glideapps / glideapps/expert-issues

Native User Presence / Online Status Indicator

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Description

**Summary**
Users need a native way to detect and display whether a user is currently **"Online"** (app open and active) or **"Offline"**. Currently, there is no built-in "Presence" system. Developers resort to resource-heavy workarounds (writing timestamps on every click) to guess user availability, which is inaccurate and consumes massive amounts of "Updates" quota.

**Current Problem**
* **Blind Collaboration:** In apps designed for teams (dispatching, support, chat), users have no way of knowing if a colleague is available to receive a task or message.
* **Quota Drain:** To simulate this feature, developers create actions that write `Current Time` to the User Profile on every button click. This burns through the app's "Updates" limit incredibly fast and slows down the app.
* **Operational Inefficiency:** Managers or Dispatchers often assign urgent tasks to users who are technically logged in but haven't touched the app in hours (are actually offline).

**Examples/Scenarios**
* **Dispatching/Taxi/Delivery:** A dispatcher needs to assign a new job only to drivers who are currently valid and looking at the screen, not those on a lunch break.
* **Customer Support:** A manager needs to route a live chat request to an agent who is actually "Online" (green light), rather than one who went home for the day.
* **Team Communication:** Users hesitate to send messages or comments because they don't know if the recipient is there to reply immediately.

**Why This Matters**
* **Real-Time Engagement:** Essential for any collaborative app (CRM, Field Ops, Chat).
* **Saves Data/Quota:** A native "Presence" check is a read-only state, whereas current workarounds require thousands of database writes.
* **Better UX:** Reduces the "black hole" feeling where tasks are sent to users who aren't there.

**Suggested UX**
* **Computed Column:** Add a special column in the User Profile table called **"Last Active"** or **"Is Online"** (Boolean) that Glide updates automatically in the background (without counting as a transactional Update).
* **Component Visuals:** Add a standard **"Online Badge"** (Green Dot) option to Image or Title components if the user is active within the last 5 minutes.
* **Filter Logic:** Allow filtering lists by this status (e.g., Filter Users where `Status` is `Online`).

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