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Microsoft Teams Status Messages – A Comprehensive Guide

Michal Pisarek ‐ July 30, 2020

3 MIN READ

Microsoft Teams Status messages are a great way to display your current status so other users know when they should and shouldn’t contact you. They have been heavily used in other Microsoft tools such as Skype for Business and Microsoft Outlook, so you may already be familiar with the concept. Let us take a look at how to set a status and some common Microsoft Teams status message examples along with it.

ms teams status message
Image: Setting MS Teams Status Message

Changing your Microsoft Teams Status

Changing your Microsoft Teams status message is easy to do and is the same across mobile and desktop apps.

First, go to your profile which is located at the top right corner of the desktop application.

Then click on ‘Set Status Message’ to be taken to the area where you set your status message:

ms teams status message editing
Image: Editting MS Teams Status Message

Your Microsoft Teams status message can contain up to 280 characters and, as a bonus feature, you can also @mention someone to contact in your absence. For example, if you want to let people know to contact someone else whilst you are away, a good status message for Microsoft Teams would be:

ms teams - status message - mentions
Image: Mention in MS Teams Status Message

If someone mentions you in their status message, you will receive a notification as shown in the image below:

ms teams status message automated notification
Image: Microsoft Teams Status Notification

Show Teams Status When Message Received

By default, you should also have the ‘show when people message me’ enabled in your Microsoft Teams status.

For example, if you try to do a one-to-one chat with a co-worker, as soon as you start typing in the message box you will get a prompt showing their current Microsoft Teams status message:

ms teams status message - notification in chat
Image: Microsoft Teams Status Notification in Chat

Clear Teams Status Message

You can decide when you want your Microsoft Teams status message to end with the clear Microsoft Teams status message function. Choose between the options provided, or select your own custom time frame – whatever suits you best.

ms teams - status message -duration
Image: Setting Status Message Duration in MS Teams

Finally, once you have set your status you will receive a notification of your set status and the top notification bar in the Microsoft Teams application. This is easy enough to dismiss but is a nice cue that will help you to understand how and where your status messages for Microsoft Teams will be used.

ms teams - status message - notification update
Image: Status Message Notification in Chat

Where is the Microsoft Teams Status Message Visible?

Once you set a Microsoft Teams status message it will be visible in multiple places across Microsoft Teams:

1. In one-to-one or one-to-many Microsoft Teams Chats – When you start a one-to-one chat the status message will be visible above the conversation box. You can always dismiss the notification if necessary.

ms teams - status message - chat notification
Image: Status Message Notification in MS Teams Chat

2. @Mentions in Microsoft Teams Channels – You will also see the status message if you are mentioning a person as part of a Microsoft Teams Channel. This happens both in new conversations and replies and is incredibly useful.

ms teams - status message - mention in channels
Image: Status Message Notification upon mentioning in MS Teams channels.

3. Pop Up Card in Microsoft Teams – The Microsoft Teams’ status message also appears on users’ contact cards. If you hover over the image of a person in Microsoft Teams you will see their contact card. As you can see in the image below, the status message is displayed along with when the message was entered.

ms teams - status message - contact card
Image: Microsoft Teams Status Message Contact Card

When to use the Microsoft Teams Status Message Feature

There are a number of ways that you can use the Microsoft Teams status feature:

  • When you are away: Often people won’t look at your calendar or might wonder why you are away. Setting a good Microsoft Teams status message can be a great way to add some additional context so that people understand what is going on. Curious how you can schedule a meeting from Teams chat? Read our blog to find out how! New call-to-action
  • When you don’t want people to contact you: Another way to use this feature is when you want some quiet time from people. For example, if you are working on a presentation and need some time to prepare for it.
  • You want to delegate work to someone else: Having a status message explaining that you are unavailable and who they should contact is incredibly useful.

Microsoft Teams Status Message Suggestions for Improvements

Given all that is included, what improvements could be made to this feature?

  1. Better integration with MS Outlook and Office 365: If there is a status in Microsoft Teams, then why not have this status message flow to the Office 365 contact card so that it may be visible in SharePoint and also Outlook?
  2. Better Microsoft Teams Status Message visibility: Even though the Microsoft Teams status message is visible in a few areas, it would be better if you didn’t have to hover over a user to get the status message. On the Microsoft Teams User Voice, there are some good examples of use cases.
  3. Ability to specify Microsoft Teams or Channels in the status: another really useful addition would be being able to specify a Microsoft Teams status per team or per channel so that if a user has a question they could be redirected to the best resource.

