How do you know if your contacts in gmail in the chat area are busy or unavailable or available?

Question

I have a gmail account and a few contacts in the google chat box area on the left bottom of the screen. But I don't know when they are available because in the status column there is no icon.

Answer 1

Only contacts you have already chatted with will show a status.

As far as I know only other Gmailers can chat on Gmail.

To chat with another Gmailer, you have to "invite" them to chat. When they accept, the contact will show a status.

Grey - off line

Orange - on line but their Gmail window is not active.

Green - on line and their Gmail window is the active window on their screen - ie they are looking at it.

I hope this helps.  

Answer 2

if they are available the dot next to their name will be green, if they are busy it will be red, and if they are not online its grey.

Answer 3

Red = unavailable

Yellow = busy

Green = available