6 Best Practices For Setting Your Slack Presence

Slack is a powerful communication tool used by businesses worldwide. It's a great way to stay connected with your team, collaborate on projects, and share ideas. 

But, like any tool, it's important to use it effectively. 

One of the most important aspects of using Slack is setting your presence. Here are some best practices for setting your presence on Slack.

1 - Set your status

Your status on Slack is a great way to let your team know what you're up to. It can be used to indicate whether you're available to chat, away from your computer, or in a meeting. 

You can even customize your status with a message to let your team know what you're working on. Make sure to update your status regularly so your team knows when you're available.

2 - Use the "Do Not Disturb" feature

Slack's "Do Not Disturb" feature is a great way to avoid interruptions when you need to focus on work. When you activate this feature, Slack will suppress notifications and prevent messages from appearing on your screen. 

You can set the duration of your "Do Not Disturb" period, and your team will see a message indicating that you're not available.

3 - Customize your notification settings

You can customize your Slack notifications so you're only alerted when you need to be. You can choose to receive notifications for all messages, direct messages only, or mentions only. 

You can also set up notification schedules so you're only alerted during certain hours of the day. Customizing your notification settings can help you stay focused and avoid distractions.

4 - Use the "Away" feature

If you're stepping away from your computer for a short period of time, use the "Away" feature to let your team know. This will display a message indicating that you're away and when you're expected to return.

It's a simple way to keep your team informed and prevent them from thinking you're ignoring them.

5 - Be mindful of your availability

It's important to be mindful of your availability on Slack. If you're constantly setting your status to "Away" or using the "Do Not Disturb" feature, your team may think you're not available or not engaged. 

On the other hand, if you're always available and responding to messages immediately, you may be setting unrealistic expectations for yourself. Strike a balance that works for you and your team, and make sure to communicate your availability clearly.

6 – Sync your presence across your collaboration apps

Say you’re on a Slack call and your presence is now red.

That means everyone sees it and nobody calls you, right?

Wrong!

What happens when you use Slack and Google Chat? Or Slack and any other platform, for that matter?

What usually happens is you think you’re protected with your red presence indicator on Slack, but you haven’t updated your other apps and it’s that one colleague who doesn’t check Slack that needs to call you.

The end result? 

You’re in a Slack call but you’re still getting bombarded with messages and missed calls.

It’s a total distraction and you can’t help but check what they need.

It shouldn’t be this way. And it soon won’t be!

We’re working on Presence Sync, which will automatically change your presence across your collaboration apps.

So when you change your presence in Slack, it automatically changes in Google Chat too. Or Microsoft Teams, Zoom, or Webex.

There’s nothing technical for you to do either. And there’s no app to install.

You’ll just set your presence, Presence Sync links up your apps behind the scenes, and everyone knows when you’re busy, away, or available.

To stay up-to-date on the latest Presence Sync news, visit our website and follow us on LinkedIn.