How to Quickly Set an Out of Office in MS Teams

Setting up your out of office message and out of office status, whether to communicate that you’re in a meeting, on vacation, or just taking an hour or two for the type of deep thinking that maximizes productivity, is something you’ll likely be doing often.

Luckily, setting your status in Teams to set up your out of office message and status is a quick and easy process. Teams and Microsoft Outlook calendars are synced, meaning if you set an out of office on Teams, it will apply to your Outlook, too (and vice versa), saving you an extra step.

There are two methods to set up your out of office status message on Teams:

1. Through your Microsoft Teams profile
2. Through Microsoft Teams settings

In this guide, we’ll go over each method, step-by-step.

How to set out of office status through your Microsoft Teams profile

1. Open up the Microsoft Teams app.
2. Click your profile photo at the top of Teams, and click Set Status Message.
3. In the pop-up window, click the Schedule Out of Office button (note that just clicking the set status message is not an out of office message and does not replicate in Outlook. This will just set a message with your Teams status. If someone tries to message you, the status will appear in your chat).
4. Click the toggle next to turn on automatic replies.
5. Enter your out of office message. This will be sent to anyone who tries to reach you through Teams or views your profile. It will also be sent as an automatic out of office reply in Outlook.
6. If you want to send an automatic message to people or clients outside your company, click the box next to send replies outside my organization and choose between your contacts or all external senders. You can tailor your message to either audience or simply copy and paste your original message.
7. Next, schedule the dates and times that your out of office message will be displayed by selecting the check box next to send replies only during a time period. In the pop-up box, fill in the dates and times during which you want the out of office message to be displayed.
8. Select Save.

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 That’s it! You’re done.

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How to set out of office status through your Microsoft Teams settings

Scheduling your out of office status through Microsoft Teams settings is equally straightforward. 

1. Go to your profile photo in the top right of Teams, select Settings > General, and locate the Out of Office section.  
2. At the bottom of the page, click Schedule to open the out of office screen.
3. Follow steps 4-8 described above to set and save your preferences.  

Don’t forget to clear your out of office status and turn off your automatic reply in Teams once you’re back in the office.

Do this by either selecting your profile picture and going back to the out of office screen either from Settings > General > Out of Office or selecting Set Status Message > Schedule out of office from your profile picture. Click the toggle next to turn on automatic replies to deactivate it and click Save. This will save on both Teams and Outlook.

Setting up out of office through the Microsoft Teams mobile app

Setting up your Out of office message in the Teams mobile app couldn’t be easier. Just follow these steps:

1. Click on your profile icon in the top-left corner.
2. Click on set status message.
3. Enter your status message (“out of office”). This will be the automatic reply people will receive when they email you.
4. Click done.
5. Click the toggle that enables show when people message me.
6. Save by clicking the check icon in the top-right corner of the screen.
7. When you go to your profile, it will say “out of office.”

Remember that the message that you set in the mobile app is synced with the normal Teams app, so you only have to configure it once for Teams.

If you’d like to know when someone in Teams changes their status to Available or Offline, you can add them to your status notifications list. To learn how to do this, click here.

Going forward

Use the above tips to send automatic replies in Teams when you’re out of office. Want an easier way to update your availability across different apps? Clockwise is a time orchestration platform that syncs your personal calendar with your Slack status and team calendar. It’s the best way to keep your status up-to-date, whether you’re in a meeting, on vacation, or in Focus Time.