If you’re on leave, it’s a good idea to set Out of Office notifications for things other than email. For example, you can set up an ‘Out of Office’ message in the Microsoft Teams app and let others know you’re not available. Posting a message like this will let your teammates know about your absence.
Here’s how you can set the out of office message in Microsoft Teams.
Set Up Out of Office in Microsoft Teams
Microsoft Teams for Windows and Mac use the same user interface. The steps to use the Out of Office functionality on both platforms remain the same.
Follow the steps below to use and set the Out of Office message in Microsoft Teams.
Stage 1: Open the Microsoft Teams app on your computer.
Step 2: Select the relevant Team from the left sidebar.
Stage 3: Click on the profile picture at the top.
Step 4: Select Set status message.
Step 5: Click the ‘Schedule out of office’ button and a special Out of Office menu will open.
Step 6: Enable the Turn on automatic replies toggle.
Step 7: Set the out of office message.
Note that the message you added will appear when people try to contact you or open your profile in Teams. Teams sends it as an automatic reply in Outlook.
When you add the out of office message, you have two options from the same menu. Let’s learn about them.
Reply outside of my organization: If you prefer to send automated messages to people outside of your organization, click the box next to ‘Send replies outside of my organization’. Teams lets you choose between ‘To your contacts only’ and ‘All external senders’.
You can only set different messages for your contacts from the dialog below. If you want the same out of office message to stay, copy/paste the message from above.
Submit responses only for a certain period of time: This is a must-have feature for anyone trying to set up messages in Teams outside of the office. Activate the Period box and it will ask you to add the Start and End dates over time.
Let’s say your week is up. You can add start and end dates and set the time to schedule the out-of-office message.
Set Out of Office from Teams Settings
You can access the same option from the Teams settings menu and send the out-of-office message.
Stage 1: Open the Microsoft Teams app and click the three-dot menu next to the profile picture.
Step 2: Go to settings.
Stage 3: Select General and scroll down.
Step 4: Click on Schedule and a familiar menu as above will open to set the out of office status.
Out of Office Editing in Teams from Microsoft Outlook
When you set up Microsoft Teams outside of the office, it syncs automatically with Microsoft Outlook email. Here’s how you can edit out of office in Outlook and update the same message in Teams.
Stage 1: Open the Microsoft Outlook application on Windows.
Step 2: Click on File at the top.
Stage 3: Select Automatic Replies.
Step 4: You will see the same message you set up in Microsoft Teams.
Step 5: If you edit the out of office message, the same change will be reflected in the Microsoft Teams app.
Set Status Message in Teams Mobile Apps
There is no way to set the out of office message in the Microsoft Teams mobile apps. However, you can set a normal status message and delete it after a certain period of time.
This is useful when you’re in a meeting or away from Teams for a few hours. Here’s how you can use it.
Stage 1: Open the Microsoft Teams app on iPhone or Android (both use the same UI).
Step 2: Tap the profile icon at the top.
Stage 3: Select the Set status message.
Step 4: Add a status message, enable Show when people message me.
Step 5: Set timer to automatically delete message after fixed time.
Hit Done at the top and your contacts will see the status message set when they try to message you in Teams.
If you are away from Microsoft Teams for some reason, you can use this functionality instead of changing the Teams status in the app.
Set Up Open Communication in Teams
It looks professional when you initiate an out-of-office message in Teams to let others know why and likely when they’re waiting for a response. Note that the same out-of-office message is also synchronized with Outlook email.
