Slack Do Not Disturb: How to Pause, Schedule, and Override It
Slack Do Not Disturb pauses every notification until you resume them. How to turn it on and off on desktop and mobile, set quiet hours, use /dnd, and who can still reach you.
Slack Do Not Disturb (Slack now calls it "pause notifications") stops every Slack notification on your desktop and phone until the time you pick, then turns them back on. To turn it on, click your profile picture in the sidebar, hover over Notifications, and choose how long. Or type /dnd until 5pm in any message box. Messages still arrive while it is on. You only stop getting the banners, sounds, and push alerts.
Two things surprise people. First, teammates can see it: a small snooze icon (a Z) appears next to your name. Second, it does not change your presence. Your dot stays green if you are active and goes grey if you are idle, the same as without Do Not Disturb. Discord works differently: its Do Not Disturb is a red status everyone sees, and it still lets mobile push through; see what Do Not Disturb does on Discord. Google Chat's version mutes every device and shows the red icon; see Google Chat do not disturb.
What we saw when we paused notifications
We tested Do Not Disturb on 2 October 2026 in Slack's web app, in a workspace that also has a notification schedule (paused from 17:00 to 09:00 Seoul time). We read the state back with Slack's dnd.info and users.getPresence methods after each step.
| Step (UTC) | dnd.info | Presence |
|---|---|---|
| Before (01:26) | snooze_enabled: false, next pause 08:00 to 00:00 UTC (the schedule) | active |
| Paused for 2 minutes (01:26:24) | snooze_enabled: true, snooze_remaining: 115 | active |
| Resumed early (01:26:35) | snooze_enabled: false, next pause back to 08:00 UTC | active |
Typed /dnd for 1 minute (01:26:46) | snooze_enabled: true, snooze_remaining: 58 | active |
Presence stayed active through every pause, and the profile menu showed a green dot with a Z next to Active, with Notifications set to Paused:
Ending a pause early did not touch the evening schedule: dnd.info pointed at the same 08:00 UTC start before and after. The /dnd command answered in the conversation with a message only we could see:
What Slack Do Not Disturb does and does not do
Slack's help center describes paused notifications in three sentences, and each one matters:
- • You get no notifications. No desktop banners, no sounds, no mobile push alerts. Messages still arrive, and you can read them when you resume.
- • Other people see a snooze icon next to your name. This is the Z that people search for. The full meaning of every icon combination is in our guide to the green dot with a Z in Slack.
- • A sender can override it. When someone sends you a direct message, they can choose to notify you about an urgent message, once per day.
- • It does not hide you or make you look offline. For that, use Away. We cover the steps in can you appear offline on Slack.
- • It does not block or delay messages. People can still DM you and @mention you.
- • It does not change your presence. In our test the dot stayed active through each pause. On desktop you still go away after 10 minutes without keyboard or mouse input on the computer (Slack desktop 4.52.178 code, checked 7 Oct 2026), with or without Do Not Disturb. The details are in how Slack decides when you're away.
- Click your profile picture in the sidebar.
- Hover over Notifications.
- Under Pause notifications for…, choose 30 minutes, 1 hour, 2 hours, Until tomorrow, Until next week, or Custom… to set your own end time.
- Tap your profile picture at the top of the screen.
- Tap Pause notifications.
- Select a time frame from the list, or tap Custom.
What it does not do:
How to turn on Do Not Disturb in Slack
On desktop (Mac, Windows, Linux, or the browser):
The same submenu has Edit your working hours, which opens the notification schedule described below. What that schedule pauses, minute by minute, and why it cannot be switched off is in our Slack notification schedule test.
On mobile (iPhone or Android):
From your status: when you set a custom status, check the box next to Pause notifications. Your notifications then stay paused until the status clears. This works well for "Lunch" or "In a workshop", where the status and the quiet period should end together.
How to turn off Do Not Disturb
On desktop, click your profile picture, hover over Notifications, and select Resume notifications. On mobile, tap your profile picture, tap Pause notifications, then tap Resume notifications or choose a new time frame. The fastest way on any device is to type /dnd off.
If Do Not Disturb keeps coming back at the same time every day, you did not leave it on. A notification schedule turns it on for you. The six things that pause notifications on their own are in why Slack pauses my notifications. The next section shows where that setting is.
Slack /dnd commands
Slack has a slash command for Do Not Disturb. Type it in any message box and press Enter. These examples come from Slack's help center; we ran /dnd for 1 minute ourselves, and Slack replied "All set. I've turned on Do Not Disturb for 1 minute."
| What you want | Type this |
|---|---|
| Pause for a set amount of time | /dnd for 15 mins or /dnd 15 minutes |
| Pause until a clock time | /dnd until 17:00 or /dnd until 5pm |
| Pause until a time of day | /dnd until tonight or /dnd until tomorrow morning |
| Resume notifications | /dnd off |
A /dnd until tomorrow morning that you forgot about is a common reason for a Z you did not expect the next day.