If you are looking for tips on how to work more efficiently in Microsoft Teams, you may be interested in the following articles:

  • How to schedule Microsoft Teams meetings from chat   New call-to-action
  • How to schedule Microsoft Teams meetings from Outlook  New call-to-action
  • Microsoft Teams Activity Feed: Your New Best Friend  New call-to-action

Working Smarter in Microsoft Teams With Orchestry

Orchestry helps eliminate end-user tool confusion and get them EXCITED about using Microsoft 365. It Administrators using Orchestry will be able to:

  • Leverage an existing library of business-first scenario templates, or create your own, filled with the right tools for the job, and never hear “what to use when” questions from the end-users again. 
  • Allow users to request and customize Workspaces in a streamlined and intuitive step-by-step way, which is bound to delight even the most non-technical users.  
  • Automatically alert users of potential duplication when creating or requesting Workspaces with similar names or metadata to reduce redundancies and frustrations.   
  • Import existing Teams, SharePoint, and Communication sites into Orchestry’s Informative Workspace directory to make it ridiculously easy for users to browse and quickly access them. 

Orchestry users see on average a 27% increase in Microsoft 365 adoption in the first 2 months. 

To see Orchestry in action, send us an email at hello@orchestry.com or start your free access now!

Want more insights like this one?

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About the Author

Michal Pisarek Image

Michal Pisarek

Orchestry CEO, 7X Microsoft MVP

Seven-time Microsoft SharePoint MVP, former Co-Founder of Dynamic Owl Consulting and of BONZAI Intranet, this serial entrepreneur, international speaker, Office 365 thought leader, and former professional chef brings the great depth of product, leadership, and user experience expertise to Orchestry, working with Fortune 500 companies to deliver maximum efficiency of their Microsoft 365 investments.

When Michal takes a day off occasionally, you will find him experimenting in the kitchen, inventing a new cocktail or learning a new language while enjoying all that Vancouver has to offer with his wife, daughter, and furry companion.

Related Articles

Introduction

This Privacy Policy explains what information Orchestry Software Inc. and its associated entities (collectively “Orchestry”) collect about you, why, what we do with that information, how we share it and how we handle the content you place in our products and services. It also explains the choices available to you regarding our use of your personal information and how you can access and update this information.

Privacy Policy Scope

Our Privacy Policy applies to the information we collect when you use one of our services, or when you otherwise engage with Orchestry Software, including, but not limited to:
when you visit our websites (“Websites“);
when you contact us for assistance;
when we connect with you as a prospective customer or as a customer;
when you attend customer or prospective customer events;
when you meet us at third party events, gatherings or meetups.
Orchestry is committed to protecting your privacy. This Privacy Policy applies to our websites (Websites), including www.orchestry.com, www.success.orchestry.com and www.app-dev.orchestry.com, owned and controlled by Orchestry.

This Privacy Policy governs our data collection, processing and usage practices. It also describes your choices regarding use, access and correction of your personal information. By using the Websites, you consent to the data practices described in this Privacy Policy. If you do not agree with the data practices described in this Privacy Policy, you should not use the Websites.

Information We Collect

We collect personal data that you submit to us via our website or third-party tools including, for example, when applying for a job via our website or requesting support in relation to one of our services.
You are free to explore the Websites without providing any Personal Information about yourself. When you visit the Websites, we request that you provide Personal Information about yourself, and we collect Navigational Information.

Information Collection & Access

Orchestry acknowledges that you have the right to access your Personal Information. If requested to remove data we will respond within a reasonable timeframe.

We may transfer Personal Information to companies that help us provide our service, such as those organizations as part of our Global Partner Alliance. Transfers to subsequent third parties for the sole purpose of responding to requests from Websites in the appropriate geography service territory.

“Personal Information”
This refers to any information that you voluntarily submit to us and that identifies you personally, including contact information, such as your name, e-mail address, company name, address, phone number, and other information about yourself or your business. Personal Information can also include information that you enter into on the Websites, and information about you that is available on the internet, such as from Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and Google, or publicly available information that we acquire from service providers.

“Navigational Information”
This refers to information about your computer and your visits to this website such as your IP address, geographical location, browser type, referral source, length of visit and pages viewed.

We use Navigational Information to operate and improve the Websites. We may also use Navigational Information alone or in combination with Personal Information to provide you with personalized information about Orchestry.

Information About Children

The Websites are not intended for or targeted at children under 13, and we do not knowingly or intentionally collect information about children under 13. If you believe that we have collected information about a child under 13, please contact us at hello@orchestry.com, so that we may delete the information.

Information Usage

We use the information we collect only in compliance with this Privacy Policy.

In addition to the uses identified elsewhere in this Privacy Policy, we may use your Personal Information to: (a) improve your browsing experience by personalizing the Websites; (b) send information to you which we think may be of interest to you by post, email, or other means; (c) send you marketing communications relating to our business.

