What is Presence Sensing, and how to use it on Windows 11? Everything you need to know

On Windows 11, you can manage the Presence Sensing settings to improve device security and energy efficiency of your computer, and in this guide, I’ll explain everything you need to know, including the steps to enable or disable its features.

What’s Presence Sensing?

Presence Sensing is a collection of features that Windows 11 (version 23H2 and higher releases) uses to detect your physical presence near the computer. 

If you leave your desk on supported hardware with the feature enabled, the computer can turn off the display automatically. When you approach, the feature can automatically wake up the display again. The system can also detect when you’re not looking at the screen to lower the brightness and then restore the intensity when you look at the screen again. This feature is meant to help you keep your computer more secure, save battery power, and get back to work faster. 

What devices support Presence Sensing?

This feature is only available on some computers since it requires special hardware, such as infrared cameras or radar-based sensors, to sense when a person is near or away from a device.

Usually, you will find this feature on premium devices as well as Copilot+ PCs. Also, the features you can use will depend on the computer’s sensors. If your device has no compatible presence sensors, you won’t find any options in the Settings app.

In this guide, I’ll show you the steps to configure the presence-sensing settings on Windows 11.

Change Presence Sensing on Windows 11

To change the Presence Sensing settings on Windows 11, use these steps:

1. Open Settings on Windows 11.

2. Click on System.

3. Click the Power & battery tab.

4. Click on the “Screen, sleep, & hibernate timeouts” setting.

5. Turn on the “Turn off my screen when I leave” toggle switch to allow the system to turn off the display as you walk away.

6. Turn on the “Wake up my device when I approach” toggle to allow the system to turn on the display as soon as it detects your presence.

7. Turn on the “Dim my screen when I look away” toggle switch to allow the operating system to lower the brightness intensity when you are not looking into the screen.

8. Click any of the settings (from steps 5, 6, or 7) to open the Presence Sensing settings page.

9. Click the “Turn off my screen when I leave” setting.

   

10. Choose the number of feet the feature should use to determine the distance when you have left your computer in the “Consider me gone when I’m this far away” setting.

11. Choose the time to wait before your screen turns off after you have left your computer in the “Then, turn off my screen after this amount of time” setting.

    Quick note: When the screen turns off, the system will also lock the device, meaning that you will need to sign in again to resume your session.

12. Check the”Turn off my screen when I leave while an external display is connected” option (if applicable).

13. Click the “Wake my device when I approach” setting.

14. Choose the number of feet the feature should use to determine how close you need to be for your computer to wake when you approach it in the “Wake my device when I’m this close” setting.

15. Check the “Wake my device when I approach while an external display is connected” option (if applicable).

16. Click the “Dim my screen when I look away” setting.

    

17. Check the “Dim my screen when I look away while an external display is connected” option (if applicable).

Once you complete the steps, the system will control the desktop access, screen, and sleep timers, depending on your configuration.

Change Presence Sensing privacy on Windows 11

To control which apps have access to the presence sensors on Windows 11 23H2, use these steps:

1. Open Settings.

2. Click on Privacy & security.

3. Click the Presence Sensing page.

4. Turn on (or off) the “Presence Sensing access” toggle switch (as necessary).

   

5. Turn on (or off) the “Let apps access Presence Sensing” toggle switch (as necessary).

6. Choose the app and decide whether it should access the Presence Sensing sensors.

7. Turn on (or off) the “Let desktop apps access Presence Sensing” option to allow or deny desktop apps to access the sensors.

After you complete the steps, only the apps you selected will have access to the Presence Sensing sensors on Windows 11.

Check if your computer supports Presence Sensing

You can always open Device Manager > Sensors and confirm whether your computer includes a “Human Presence Sensor.” On Qualcomm Snapdragon devices, the sensor is shown as a “Qualcomm Human Presence Sensor.”

Also, if you can’t find the settings outlined above, then chances are that your computer doesn’t support these features.