How to Schedule and Set Up Out of Office Status in Microsoft Teams

Taking annual leave, attending full-day offsite workshops, or stepping away on business travel requires informing colleagues and external clients that you will be unavailable. Historically, configuring out-of-office autoreplies meant opening desktop Microsoft Outlook or signing into Outlook on the web. However, modern corporate communication revolves around instant messaging in Microsoft Teams. To streamline leave management, Microsoft allows users to schedule and configure Out of Office status directly within Microsoft Teams.

Setting up your Out of Office in Teams synchronises your availability bidirectionally with your Microsoft Outlook calendar, displays a clear status banner above your profile icon, informs colleagues whenever they @mention you in chat, and automatically returns tailored autoreplies to internal colleagues and external correspondents.

What Happens When You Enable Out of Office in Teams?

Configuring Out of Office triggers comprehensive visual and communicative cues across your Microsoft 365 environment:

• Chat Presence Indicator: Changes your Teams presence icon from green/red to a distinctive purple “Out of Office” badge.
• Inline Warning Banners: When a colleague begins typing a direct message or tags your name (@mention) in a team channel, Teams displays an immediate banner warning: “[User] is currently Out of Office” accompanied by your custom absence note.
• Two-Way Outlook Sync: Teams updates Exchange Online directly; your Outlook autoreplies, calendar status, and calendar blocks reflect your absence automatically without requiring secondary configuration.
• Scheduled Auto-Disabling: Automatically turns off the status message and restores standard availability at your exact designated return date and time.

How to Set Up Out of Office in Teams on Desktop (Windows & Mac)

Configuring your absence takes only a minute in the Teams desktop application:

1. Open Microsoft Teams on your PC or Mac.
2. Click your Profile picture (or initials avatar) in the upper-right corner of the window.
3. Select Set status message.
4. In the pop-up window, click the Schedule out of office link located at the bottom.
5. The Out of Office settings window opens. Toggle on the switch labelled Turn on automatic replies.
6. Type your auto-reply message in the text box (e.g., explaining your absence dates and identifying an alternate colleague for urgent inquiries).
7. Check the box labelled Send replies only during a time period.
8. Select your exact Start date and time and End date and time.
9. To send auto-replies to external clients outside your organization, check Send replies outside my organization and choose between Only to your contacts or All external senders.
10. Click Save.

How to Set Up Out of Office on Teams Mobile (iOS & Android)

If you are travelling and need to configure or extend your absence from your smartphone:

1. Open the Microsoft Teams mobile app on iPhone or Android.
2. Tap your Profile picture in the top-left corner.
3. Tap Settings, then select Account (or tap your profile name).
4. Tap Out of Office.
5. Toggle on Turn on automatic replies.
6. Enter your reply text and toggle on Send replies during a time period.
7. Set your departure and return timestamps.
8. Tap Done (or the checkmark) in the upper-right corner to save.

Comparison: Standard Status Message vs Out of Office

Cancelling or Modifying Out of Office Early

If you return to work ahead of schedule and want to resume normal communication:

1. Open Teams and click your profile picture.
2. Click Schedule out of office.
3. Toggle off Turn on automatic replies and click Save.
4. Your presence status immediately returns to green (Available) and Outlook stops dispatching absence autoreplies.