To change your availability status in Podia messaging navigate to the Messaging page. On your messaging page, click on the availability selector dropdown and select one out of the four options:

If you would like to set your availability status to always online, you can select Online from the availability selector. If Online is selected, you will always appear as online to the customer, even if you are logged out of Podia.

If you would like to set your availability status to reflect your current status, you can select Automatic from the availability selector. Setting your status as automatic will only mark you as available when you are logged into Podia. To be marked as Online, you have to be signed in to Podia and have an active window or tab open in your browser. As soon as you exit out of the window or tab, or log out of Podia, you will be automatically set to Away.

By setting your availability status to Away, you will always appear as "away" to your customers, as shown below with the away indicator in the chat widget.

To disable messaging on your site, check out Updating your messaging settings or view the messaging settings page.