Short answer: Yes. Slack can’t repeat a status by itself, but Don’t Interrupt sets your Slack status for lunch from a “lunch” event or keyword in your calendar, and sets a different status, presence and Do Not Disturb for evenings and weekends from your working hours. Slack’s own scheduled statuses are one-off and limited to five at a time.

What Slack can do alone

Slack lets you queue up to five scheduled statuses, each with a start and end time. Slack’s help page describes them as one-off windows with no repeat option, so a daily lunch or a weekly weekend means setting it up again. Slack’s notification schedule can pause alerts every day, on weekdays or at custom times, on every plan, but it doesn’t change your status.

Lunch

Put a recurring event called “Lunch” in your calendar on weekdays. In Don’t Interrupt, add a Calendar Rule with the phrase lunch and choose what it does:

  • A status, such as “Out for lunch”, with an emoji if you like.
  • Do Not Disturb, if you want Slack quiet while you eat.

The rule matches the whole word in the event’s name, ignoring capitals, so “Team lunch” matches too. Paid plans also match on the event’s description and location. When the event ends, the status clears. See Set a lunch status automatically for the steps with screenshots.

Weekends and evenings

Set your working hours on the schedule. The time outside them is treated like an event of its own, so you can choose a status, Do Not Disturb, or Away for evenings and weekends, separately from what you do inside working hours. See Change your status during weekends.

What to know

  • Timing is about five minutes. Changes land within about five minutes of the event starting or ending.
  • Plan limits. Basic has 1 rule and 1 phrase per rule, Plus 5 and 5, Pro 20 and 10.
  • A status you set by hand stays. It isn’t replaced unless you switch on Override status, which the free plan can’t.
  • Free statuses include a short link. Basic adds “ • dontinterrupt.app” to statuses it sets. Plus and Pro can remove it.

Frequently asked questions

Can Slack set a status at the same time every day?

Not by itself, as far as Slack’s help pages say. Scheduled statuses are one-off windows, up to five at a time. Don’t Interrupt repeats from your calendar.

How do I set a lunch status in Slack automatically?

Add a recurring “Lunch” event to your calendar, then add a Calendar Rule for the phrase lunch in Don’t Interrupt with the status you want.

Can it set a different status at weekends?

Yes. Outside your working hours you choose a status, Do Not Disturb or Away. Weekends are outside working hours unless you add them.

Does it work with Microsoft Teams too?

Yes. The same rules set a Teams status message and presence. See Google Calendar to Microsoft Teams status.