Change your status in Slack: interactive demo

What is a Slack status?

A Slack status is a short message and emoji that shows next to your name, letting your teammates know your availability at a glance. It can be something quick like "In a meeting", "Commuting", "Out sick", or "Out of office for a few days".

Statuses matter more than they look on a distributed team. They set expectations for response time, cut down on unnecessary pings, and help people know when you are reachable, all without sending a single message.

Slack also lets you set an expiry, so a status can clear itself automatically after a set time or date. That means you can mark yourself out of office for the week and not have to remember to remove it when you are back.

How to Change Your Status in Slack

1. Click your profile

Find and click your user name in the bottom left of the Slack interface to open your profile menu.

2. Click "Create"

Click the "Update your status" button to start editing your status.

3. Pick a preset status (optional)

Slack offers quick presets like "Commuting" or "Out sick". You can choose one of these for common situations in a single click.

4. Clear the current status to set a custom one

If you want something specific, clear the existing status so you can type your own.

5. Type your custom status

Enter your status clearly in the field, for example letting the team know you are out of office for a few days.

6. Choose when it should clear

Decide when the status should automatically disappear. You can pick a preset time or select a custom date.

7. Set the custom date and time

If you chose custom, select the exact date and time after which the status should be removed and reset.

8. Save your status

Click "Save" to apply your status. It now appears next to your name for your teammates to see.

Who uses Slack status updates?

Distributed and remote teams rely on statuses to coordinate across time zones. A clear status prevents pings during off hours and sets expectations without a single message.

Managers and team leads use statuses to see availability at a glance, which helps with planning meetings and knowing who is reachable.

New employees often need this shown to them during onboarding, along with dozens of other small Slack and workflow basics that add up to a real ramp-up cost.

Every internal tool has small workflows like this that new hires must learn, and those steps change as the software updates. The walkthrough above was built with Layerpath. Instead of re-recording onboarding videos each time a screen changes, teams update the individual step and keep every internal SOP current in their wiki or onboarding hub.