When you take a vacation, it is standard practice to set up an Out of Office (OOO) auto-reply in Microsoft Outlook. However, in modern workplaces, colleagues are just as likely to message you on Microsoft Teams as they are to send an email. If you forget to manually change your Teams status, coworkers might think you are simply ignoring their direct messages. Fortunately, because Teams and Outlook are deeply integrated within the Microsoft 365 ecosystem, you can configure Teams to automatically sync with your Outlook auto-reply settings.
How the Integration Works
When this integration is enabled, the moment your scheduled Outlook auto-reply activates, Microsoft Teams will instantly change your presence indicator to a purple “Out of Office” icon. Furthermore, your Outlook auto-reply message will be visible in Teams; if a colleague attempts to type a message to you, they will see a banner above the chat box displaying your exact OOO message before they even press send.
How to Enable the Out of Office Sync in Teams
You can verify that this synchronization is active directly from the Teams desktop application.
- Open Microsoft Teams on your computer.
- Click the three-dot menu icon (Settings and more) located in the top right corner, next to your profile picture.
- Select Settings from the dropdown menu.
- In the left-hand sidebar, click on General.
- Scroll down to the bottom of the General menu and locate the Out of Office section.
- Click the Schedule button.
- A new dialog box will appear. Check the box at the very top labelled Turn on automatic replies.
How to Schedule Your OOO Message
Once you check that box, you can type your out-of-office message directly into the text box below it. This message will be pushed to both Teams and Outlook simultaneously.
To ensure it turns on and off automatically while you are away, check the box labelled Send replies only during a time period. You can then select the exact start date, start time, end date, and end time. When the end time is reached, Teams will automatically turn off the auto-reply, remove your OOO status message, and return your presence indicator to the standard green “Available” dot.