Slack Be Right Back Status: Set a BRB That Clears Itself, Tested

Slack has no built-in "be right back" status, so you type one. Click your profile picture, then Update your status. Type "BRB, back in 15", change Duration from Today to 30 minutes, and click Save. The status then clears on its own, so nobody reads it three hours later and thinks you left for the day.

Change the duration every time. When we typed "BRB, back in 15" on 6 October 2026, Slack filled in an emoji by itself (⏸️, "double vertical bar") and left Duration on Today. Saved like that, a 15-minute break shows until the end of the day.

The status is text. It does not change your dot. Slack still sets you away 10 minutes after your last keyboard or mouse input, and at once when you leave the mobile app. If you would rather your dot follow your working hours through short breaks, Slack Green keeps your presence active on the schedule you set.

How to set a BRB status in Slack

On desktop:

• Click your profile picture in the sidebar.
• Click Update your status.
• Type the status, for example "BRB, back at 2:15".
• Click the emoji Slack picked and choose your own, such as ⏳ :hourglass_flowing_sand:.
• Open Duration and choose 30 minutes, 1 hour, or Choose a start and end time.... The full list is Don't clear, 30 minutes, 1 hour, 4 hours, Today, This week and Choose a start and end time.
• Click Save.

On iPhone or Android: tap your profile picture, tap the status field, type the status, tap the emoji icon, tap Clear after, choose the time, and tap Done.

We saved "BRB, back in 15" with ⏳ and 30 minutes at 10:09 AM. Hovering over the hourglass next to the name showed the status and "Until 10:38 AM", and the green dot stayed green beside it. At 10:39 the status was gone, read back through Slack's API as empty. The next time we opened the menu, it sat under Recent as "BRB, back in 15, 30 minutes", so the second BRB is one click with the same emoji and clear time.



BRB statuses to copy

Status	Emoji	Code	Clear after
BRB, back in 15	⏳	:hourglass_flowing_sand:	30 minutes
Stepping away, back at 2:15	🚶	:walking:	Choose a start and end time
Grabbing a coffee, 10 min	☕	:coffee:	30 minutes
Quick break, back soon	🔙	:back:	30 minutes
School run, back by 3:30	🚗	:car:	Choose a start and end time
Away from my desk, on my phone	📱	:iphone:	1 hour

Two rules make a BRB status work. Put the time you are back in the text, because "BRB" alone does not say whether it means five minutes or an hour. And set a clear time a little past your return, so the status does not outlive the break.

For longer breaks there are separate guides: Slack lunch status for lunch, and Slack status for sick for a sick day. More lines by situation are in the Slack status ideas tool.

Your BRB status and your away dot

Coworkers see two things next to your name: the status you typed and the dot Slack sets.

• • The dot is automatic. Slack's help center says you are set to away "after 10 minutes of desktop inactivity, or if you navigate away or close the app on your mobile device." In the desktop app that means no keyboard or mouse input anywhere on the computer (Slack desktop 4.52.178 code, checked 7 Oct 2026).
• • Set yourself as away, in the same profile menu, turns the dot away by hand. It stays away until you click Set yourself as active, even after you come back.

So a 5-minute break usually leaves your dot green, and a 15-minute break turns it away. A BRB status is how people know the away dot is short. What each dot means is in Slack away status meaning, and the timer in how long does Slack stay active.

Should you also pause notifications? For a short break, no. The Pause notifications box in the status menu is for focus time or lunch. Messages wait for you either way.

Add BRB to your workspace's status suggestions

Workspace Owners and Admins can change the suggested statuses that everyone sees in the status menu. Out of the box, our free workspace offered five: In a meeting (1 hour), Commuting (30 minutes), Out sick (Today), Vacationing and Working remotely (Today), plus calendar-based In a meeting. None of them is a BRB.

On Free, Pro and Business+ plans: click Admin in the sidebar, hover over Edit workspace, and select Statuses. On 6 October 2026 that opened the Customize page in the browser, with the same five rows and a By default, clear after menu for each. There was no button to add a sixth row, so a BRB suggestion replaces one of the five. On Enterprise plans, the same list is under Tools & settings, Customize, Statuses.

Slack's tips under the list say "Avoid acronyms", so write the suggestion as "Be right back" with ⏳ and a 30-minute clear time. Custom emoji work here too, so a workspace :brb: emoji can be the suggestion's icon; the Slack emoji maker can build one.

Set a BRB status from a script

If you step away at the same times every day, a small script can set the status with an expiry. This uses Slack's users.profile.set method with a user token:

# BRB for 15 minutes: status_expiration is a Unix time
curl -s -X POST https://slack.com/api/users.profile.set \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $SLACK_USER_TOKEN" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json; charset=utf-8" \
  -d "{\"profile\": {\"status_text\": \"BRB, back in 15\", \"status_emoji\": \":hourglass_flowing_sand:\", \"status_expiration\": $(( $(date +%s) + 900 ))}}"

The token needs the users.profile:write scope. Scopes, Python code and scheduling are in set a Slack status with the API.

FAQ

What does BRB mean in Slack? Be right back: you are away for a few minutes. It is a shorter form of AFK; see what does AFK mean in Slack.

Is there a BRB emoji in Slack? Not in the standard set. Searching "brb" in Slack's emoji picker found only 🔜 :soon: and 💈 :barber:. ⏳ :hourglass_flowing_sand:, 🔙 :back: and 🚶 :walking: are the usual stand-ins, and many workspaces add a custom :brb: emoji.