We will never sell your Personal Information to any third party. However, we may share or disclose your Personal Information as follows:
we may provide your information to our business partners, vendors or service providers who perform functions on our behalf;
in connection with, or during negotiations of, any merger, sale of company assets, financing, or acquisition of all or a portion of our business to another company;
as required by law, government officials, or other third parties pursuant to a subpoena, court order, or other legal process or requirement applicable to our Company;
when we believe, in our sole discretion, that the disclosure of personal information is necessary to prevent physical harm or financial loss;
to report suspected illegal activity or to investigate violations of our agreements.

Reviewing, Correcting and Removing Your Personal Information
Upon request, Orchestry will provide you with information about whether we hold any of your Personal Information. If you provide us with your Personal Information, you have the following rights with respect to that information:
To review the user information that you have supplied to us.
To request that we correct any errors, outdated information, or omissions in user information that you have supplied to us.
To request that your user information not be used to contact you.
To request that your user information be removed from any solicitation list that we use.
To request that your user information be deleted from our records.
To opt out of being solicited by Orchestry or third parties.

To exercise any of these rights, please contact us at hello@orchestry.com or by mail to Orchestry Software Inc., 422 Richards St, Suite 170, Vancouver, BC V6Z 2Z4, Attn: Privacy. We will respond to your request to change, correct, or delete your information within a reasonable timeframe and notify you of the action we have taken.

Retention of Personal Information

We retain Personal Information that you provide us as long as we consider it potentially useful in contacting you our services, or as needed to comply with our legal obligations, resolve disputes and enforce our agreements, and then we securely delete the information. We will delete this information from the servers at an earlier date if you so request, as described in “Unsubscribe from Communication” below.

Customer Testimonials and Comments

We post customer testimonials and comments on our Websites, which may contain Personal Information. We obtain each customer’s consent via email prior to posting the customer’s name and testimonial.

Security of your Personal Information

We use a variety of security technologies and procedures to help protect your Personal Information from unauthorized access, use or disclosure. We secure the Personal Information you provide on computer servers in a controlled, secure environment, protected from unauthorized access, use or disclosure.

Social Media Features

Our Websites include Social Media Features, such as the Facebook Like button and Widgets, such as the Share This button or interactive mini-programs that run on our sites. These features may collect your IP address, which page you are visiting on our sites, and may set a cookie to enable the feature to function properly. Social Media Features and Widgets are either hosted by a third party or hosted directly on our Websites. This Privacy Policy does not apply to these features.  Your interactions with these features are governed by the privacy policy and other policies of the companies providing them.

External Websites

Our Websites provide links to other websites. We do not control, and are not responsible for, the content or practices of these other websites. Our provision of such links does not constitute our endorsement of these other websites, their content, their owners, or their practices. This Privacy Policy does not apply to these other websites, which are subject to any privacy and other policies they may have.

Public Forums

We offer publicly accessible blogs, message boards and community forums. Please keep in mind that if you directly disclose any information through our public message boards, blogs, or forums, this information may be collected and used by others. We will correct or delete any information you have posted on the Websites if you so request, as described in “Opting Out and Unsubscribing” below.

International Transfer of Information

To facilitate our global operations, we may transfer and access Personal Information from around the world, including the United States. This Privacy Policy shall apply even if we transfer Personal Information to other countries.

Corporate Events

If we (or our assets) are acquired by another company, whether by merger, acquisition, bankruptcy or otherwise, that company would receive all information gathered by Orchestry on the Websites. In this event, you will be notified via email and/or a prominent notice on our website, of any change in ownership, uses of your Personal Information, and choices you may have regarding your Personal Information.

Cookies & Similar Technologies

Orchestry uses cookies or similar technologies to analyze trends, administer the website, track users’ movements around the website, and to gather demographic information about our user base as a whole.

The cookies we use on this website are broadly grouped into the following categories:

