Teams (new) Out of Office without a custom message

Question

Is there a way to set your status to Out of Office without a custom message? Current settings don't allow that and you must use a message. I have seen other people in my organization do this, but I cannot.

I have Teams (new) version 24102.2223.2870.9480

Client version 49/24041122315

Answer 1

Hello Bpanem,

I am a Microsoft user like you, providing solutions to community members; I am NOT a Microsoft employee.

Unfortunately, as of today, there's no built-in way to set your Teams Out of Office status without a custom message. This is a limitation of the current Teams settings even though you might have seen others do it.

Here are the possibilities:

Maybe it was an older version: It's possible your colleagues were using an older version of Teams that might have allowed setting Out of Office without a message. Microsoft updates Teams regularly, and features can change between versions.

Third-party tools (not recommended): There might be some third-party tools or unofficial workarounds that claim to enable this functionality. However, using such tools can be risky and might violate your organization's security policies. It's generally not recommended.

Here are some workarounds:

Use a generic message: You can set a very short and generic message like "Out of Office" or "Unavailable" to achieve a similar effect without revealing details.

Turn on Do Not Disturb: Consider using the Do Not Disturb status alongside a short Out of Office message. This will minimize notifications while still letting people know you're unavailable.

Request the Feature: You can submit feedback to Microsoft requesting the ability to set Out of Office status without a message. Here's the link to the Microsoft Teams UserVoice page: https://support.microsoft.com/office/uservoice-pages-430e1a78-e016-472a-a10f-dc2a3df3450a.

Hopefully, in future updates, Microsoft might consider adding this functionality based on user feedback.

Hope this helps

-Stephen N.

Answer 2

in the Calendar menu of Teams, create a calendar event, look for the status option and choose "Away" (perhaps "Out of Office" depending on your country).

Answer 3

Teams will do this when it sees something on your calendar that you've set to Out of Office. It updates your status automatically, without setting any message or using any message you might have set previously (so you don't have to worry about clearing out your manually scheduled OOO messages when you return). Your coworkers will be able to see more details about how long you're OOO if they hover over your avatar. It's really great for blocking out small chunks of personal time like doctor's appointments or commutes.

Answer 4

Just create an 'out of office' event on Teams Calendar.

Answer 5

It helps.

I have found that I can set this out of office status on Teams mobile for Android, and this fixes the problem also.