How to change your Microsoft Teams status

Teams is an awesome tool to keep in touch with your colleagues. However, sometimes you just need to be left alone to work more effective or just take a little break for a while. This article shows you how you can change your Microsoft Teams status. If you want to learn more awesome tips and tricks for Microsoft Teams you should definitely read the following articles:

• How to start a meeting in Microsoft teams using Meet Now
• Where's the mute button?!
  

Status options

In Microsoft Teams (MS Teams) you can put fancy signs (see the image below) on your profile to inform your colleagues of your availability status. You can change your MS Teams status throughout the day which lets colleagues know when you are available for communication. Both the desktop and mobile application of MS Teams have the same standard statuses:

• Available, for when you are active in the MS Teams app and there isn’t anything scheduled in your calendar.
• Busy, if you are working on something and wouldn’t like to be disturbed, but still want to receive notifications.
• Do not disturb, when you want to silence all notifications and not be disturbed.
• Be right back, for when you are temporarily away. It’s never set automatically.
• Appear away, for if you are working and you don’t want to respond right away to notifications.

Notice how status has a colour or a colour and symbol bubble? Depending on your status, that bubble will appears near your profile icon. This is a quick indication of your status that your colleagues can see right away when they search for you in MS Teams. When you change your status, the status bubble near your profile icon will also change to reflect your new status.

Note that the Reset status option functions as a way to return your current status to Available.

Tip: The only status that silences all notifications is Do not disturb. All the other statuses apart from the Available status show that you are not available, but they permit the notifications to pop-up.

Three ways to change

There are two ways to change your status from the MS Teams desktop application, and one way from the mobile application (three ways in total):

Desktop

1. Profile icon in desktop: You can easily locate and change your status in MS Teams desktop by selecting your profile icon in the top right corner and navigating to the first row under your name.

2.      Command Box in desktop: To change your availability using the Command Box, all you need to do is type a backslash (/) and then the status you want such as /available, /busy, /dnd (do not disturb), etc. Remember, the Command Box is only available on desktop.

Mobile

3.      Mobile menu: To locate and change your status from the mobile application you can just tap the three horizontal lines in the top left corner and then tap on the first row under your name to see the options.

Relax with the appropriate sign

It's really helpful to let your team know when you're available and how quickly you can respond to messages. So, make sure to update your MS Teams status based on your schedule to facilitate more efficient communication with your colleagues.

Continue learning about adjustable settings, unique video meeting options, and ways to improve communications in Microsoft Teams by signing up at 5miles for a free two-week trial. Start one of the 40 different Microsoft Teams Challenges today!