More status options, custom status, and Out of Office
MORE STATUS
I like the status options in S4B, and so does my boss. It will be important to my boss before accepting the use of MS Teams widely to have a broader range of statuses. Missing statuses are:
* In a meeting
* In a conference call
* In a call
* Presenting
* Be right back
* Off Work
Particularly of importance are "Be right back" and "off work". "Do not disturb" is probably sufficient for "in a meeting", "in a call" and "presenting". But, it sure is nice that S4B auto-detects those three statuses (for the most part).
CUSTOM STATUS
Would like to create a custom status option, such as an out-of-office message.
Sean M
shared this idea
This request is still queued within our backlog. No new details yet.
-Warren
223 comments
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Nick Hurst
commented
It undermines Microsoft's effort to get people to submit or vote on ideas on uservoice when a year and half go by with no updates on a request. Especially for an idea that seems like it would be relatively simple to implement and would make a big difference for many organizations.
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Michelle Gable
commented
Not to mention "I'm getting coffee" or "I literally just can't right now"
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Zack
commented
We are expanding our work from home policy and a simple feature like this would be add a huge benefit to our workflow!
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Anonymous
commented
Its a shame on Microsoft. Still no progress !!!!
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Michael
commented
It would be awesome, if you could not only change the status message with keyboard input, but also by scanning a QR-Code which has text information.
Use case:
- you arrive at a shared desk, that has a QR code with location information attached
- you scan the QR code with the Teams app via the "set status message" screen
- your status changes with the location information in teams and team members are able to find you physically in the office -
Christopher R Souser
commented
Need do not disturb; people ignore my status constantly and all seem to start IM call etc everytime I get on a WebEx or a GoToMeeting which TEAMS is useless about detecting.. so I'm regularly presenting and I have teams chat messages and calls coming in in the lower right hand corner. It is unbelievably annoying. S4B didn't detect all of these; but it sure as heck did a lot better job and you could put yourself in Do Not Disturb to prevent these notifications!!!!!!!!!!
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Lionel
commented
The additional status options ARE IMPORTANT to better understand the status of an individual. Please move this up the priority list.
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Adam
commented
It would be great to have status to be able to be set to remote office w/timezone (maybe an admin list to control remote office list). That way I could list my available status as working in Bangalore, and people would know I'm on India time zone, but available.
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Opus
commented
This has been a long time without an update. Has there been any movement here on MS's side?
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Charles
commented
Yes would like Custom Status that can be managed at the "Teams" level. On our end use for "Work From Home", "Training" .
The one very useful with an icon is Work From Home. We use this sometimes to prevent walk to an empty desk. We put emphasis on talking when subject is complex for quicker resolution / brainstorm so if person shows as available we might go reach out. It saves time instead of chatting to find out if I can come to your desk.
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Brad B
commented
Also, add ability to set vacation mode to auto reply with a message.
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Paleogirl2003
commented
1. in outlook we have the ability to set "working elsewhere" but this is showing up as "out of office" in teams. I use "working elsewhere" to indicate the days I work from home.
2. it would be nice to be able to tie a status change with an availability change. for example if I say to put my status to "at lunch" for the next hour, it would be great if I could set availability to away during that time as well.
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Edgar
commented
Any update on this would be appreciated
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Andrew
commented
Not sure if this the same idea or a new one, but it would be great if you would expose user presence status via the API.
For example, I use RescueTime to 'Start FocusTime'. Using Zapier, I could automatically update my slack status to 'do not disturb'
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Brandon
commented
Also, give us the ability to set a custom time for statuses.
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Dan Algarin
commented
The statuses that are currently available are woefully inadequate. The fact that "Be Right Back", "Off Work", and "Away" all use the same icon really reduces the usefulness of these statuses.
Personally I think very detailed statuses aren't all that useful. I don't really need to know WHY you are busy (call, meeting, dnd, etc) but I do need to know if you are online, offline, busy, away, or off.I think having very basic statuses with clearly defined and distinguishable icons is enough. For example:
Available - Signed in, active, and not currently scheduled for anything
Busy/DND - In the middle of something or have something scheduled and may not respond promptly
Away/Idle - I haven't touched my computer in 15 minutes so don't expect a quick response
Offline - Not even signed in so don't expect a response
Off/Vacation - I am technically "off", but signed in. If it's not on fire, don't expect a response
Remote/WFH - Same as available but not physically in the officeThe only one that I view as questionable is the "Remote/WFH". But as someone who works from home half the week (not fixed schedule), it's nice to be able to head off the daily half dozen "are you in the office today" messages or prevent co-workers from wasting their time dropping by for a quick in person discussion only to find you are not in the office that day.
Some might question the Off/Vacation, however with mobile devices people are rarely going to actually be offline. When people see you online but not responding they tend to get miffed; at least if they see I am off they know that if it is really important they should call. The integrated OOF might cover this, however a status/icon is still needed and might as well be available to manually select. Personally I never use OOF, but then again I still tend to reveiw all my emails when off, respond to the urgeant ones, and leave the rest for when I return. But chat has an immediacy that email does not, even for the casual message, so the off/vaction status is important for the chat client.
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Anonymous
commented
How is this still not a thing?
HOW IS OUT OF OFFICE, OFF WORK NOT A FKING THING IN THIS PROGRAM? WHY DO YOU NEED TO DO 10 STEPS JUST TO SETUP OOO. ADD THE FKING FEATURE!
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Mike
commented
2.4k votes and it's a backlog?
At least add 'out of office' or the ability for admins to create custom entries for status updates that users can select - since some organizations might want different terms.
Some statuses can't even be manually selected like 'in a call' when in an active Teams meeting. That would also be useful
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Oz
commented
@Warren / Microsoft - 11 months since the last update, what's the latest please. This feature would make managing our entirely remote workforce MUCH easier so it would be great to hear that you're working on it.
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Ting Ting
commented
Would love an Available - Remote or Available - Out of Office status for days when working remotely.