How to set a Slack status
Instant messaging apps like Slack give everyone within a workspace an easy and quick way to contact others. Unlike email, it’s assumed there will be no delay in getting an answer since the other person is online. That is rarely the case. Messages can sit unread or unanswered if your recipient is busy.
Set a Slack Status
You can set your Slack status to busy and you can snooze your notifications if you’re away but Slack has better, information rich options that you can use to set as your status. For example, if you’re in a meeting, you can set the status to say so, and set the status to expire automatically.
How to set a Slack status
To set your Slack status to away;
- Click your profile icon at the top right.
- Select the Set status as away option.
To set a Slack status;
- Click your profile icon at the top right.
- Select Update your status.
- Select one of the auto-status messages: In a meeting, Out Sick, Vacationing, etc.
- Change when you’d like to clear the status and click Save.
If none of the default Slack messages are suitable, you can create a custom message.
- Click your profile icon at the top right.
- Enter a custom status message
- Add an emoji if you like.
- Open the Clear After dropdown and select when Slack should automatically clear the message.
- Check the ‘Pause notifications’ option if you’d like to pause notifications while this status is active.
Pause notifications
Slack users can pause notifications without tying it to a particular status. To pause notifications on Slack;
- Click your profile icon at the top right.
- Select the Pause notifications option from the menu.
- Select a preset from the sub-menu or select Custom to select a custom date and time until the notifications should be paused.
- You can schedule when notifications are automatically paused/unpaused by clicking Set a notification schedule.
Conclusion
Messaging apps help reduce the number of emails you get but you will always find that some people expect an immediate response. To be ‘online’ may be inferred as ready to answer ten different people all at once. Unfortunately, you cannot set notification settings on a per-user or per-channel basis. If you find a channel, a group, or a particular user tends to be overzealously active during a time when you’re working, you can mute them. You will have to remember to unmute them though because there is no scheduling feature for it.
