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Let team members know your availability by setting a status and a status message.

Quick reference

Set a Status and Message

Let your colleagues know what you are up to by setting a status and message. 

When to use

Change your status to keep colleagues informed about your availability. 

Instructions

Set a status message to keep others informed about what you are up to. For example, maybe you are trying to focus on an important task and don't want to be disturbed or you are out at a meeting and not available to take calls. Let others know by setting a status and message. 

We can see our current status by looking at our profile photo in the top right-hand corner. The colored dot shows our status. Teams will automatically change our status according to our activity. If we have a meeting scheduled in our calendar, Teams will change our status to Do Not Disturb. We can also change our status manually at any time. 

Change Status Manually

  • Click on your profile photo. 
  • Where it says Available, click the small drop-down arrow. 
  • Choose a status from the list. 

Status

There are six statuses that we can select in Teams. 

  1. Available - We are available to take messages and calls. 
  2. Busy - We set our status to Busy if we want to focus on our work but still want to receive notifications from Teams. 
  3. Do not disturb - We set our status to Do not disturb if we are busy and do not want to receive any notifications from Teams. This status will automatically be set if we are in a meeting. 
  4. Be right back - We use this status if we are temporarily away from our PC but will be back shortly, e.g. if we've gone to get a coffee. 
  5. Appear away - If we are working at our desk and can be seen by other colleagues, they may assume we are available for chats, calls, and messages. We can set our status to Appear away to let them know that we might be at our desk but we are trying to focus. 
  6. Appear offline - This status will happen automatically if we shut down our PC or log out of Teams. 

Set a Status Duration

We can set a time period for a particular status. For example, maybe we want to Appear away for 2 hours and then switch back to Available automatically. 

  • Set status to Appear away.
  • Click Duration.
  • Choose how long to show this status before resetting back to Available. 

Set a Status Message

In addition to setting a status, we might want to give a bit more detail to our colleagues. We can do this by setting a status message.

  • Click Set status message. 
  • Type a message. We can use @mentions in here. 
  • Click Show when people message me. 
  • Choose when to clear the message.
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  • 00:03 Setting a status and
  • 00:05 a message gives people important information about what you're up to.
  • 00:10 For example, maybe you're trying to focus on a project and don't want to be
  • 00:14 disturbed, or maybe you're out at a meeting for the next few hours.
  • 00:19 You can let your colleagues know this information by setting your status and
  • 00:23 a message.
  • 00:24 Now if you take a look at my little profile picture in the top right hand
  • 00:29 corner of the screen, notice the little dot that's over my profile photo.
  • 00:34 Currently it's green and it has a tick.
  • 00:37 If you take a look at Jen's profile photo in this conversation,
  • 00:42 notice that hers is yellow, and it has a little clock icon.
  • 00:47 Now this little dot lets people know what our current status is, and
  • 00:52 you can update your status accordingly.
  • 00:55 And one useful feature of Teams is that if you are out at a meeting for example,
  • 01:00 Teams will automatically set your status to busy.
  • 01:03 Now if you do want to change your status, if you click on your profile photo you can
  • 01:08 see my status just here, it's currently available.
  • 01:11 And what available means is that I'm currently active in Teams and
  • 01:15 I don't have anything scheduled in my calendar.
  • 01:19 So I'm available to chat to people and possibly jump into a meeting.
  • 01:24 And Teams will automatically set your status from available to away if
  • 01:28 you lock your computer or it's in sleep mode.
  • 01:31 Now if we click on where it says available,
  • 01:34 you're going to be able to see all of the different statuses that you can select.
  • 01:38 So we know what available is.
  • 01:40 The next one is busy.
  • 01:42 Now you would set your status to busy if you want to focus on something but
  • 01:46 you still want to see notifications from Teams.
  • 01:49 So you want to keep an eye on what's going on, but everybody knows that you're kind
  • 01:53 of a bit busy at the moment and you're focusing on your work.
  • 01:56 The next status is do not disturb,
  • 01:58 and you would really use this if you don't want any notifications to pop up.
  • 02:04 And that could apply in a few different scenarios.
  • 02:07 Maybe this is another situation where you simply want to focus on your work, and
  • 02:10 you don't want to be distracted by anything, so
  • 02:13 you don't want to see any notifications from Teams.
  • 02:16 You could use do not disturb in that scenario.
  • 02:19 Alternatively, maybe you're in a meeting and you're presenting your screen.
  • 02:24 And you don't want all of the participants in the meeting to see any email pop-ups or
  • 02:29 things that you might have coming up on your screen.
  • 02:32 That is when you would use do not disturb.
  • 02:34 The next one is be right back.
  • 02:37 And in general, I tend to use this if I'm going to be temporarily away from my PC.
  • 02:42 So maybe I've just gone to the kitchen to get a cup of coffee, and
  • 02:46 I'm going to be back in five minutes.
  • 02:48 So this is more of a temporary away status.
  • 02:52 You could choose to set your status to appear away.
  • 02:55 And that might be that you're not actually away, but this is just another way of
  • 02:59 letting people know that even though I might be at my desk,
  • 03:03 I'm really trying to focus right now.
  • 03:05 And of course, appear offline,
  • 03:07 this will happen automatically if you shut down your PC or log out of Teams.
  • 03:11 And this just indicates to people that you're not actually signed into Teams at
  • 03:15 the moment and you'll respond the next time you're available.
  • 03:18 Now as I mentioned,
  • 03:20 Teams will in some situations automatically set your status for you.
  • 03:24 For example, if you have a meeting scheduled in your calendar and
  • 03:28 then you go into that meeting, Teams will set your status to busy for you so
  • 03:32 you don't have to remember to do it.
  • 03:35 But just be aware that if you want to use these status
  • 03:38 messages to keep your colleagues informed,
  • 03:40 then you can simply jump into here and set your status accordingly.
  • 03:45 You can even set a duration for each of these statuses.
  • 03:48 So maybe I know I'm going to be busy for the next three hours.
  • 03:52 So I could set my status to busy.
  • 03:55 Notice the icon color has changed.
  • 03:58 And I can also set a duration for this as well.
  • 04:01 So my status is busy.
  • 04:03 What is the duration of that?
  • 04:05 So I could say that I'm busy all of today or for the next 2 hours or
  • 04:09 the next 30 minutes.
  • 04:12 So you can utilize that duration option as well.
  • 04:16 And if you just want to reset your status, you have that option as
  • 04:20 well at the bottom, which is going to put mine back to available.
  • 04:24 Now, in addition to setting our status,
  • 04:27 we can also set a status message if we want to.
  • 04:31 So again, this just gives people a little bit more detail about what you're up to.
  • 04:35 So you can type a message in here.
  • 04:36 I guess it's a little bit like an out of office.
  • 04:39 You can even at mention people in your status as well.
  • 04:43 So maybe I want to say I'm not going to be here for the next three hours for
  • 04:48 any inquiries or questions at Ben Lee, something along those lines.
  • 04:52 And I can choose if I want to show this message when people message me.
  • 04:56 And also I can specify when to clear this message.
  • 05:00 So maybe I simply want a message for the rest of the day.
  • 05:03 If I set this to today, it's going to clear that message by tomorrow.
  • 05:08 So statuses and messages, a great way to let people know what you're doing and
  • 05:13 if you're available for chat, calls, and meetings.

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