SOURCE:    Vacation Tracker
TITLE:     Automatic Slack Vacation Status for Approved Leave
URL:       https://vacationtracker.io/knowledge-base/can-leave-types-automatically-update-my-users-slack-statuses-slack-status-update/
LANG:      en
PUBLISHED: 2021-12-21
UPDATED:   2026-01-20
READING:   1 min
SUMMARY:   Set a Slack status and emoji for each leave type, like On Vacation with a palm tree. It switches on when approved leave starts and clears when it ends.
Automatic Slack Vacation Status for Approved Leave
Vacation Tracker
English
Go to vacationtracker.io vacationtracker.io
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Last updated on January 20, 2026

Can Leave Types Automatically Update My Users' Slack Statuses?

Yes. Map a Leave Type to a Slack status (emoji + text), and every approved leave on that type will automatically set the User's Slack status when their leave starts and clear it when it ends. Configured once per Leave Type by an Admin, applied to every approved request from then on.

Slack only
This feature is for the Slack integration. Microsoft Teams and Google Workspace accounts won't see the Set Slack Status toggle on the Leave Type form — there's no equivalent automation for those platforms today.
Your team uses Slack heavily. Map "Vacation" to 🌴 with the status text "On Vacation". Whenever someone's Vacation request is approved and the start date arrives, their Slack avatar shows 🌴 On Vacation automatically — no manual status updates, no scattered DMs asking "is X out?".

How to Map a Leave Type to a Slack Status

The Slack Status mapping is set on the Leave Type itself, in either the Create or Edit modal. Only Admins can configure it.

  1. Sign in at app.vacationtracker.io with an Admin account.
  2. In the left-hand menu, expand Leave Setup and click Leave Types.
  3. Either click Create a Leave Type for a new type, or click the pencil (Edit) icon on an existing row to add the mapping retroactively.
  4. Enter (or confirm) the Name and pick a Color.
  5. Toggle Set Slack Status to ON.

When the toggle flips on, two new fields appear directly below it under a Slack Status label:

Icon (emoji) picker

A button that opens an emoji picker. Pick the emoji that should appear next to the User's Slack avatar — Slack renders this as the status icon (e.g. 🌴, 🤒, 🏥, 👶).

Status Name

A text field with the placeholder "Please set the Slack status". Type the status text Slack viewers will see — for example, "On Vacation" or "Out Sick". This can match the Leave Type name or be different (e.g. Leave Type "Mental Health Day" mapped to a generic "Out of Office" status for privacy).

  1. Click Save on the Edit modal (or Next in the Create wizard if you're still in the new-type flow).

From this moment on, every approved leave on that Leave Type triggers a Slack status update on the requester's account when the leave starts, and clears it when the leave ends. The status appears at the top right of Slack next to the User's avatar, and team members see it in DMs, channel messages, and the directory.

Edit Leave Type modal with the Set Slack Status toggle on and the Slack Status row underneath showing the icon picker button and the status text box

Privacy: How This Interacts with Hide Leave Type

Common Questions

When the leave's start date is reached. Approving a future-dated leave doesn't immediately change the status; Vacation Tracker waits until the leave actually starts. The status is then cleared at the end of the leave.

Vacation Tracker sets the status when leave starts and clears it when leave ends — that's the design. If a User has a custom status going into a leave, the leave's status takes over for the duration; once the leave ends, VT clears the status (it doesn't restore the previous custom one). If your team often sets bespoke statuses, you may want to coordinate with Users so they know to re-apply their custom status after returning.

The Slack Status mapping lives on the Leave Type, not on the Leave Policy that ties a Type to a Location. So one Leave Type → one Slack status, used everywhere that type applies. If you need different visible names by team, the workaround is to create separate Leave Types (e.g. "Vacation - Engineering" vs "Vacation - Sales") with their own statuses. That trade-off has reporting downsides, so most workspaces stick with one shared status per type.

What's Next?

How Can I Create and Configure Leave Types? How Do I Hide a Requested Leave Type Name? How Do I Set Notifications Within Vacation Tracker?
Need help?
Regular Users: If you have any questions, email us anytime at hello@vacationtracker.io.
Admins and Approvers: You can reach us via live chat Monday to Friday, 9 AM – 5 PM EST, or email us anytime at hello@vacationtracker.io.

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