Is There a Chrome Extension That Keeps Slack Always Active?

The short answer: extensions exist, and they inherit a limit worth knowing before you install one. An extension only runs while Chrome runs. Quit the browser, sleep the machine, or shut the laptop, and it stops with everything else — so it solves the idle-timer problem, not the away problem people usually mean.

It is a reasonable thing to search for. An extension feels lighter than installing an app and more targeted than a hardware gadget. The catch is architectural rather than a matter of finding a better-built one.

What an Extension Can and Cannot Reach

Extensions run inside the browser and act on pages the browser has open. Under Manifest V3 their background code runs as a service worker that Chrome is free to shut down when idle, so “always” is doing a lot of work in the phrase “always active.” Chrome decides when your extension gets to run, and Chrome itself only runs while you are running it.

There is also a coverage gap people miss. If you use the Slack desktop application, a browser extension is not driving that client at all — it can act on Slack in a browser tab, which is a different session. Plenty of people install one, keep using the desktop app, and cannot work out why nothing changed.

A Note on Our Own Extension

Since you may find it while searching: NotAway publishes a Chrome extension called NotAway Connect, and it is not a presence keeper. Its only job is to link a Slack workspace to your NotAway account — it reads the current Slack for Web workspace credentials after you explicitly consent and click a button, encrypts them on your device, and gives you a short-lived connection code to paste into NotAway. You can read its listing on the Chrome Web Store. It does not keep anything active, and installing it alone changes nothing about your status.

We are spelling this out because “NotAway has a Chrome extension” could easily be read as “install the extension and Slack stays green.” It does not work that way. The presence itself is maintained server-side, which is precisely why it keeps working when your browser is closed.

Choosing by What Has to Stay Running

Pick by the thing you can guarantee stays on. If Chrome is open all day with Slack in a tab, an extension may be enough, and free options exist. If you use the desktop app, a local utility fits better than an extension — our comparison of Caffeine and mouse jigglers covers those. If the honest answer is that your computer is not reliably on, then no browser-based approach reaches that case.

NotAway holds the workspace connection from a server on a schedule you set, across up to seven workspaces, at $3.99/month with a 7-day free trial. For the underlying behaviour, see how to keep Slack active, what Slack away status actually measures, and what the Slack green dot is really reporting. Chrome’s own service worker documentation explains the lifecycle limits in detail.