A lot of people work remotely these days, which makes work apps like Slack crucial for good communication. Slack status updates provide a particularly helpful and easy way to let colleagues know you’re busy — for example, when you’re in a meeting and can’t see each other in person.

You can manually update your status with a few clicks of a button, but that takes time and is easy to forget. Alternatively, you can sync your Slack status to your online calendar, and Slack will automatically update your status for you. In this article, we’ll show you how to connect it to Google Calendar, though you can sync it to other calendars like Microsoft Outlook as well.

How to sync your Slack status to Google calendar from your desktop or laptop

• Click on this link to install the Google Calendar app to your Slack if it’s not already installed.
• Click Open Slack.
• Select More at the very top of your left sidebar. From the drop-down that pops up, click Apps. Look for the Google Calendar app and click on it.
• Click on Connect an Account on the new screen that pops up.
• Select which Gmail account to connect the calendar to, and click Allow on the next screen.
• Slack should automatically send you a welcome message asking if you’d like to turn on automatic status notifications. Click Turn on.

How to sync your Slack status to Google calendar from your mobile device

• Assuming you have both the Slack and Google Calendar apps installed, head to Jump To from Slack’s Home tab.
• Search for and click on the Google Calendar app.
• On the next screen, make sure you’re on the Home tab; then select Connect an Account and when prompted, hit Allow.
• Slack will send a message asking if you’d like to turn on automatic status notifications. Click Turn on.

And voila! You’re all done and will never need to worry about forgetting to update your status again!