To change your Slack status at weekends automatically, set your working hours once and choose what should happen outside them. Don’t Interrupt then updates your status, presence and notifications every Friday evening and puts everything back on Monday morning. Try it free with Slack or Teams.
On Slack you can appear away and pause notifications. On Microsoft Teams you can choose to appear offline or turn on Do Not Disturb. Teams still delivers notifications to someone who appears offline, so pick Do Not Disturb if you want them silenced.
What Slack and Teams do on their own
- Slack notification schedule. You can set Do Not Disturb hours for every day, weekdays only, or custom times per day, on every plan including Free. That silences notifications at weekends, but it doesn’t change your status or presence, so colleagues can’t tell why you’re quiet.
- Slack scheduled status. You can schedule up to five statuses, each as a one-off start and end window. Slack’s help pages don’t describe a repeating option, so a weekly weekend status means scheduling it again.
- Microsoft Teams. Teams lets you set Appear offline by hand with a duration. Microsoft’s docs don’t describe scheduling it. Quiet time on mobile works by hours or days, but it doesn’t change your presence.
Working hours in Don’t Interrupt cover the gap: one weekly pattern that sets status, presence and notifications together.
How to change your status at weekends
Step 1: Set up working hours in the dashboard
Switch on the days you work and pick start and end times for each, then check your time zone. Anything outside those hours counts as non-working time, so a weekend is just a day you’ve left switched off. Evenings are covered by the same setting.
Step 2: Choose what happens outside working hours
In the Outside working hours card, pick the actions. Appear Offline shows you as away on Slack, or offline on Teams. Do Not Disturb silences notifications. Status sets a message and emoji, such as “I’m outside of working hours”. Switch on as many as you like.
The During working hours card next to it works the same way, so you can also set what you want to show when you’re at work.
Step 3: Let it run
Once saved, your status, presence and Do Not Disturb change at the end of your working day and go back when your next working day starts. Meetings in your calendar still take priority during working hours.
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Slack or Teams: what “offline” means
The same Appear Offline switch does a different job on each:
| Slack | Microsoft Teams | |
|---|---|---|
| Appear Offline | Sets your presence to away | Sets your presence to Offline |
| Silences notifications? | Use Do Not Disturb | No. Microsoft says you still receive notifications, so use Do Not Disturb |
| Offline and silenced together | Yes: away plus Do Not Disturb | Not supported: if both are on, Offline wins and Do Not Disturb is dropped |
On Teams, pick one. If your aim is a quiet weekend, choose Do Not Disturb. If you want to look offline to colleagues, choose Appear Offline and accept that notifications still arrive.
Limits worth knowing
- Changes land within about five minutes. Times round up to five-minute boundaries, so your status can change a little after your working day ends.
- Your own status wins. If you set a status by hand, Don’t Interrupt leaves it alone.
- The free plan adds a short tag (” • dontinterrupt.app”) to statuses it sets. Paid plans can remove it.
Frequently asked questions
How do I change my Slack status at weekends automatically?
Set your working hours in Don’t Interrupt, leave Saturday and Sunday switched off, and choose a status, away presence or Do Not Disturb for outside working hours. It runs without any further input. Slack’s own scheduled status is a one-off window and its notification schedule only pauses notifications.
Can Microsoft Teams appear offline at weekends automatically?
Microsoft’s docs don’t describe a scheduled Appear offline. Don’t Interrupt can set Offline for the hours outside your working week. Teams still delivers notifications while you appear offline, so use Do Not Disturb if you want them silenced.
What changes on Monday morning?
When your working hours start again, Don’t Interrupt clears the out-of-hours status and returns your presence and notifications to normal, or to whatever you set in the During working hours card. It lands within about five minutes of the start time.
Is the weekend feature free?
Yes, working hours are available on the free Basic plan. The free plan adds a short tag to the end of the statuses it sets, and paid plans can remove it. See pricing.