How does Desktop Presence work?

Desktop Presence is used by Simple In/Out Desktop to detect when you are at your computer and when you are not. The Desktop app will update your status when you are detected as being "active" and when you are detected as being "away."

Simple In/Out Desktop will use your keyboard and mouse input to detect whether you're active or away. If there is no keyboard or mouse input during the idle time (defaults to 10 minutes), the app will consider you as "away" and update your status accordingly. When you move your mouse or use your keyboard again, you will be considered as "active" and your status will be automatically updated.

Simple In/Out Desktop will also update your status when your computer sleeps and resumes, so if your computer sleeps after less than the idle time, your status will be updated more frequently.

Restrictions

Desktop Presences can be restricted to only certain networks based on IP address ranges. When restricted, a Desktop Presence can be activated by the user but will only set its comments when on a specific network. The primary use cases for this are laptops, with use cases like:

• Multiple building setups, where Simple In/Out Desktop can set the user's comment based on which office building they reside.
• Working from home, where Simple In/Out Desktop can set status and comment to IN for the office and REMOTE for working from home.
• Emergency evacuation/mustering based on comments being set with laptops in the evacuation zone vs remote.

To restrict a Desktop Presence for only certain network conditions, IP ranges must be added via CIDR notation and IPv4. CIDR notation is commonplace among network management and system administrators. To learn more, read more about CIDR notation here.

User may enable as many restricted Desktop Presence settings as they wish, allowing administrators to customize status/comment across a variety of locations. However, users may only enable one unrestricted Desktop Presence, which is the default when their IP address is unrecognized by any restricted settings. If using restricted Desktop Presences, we recommend having at least one unrestricted Desktop Presence which acts as a default.

A note about VPNs and Apple's Private Relay

If using restricted Desktop Presences, the IP address of the user is key. If using a VPN, your IP address will be different. For customers requiring VPN access to their networks, this can be used in conjunction with our restrictions to understand when users are connected to the VPN, assuming your VPN has set ranges of IP addresses.

With macOS, Apple has a feature called Private Relay which hides the user's real IP by relaying traffic through other places (similar to a VPN but without the security of tunneling. Users should be encouraged to disable this feature if you wish for them to have a reliable IP address when on your office network.