Notification

This feature is currently available in the integrated experience in Google Workspace. To get started with the experience, visit this article.

Create a vacation reply

If you'll be away from your Gmail account, like on a vacation or without access to the Internet, you can set up a vacation responder to automatically notify people that you won't be able to get back to them right away. When people send you a message, they'll receive an email response containing what you've written in your vacation auto reply.
Want to get more out of Google apps at work or school?  Sign up for a Google Workspace trial at no charge.

Turn your vacation reply on or off

An animation showing how to set up a Gmail vacation reply on Android

  1. On your Android phone or tablet, open the Gmail app .
  2. In the top left, tap Menu Menu.
  3. Scroll to the bottom, then tap Settings.
  4. Choose your account.
  5. Tap Vacation responder.
  6. At the top, turn the "Vacation responder" switch On On.
  7. Fill in the date range, subject, and message.
  8. Tap Done.

To turn off your vacation reply, switch "Vacation responder" to Off Off.

When your vacation reply is sent

Your vacation reply starts at 12:00 AM on the start date and ends at 11:59 PM on the end date, unless you end it earlier.

In most cases, your vacation response is only sent to people the first time they message you.

Here are the times someone may see your vacation response more than once:

  • If the same person contacts you again after four days and your vacation reply is still on, they'll see your vacation response again.
  • Your vacation response starts over each time you edit it. If someone gets your initial vacation response, then emails you again after you've edited your response, they'll see your new response.

Tip: You can choose whether your response is sent to everyone, only your contacts, or only people in your organization

If you check the boxes for both "Only send a response to people in my Contacts" and "Only send a response to people in my domain," then your vacation reply will only be seen by people who are both in your contacts and in your domain.

Tip: Messages sent to your spam folder and messages addressed to a mailing list you subscribe to won't get your vacation response.

Find out-of-office status

You can find the out-of-office statuses in Gmail.

If someone is away from the office, Gmail shows their out of office status when you compose an email to them. You can still send the email, but they might not reply until they return. If you have Chat enabled in Gmail, you'll also get their out of office status when you send a direct message.

If someone doesn't have permission to view your out of office event, Gmail won't show you're out of office.

Share your out of office status

To show others that you're out of office, share your calendar and create an out of office event. The event needs to span all day or extend past your working hours.
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