a shorter "standard jiggle" minimum distance would be helpful (Microsoft Teams issue)

[bhaller]

This was reported by @music86-bg, who wrote:

Hi Everyone, I am the one who reported that Zen jiggle is still not working properly.

A little more details:

the Zen jiggle DOES prevent MacOS from going into sleep (i.e. my screen does not turn off), but...
it DOES NOT prevent MS Teams from moving from "Available" to "Away" state. I even tried to set "Teams" as a condition in the setting... still does not work as expected.

I'm opening a new issue for it, since it is unrelated to issue #34 that it was reported on.

[music86-bg]

FYI -> MS Teams Version 25306.805.4102.7211

[bhaller]

OK, I have re-closed #34. Following up here:

@music86-bg, did previous versions of Jiggler keep Teams awake in "Zen mode"?

My guess is that this is simply that Teams is looking for a sign of activity – such as mouse movement – that Jiggler does not provide when in Zen mode. Many apps monitor activity by watching the mouse position, or even the mouse button state, which is why Jiggler provides those other modes. If Teams is watching for that kind of activity, then Zen mode, which by definition does not generate that kind of activity, is not going to be able to keep it awake. So I suspect there is no bug here; you simply have to choose a mode for Jiggler that provides the type of activity that Teams is monitoring. Or, if you wish, the bug is in Teams – it should be using the system activity monitor, which Zen mode does tweak, rather than relying on non-standard ways of monitoring user activity. (Good luck getting them to fix that bug, though.) :-> I'll leave this open for now, but probably we're heading towards closing it as "not a bug". If you disagree with that assessment, please provide more information supporting that.

[music86-bg]

"did previous versions of Jiggler keep Teams awake in "Zen mode"?" - absolutely! And I have been using it for years. The issue appeared after updating to MacOS 26. If you think it is not a bug - please, close this issue and I will use the other options.

Proposal for "standard jiggle" option - if the "nearby" range is significantly decreased (i.e. to end up with something like a couple of pixels (so it is not visible but can be detected by the system)) - that would fix the issue and will look like a zen jiggle. :) I don't know if this is feasible, just thinking of a solution...

[bhaller]

"did previous versions of Jiggler keep Teams awake in "Zen mode"?" - absolutely! And I have been using it for years. The issue appeared after moving to MacOS 26. If you think it is not a bug - please, close this issue and I will use the other options.

Well, I don't know. I'd like more information to figure out the best path forward. Did you upgrade Teams at around the same time that you upgraded to Tahoe and Zen mode stopped working for you? Could it be that an upgrade to Teams changed the way that it detects system activity, and that this actually has nothing to do with either Tahoe or Jiggler, but with Teams?

Proposal for "standard jiggle" option - if the "nearby" range is significantly decreased (i.e. to end up with something like a couple of pixels (so it is not visible, but can also be detected by the system)) - that would fix the issue and will look like a zen jiggle. :) I don't know if this is feasible, just thinking of a solution...

The minimum distance for "standard jiggle" could certainly be made smaller than it is now, I think. However, some apps that watch for mouse movement look for movement that is above some minimum threshold (which is why Jiggler has a setting for that in the first place); so setting the movement too low might again not work with whatever Teams is doing. But it's a reasonable change to try. So I can consider this issue as a request for that enhancement, if that seems like the best path forward.

[music86-bg]

Did you upgrade Teams at around the same time that you upgraded to Tahoe and Zen mode stopped working for you? Could it be that an upgrade to Teams changed the way that it detects system activity, and that this actually has nothing to do with either Tahoe or Jiggler, but with Teams?

I really do not remember. It is possible that both have been updated at the same day, as I veeeeeery rarely do restarts.

However, some apps that watch for mouse movement look for movement that is above some minimum threshold

Got it. Probably Teams also has some min distance. Anyways - "standard jiggle" FTW!

[bhaller]

I'll change the title a bit to reflect this discussion.