Essential: Some of the cookies on our website are essential for us to be able to provide you with a service you have requested. You may not be able to use our website effectively without these cookies.
Analytics: We use analytics cookies to help us understand how users engage with our website. An example of this is for counting the number of different people coming to our website, visiting a particular page or using a particular feature. Without this cookie, if you visited the website once each week for three weeks, we would count you as three separate users and this wouldn’t be a true representation. These cookies do not let us identify specific users as the information is aggregated.
Social sharing: We use cookies to allow you to share content directly to your social networking sites for example Facebook, Twitter and Google+ i.e. clicking Like on Facebook and Share on Twitter.
Interest-based advertising: You may have noticed that when you visit websites, you will be shown advertisements for products and services you may be interested in. Cookie information about certain pages you have visited on our website helps us be more relevant in our advertising. Having these cookies does not increase the number of adverts you will be shown on these specific sites. These ‘persistent’ cookies last no longer than 90 days, or until you clear them. These and the other cookies we use do NOT allow us to see what other sites you have been visiting, they simply act as a record of our web pages and advertisements that you may see.
Opt Out of Cookies
When you first visited the websites you will have been shown a status bar notifying you that this website uses cookies and inviting you to review this cookie policy. Once you have clicked to go further into our website, the cookie prompt will disappear, this confirms that you consent to us using the cookies detailed in this policy.
Please note that we can’t always control third party cookies (such as from social networks) stored on your machine from our website and where this is the case you will need to visit the relevant third party’s website directly to understand their cookies stored on your machine by them. Please see our ‘third party cookies’ section below.
If you want to reject cookies we use from this website you will need to:
Delete the cookies from your browser. Most browsers also allow you to prevent all or some cookies being stored on your machine in the future. For more information on how to delete or disable cookies from your browser please use the ‘help’ function within your browser, or alternatively visit www.allaboutcookies.org. By deleting our cookie preference cookie, the next time you visit our website the cookie status bar will appear again inviting you to again reconsider your preferences.
AND/OR: If you only want to reject the Internet Based Advertising cookies we store on your machine, you can opt-out of receiving these cookies at any time by going to the Internet Advertising Bureau website at http://www.youronlinechoices.com and following the opt-out instructions.
Please do be aware that disabling cookies may impact the functionality of this website.
Third Party Cookies
Some of the cookies described above are stored on your machine by third parties when you use our website. We have no control over these cookies of how the third party uses them. They are used to allow that third party to provide a service to us, for example website analytics. For more information on these cookies and how to disable them, please see:
Internet Advertising Bureau website at http://www.youronlinechoices.com/ where you will be able to opt-out of receiving Internet Based Advertising cookies from some of the third parties, such as Google, LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter.
The use of cookies and web beacons by any tracking utility company is not covered by our Privacy Policy.

Log Files

We may collect demographic information, such as your region, preferences, interests and favorites using log files that are not associated with your name or other personal information. There is also information about your computer hardware and software that is automatically collected by us. This information can include: your IP address, browser type, domain names, internet service provider (ISP), the files viewed on our site (e.g., HTML pages, graphics, etc.), operating system, clickstream data, access times and referring website addresses. This information is used by Orchestry to provide general statistics regarding use of the Websites. For these purposes, we do link this automatically-collected data to Personal Information such as name, email address, address, and phone number.

Clear Gifs (Web Beacons/Web Bugs)

We employ a software technology called clear gifs (a.k.a. Web Beacons/Web Bugs), that help us better manage the Website by informing us what content is effective. Clear gifs are tiny graphics with a unique identifier, similar in function to cookies, and are used to track the online movements of Web users.  In contrast to cookies, which are stored on a user’s computer hard drive, clear gifs are embedded invisibly on Web pages or in emails and are about the size of the period at the end of this sentence. We use clear gifs in our HTML-based emails to let us know which emails have been opened by recipients.  This allows us to gauge the effectiveness of certain communications and the effectiveness of our marketing campaigns. We tie the information gathered by clear gifs in emails to our customers’ Personal Information. If you would like to opt-out of these emails, please see “Opting Out and Unsubscribing”.

Advertising

We partner with a third-party ad network to either display advertising on our Web site or to manage our advertising on other sites. Our ad network partner uses cookies and Web beacons to collect non-personal information about your activities on this and other Web sites to provide you targeted advertising based upon your interests.  If you wish to not have this information used for the purpose of serving you targeted ads, you may opt-out by clicking here: http://preferences.truste.com/ (or if located in the European Union, by clicking here: http://www.youronlinechoices.eu/). Please note this does not opt you out of being served advertising.  You will continue to receive generic ads.

Unsubscribe from Communications

You may unsubscribe from our marketing communications by clicking on the “unsubscribe” link located on the bottom of our e-mails, or by sending us email us at hello@orchestry.com or by mail to Orchestry Software Inc., 422 Richards St, Suite 170, Vancouver, BC V6Z 2Z4, Attn: Privacy.

Contact Us

If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy or our treatment of the information you provide us, please write to us by email at hello@orchestry.com or by mail to Orchestry Software Inc., 422 Richards St, Suite 170, Vancouver, BC V6Z 2Z4, Attn: Privacy.

Changes

We may amend this Privacy Policy from time to time. When there are changes to this Privacy Policy, we will update this page. The date on the bottom will always indicate when we last made changes.
Last Updated: July 28, 2020

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