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How to set a Slack Do Not Disturb schedule
For the hours you are always offline, such as evenings and weekends, set a notification schedule once instead of pausing by hand every day. With a schedule in place, Slack only sends notifications on the days and hours you allow. Outside those hours, notifications pause on their own and the Z appears.
On desktop:
On mobile: tap your profile picture, tap Notifications, then below Notification schedule tap Allow notifications and pick the same options. With Custom, tap any day to give it its own start and end time.
To also tell people you are off for the evening, pair the schedule with an after-hours status; examples are in Slack after hours status. A notification schedule is one of three things you can schedule in Slack. The other two are your status text and, with an outside tool, your green dot. Our guide on how to schedule a Slack status compares all three.
Default Do Not Disturb hours set by an admin
Workspace owners and admins can set default Do Not Disturb hours for everyone. On Free, Pro, and Business+ plans the path is Admin in the sidebar, then Workspace settings, Settings, and Expand next to Do Not Disturb. On Enterprise plans, org owners can add an org policy instead. Two rules apply to members:
If you never set a schedule and still see a Z every evening, your admin probably set a default. In our Free test workspace the admin default read on, 5:00 PM to 9:00 AM, when we checked it on 1 October.
Who can reach you during Do Not Disturb
Do Not Disturb has two ways through, and both are on purpose:
Everything else waits until you resume. Nothing is lost. The messages sit in your unreads when you come back.
If you want notifications on but they still do not arrive, that is a different problem. Check that your notification schedule and a leftover /dnd are not the cause first, then work through why Slack notifications are not working.
Do Not Disturb vs away vs custom status
Slack keeps two systems apart. Notifications decide whether you get alerts. Presence decides whether your dot is green or grey. Slack's help center says your dot shows coworkers whether you are active or away and whether you have paused notifications. Each setting changes only one of those:
| Setting | What it changes | Stops your alerts | Changes your dot |
|---|---|---|---|
| Do Not Disturb | Notifications, for a time you pick | Yes | No |
| Notification schedule | Notifications, every week outside your hours | Yes, outside your hours | No |
| Set yourself as away | Presence, until you switch back | No | Yes, to grey |
| Custom status | Text and emoji next to your name | Only if you check Pause notifications | No |
This is why "Do Not Disturb keeps me active" is a myth. If you read a long document without touching the keyboard or mouse, your dot goes grey after 10 minutes. The Z stays on top of the grey dot. To learn what each dot and icon means, read Slack active status explained.
For focus time, many people want both things: no pings, and a green dot so the team knows they are working. Pause notifications in Slack for the quiet. The dot still follows your input on the computer, so it goes grey after 10 minutes without any. For the ways to stay green, see how to keep Slack active.
Slack on desktop also has focus mode, a lighter option: it turns the sidebar grayscale, pauses sounds except from VIPs, and sets your status to In focus mode. How it compares with Do Not Disturb is in Slack focus mode. To make Slack quieter without pausing anything, change or mute its sounds; see how to change the Slack notification sound.
Do Not Disturb on mobile
The Slack app on your phone uses the same account-level setting. If you pause notifications on your laptop, your phone goes quiet too, and the reverse. The notification schedule is also shared. That is why a phone often shows a Z in the evening when you did not touch anything. To give your phone fewer or more notifications than your computer without pausing either, tick Set up mobile overrides in Preferences, Notifications; the menu it adds offers Everything or Mentions and direct messages for the phone only (checked 6 October 2026). It pauses nothing, and teammates see no Z for it. Details are in Slack's mobile overrides.
Your phone's own Do Not Disturb or Focus mode is a separate setting. It silences Slack on that phone only, and Slack does not know about it, so teammates see no snooze icon. If you want teammates to know you are off, use Slack's pause, not the phone setting.
Presence on mobile follows its own rule. Slack shows you as active while the app is open, and sets you to away when you leave or close the app. Pausing notifications does not change that. Our guide to keeping Slack active on your iPhone covers the details.
To tell people why you are slow, not only silence alerts, use a Slack status for limited availability.
FAQ
How do I stop Slack from turning on Do Not Disturb every night?
Open Preferences, find Working hours, and change the Allow notifications hours, or widen them to cover the time you want alerts. Your own schedule overrides the workspace default.
Does ending a pause early cancel my evening schedule?
Not when you end a timed pause during your working hours. In our test, dnd.info showed the same next scheduled start before the pause and after we ended it early. Resuming during the scheduled evening hours is different: in our test on 30 September, Resume notifications, or clearing a status that had paused notifications, ended the pause and skipped the rest of that night's schedule. Typing /dnd off then turned the schedule back on.
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