or whatever its name is) - and you’re “green” does that mean you are actually in the app itself/the app is open, or are you always green if your phone is on?</p>
<p>Whats the difference between being green/available and being idle (being orange).</p>
<p>I’ve tried googling this and I can’t find an answer.</p>
<p>ALSO - can you see status updates from the Android phone app? As in, on the computer, you can see Joe Schmoe change his status from “In NYC” to “Just got back home” because it pops up when its changed - does the same go for the app, too?</p>
<p>I think the icon only turns green when you’re in the app – it turns orange if your phone is on but you’re not using it, and grey if your phone is completely off. Someone I know has the Gmail app on her phone, but never uses it, so there’s always an orange dot next to her name.</p>
<p>On the computer, orange is when you’re on your email but you haven’t been active (moving the cursor around) for a long time.</p>
<p>Not sure about the status updates! I haven’t seen them on my phone before…I believe that’s part of Google Buzz or Google Chat, so I’m assuming you would need another app to see those?</p>
<p>So if an Android User is “green” for an extended period of time (~30 minutes or so) - that means they’re actually in that app for that amount of time? Its not like they’re playing Fruit Ninja and Hangouts/Gchat/whateveritscalled is running in the background?</p>
<p>I feel like the Android user would show up as green if the app is running in the background. Not completely sure though. What phones do you guys have? I have the Evo 3D.</p>
<p>@AnImpAffliction - I don’t have an Android - lol, I have an iPhone 5, so I don’t really understand the whole “app running in the background” thing, can you explain that to me?</p>
<p>Yeah, I think it’s also green if it’s running in the background, like if it’s syncing your mail. Not too familiar with iOS7, but on the old OS, when you double clicked the home button you got a dock with a bunch of apps that you accessed recently. If Gmail’s on the list, that means it’s running in the background, and to stop it you have to delete it from the dock.</p>
<p>So - its green if you’re in the app or if its running in the background, and its orange if you have closed the app altogether, then its grey/offline if the phone is off - correct?</p>
<p>It still works on iOS 7. Double tap the home button and then all the apps you have accessed recently show up. Swipe up to quit the app and it won’t run in the background.</p>
<p>why does it matter if you don’t have an android…</p>
<p>@preamble - Yep, pretty sure.</p>
<p>
Because the person s/he’s looking for on GMail is probably an Android owner. And s/he wants to know his or her status.</p>
<p>What about the status update thing? If someone on a PC updates their status on GMail (like if you were to go offline and say “leaving to NYC” or whatever) would someone on an Android be able to see it in realtime like you would on a PC? Because on a PC, you can see it pop up as soon as its updated.</p>
<p>The reason I’m asking is because my friend is a freshman at college and its across the country and we can only correspond through gmail/gchat because I can’t text her since she doesn’t have iMessage.</p>
<p>It’s green if the last time the Android Activity (same thing as a process on Windows) was focused (brought to the front screen) within the last 30 minutes. It’s orange if the Android Activity is running, but hasn’t been “focused” for over 30 minutes. It’s grey if the Android Activity is not killed/running (the client is offline).</p>
<p>It’s green if the app runs in the background, I think.</p>
<p>As for status updates, yes. If you’re scrolling down your news feed, there may be a little bubble at the top that says “____ new stories.” If you tap that, it takes you to the top of the feed where the new updates are displayed.</p>
<p>HI great to be here, android technology needed to a college student…</p>