Breakout Rooms in Microsoft Teams
In an online format, it can sometimes be difficult to have open discussions and a meaningful exchange of ideas. With the breakout rooms feature in MS Teams, people can gather in small groups for lively conversation and brainstorming sessions without needing to join another meeting. Only meeting organizers on the desktop versions of Teams can create and manage breakout rooms, which can be done:
- Before a meeting.
- During a meeting.
Important limitation: You can't create breakout rooms if there are more than 300 people in a meeting. Likewise, if you create breakout rooms before a meeting, you won't be able to invite more than 300 people.
Before a Meeting
If you are planning to send participants to breakout rooms, you can skip in-meeting assignment and pre-assign participants to breakout rooms. To create and assign breakout rooms before a meeting, you must...
- Have at least one attendee directly invited to the meeting.
- Be the meeting organizer or a co-organizer.
Only participants directly invited to the meeting can be pre-assigned to breakout rooms. For participants not directly invited, like joining via a link, meeting ID, or calling in, you must wait until the meeting starts to assign to a breakout room. To pre-assign breakout rooms:
1. Go to your Calendar in the MS Teams app.
2. Open the meeting invite.
3. Select the Breakout rooms tab
4. Choose the number of rooms you want, up to 50, and select Add rooms.
4a.Use the + button to create more as necessary.
5. Select Assign participants
6. Choose whether you want MS Teams to evenly assign people to rooms (Automatically) or assign people yourself (Manually).
6a. If Manually was chosen, assign each person to a room or choose Shuffle to assign everyone randomly.
Adjusting Breakout Room Options and Settings
Breakout Room Settings
Meeting organizers can plan and adjust room settings prior to the meeting, which creates and names rooms, automating room placement, sets timers, and more. To adjust room settings:
- Open the Breakout rooms tab within the meeting invite.
- Select the gear icon
- Adjust Breakout room settings as needed and select Save when finished.
Breakout Room Options
Room options are different than room settings, as they allow more granular control over participant permissions while they're in the a room. While options aren't mandatory to adjust, this provides meeting organizers with flexibility in their execution of breakout rooms. Here, you can adjust participant's abilities to record or present in the breakout room, use their camera and microphones, manage a lobby, and more. Each room can have its own configured options.
- Open the Breakout rooms tab within the meeting invite.
- Create your rooms if they have not been created already.
- Select the three dots within the room tile.
- Choose Room options.
- Adjust room options as necessary and choose Save when finished.
During a Meeting
There's no need to plan ahead of time, as MS Teams allows you to use breakout rooms in any scheduled meeting.
- Start your meeting.
- Select the Rooms buttonfound with other meeting controls.
- Choose the number of rooms you want to create.
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Choose whether you want MS Teams to evenly assign people to rooms (Automatically) or assign people yourself (Manually).
- There is no option to let participants choose their own rooms.
- Select Create rooms.
Managing your Breakout Rooms
Once rooms have been created, you can use the Rooms button to manage, remove, open, join, rename, or assign rooms.
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Assign participants: Use this option to open the assignment menu, assign each person to a room or choose Shuffle to assign everyone randomly.
- You can use this same menu to move participants to different rooms during the meeting.
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Create Room: This + button can be used to create more rooms.
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Announcement: Send an announcement to breakout rooms, such as updates or prompts.
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Remove Rooms: Deletes all breakout rooms at once.
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Settings: Allows you to add timers, automate entry into rooms, and more.
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Open: Open the rooms and
- By default, participants will be moved into assigned breakout rooms automatically with no action on their end.
Open Breakout Rooms
Do not open rooms until you are ready to start your breakout room activity/session. Opening the rooms will, by default, automatically send participants to their assigned room. MS Teams allows you to open rooms individually or at once, giving organizers flexibility.
Open Rooms Individually
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Select the Rooms button
- Hover over the room and select More options
- Select Open.
Open all Rooms at Once
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Select the Rooms button
- Make sure participants are assigned to rooms, or you will not be able to open rooms.
- Select Open.
Joining Breakout Rooms
Meeting organizers and co-organizers can hop in and out of breakout rooms to monitor and discuss with the participants. To join a room and check on its progress:
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Select the Rooms button
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Hover over the room and select More options
- Select Join.
Select Return when you're ready to leave the breakout room and return to the main meeting.
Closing Breakout Rooms
When you close a breakout room, the participants will automatically return to the main meeting. MS Teams allows you to close rooms individually or at once, which can be useful in situations where groups are finished with an activity or discussion before the rest of the group.
Close Rooms Individually
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Select the Rooms button
- Hover over the room, then select the More options
- Select Close.
Close all Rooms
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Select the Rooms button
- Select the trash can icon to close all rooms at once.
FAQ
Are there any limitations to the breakout room feature?
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You can't create breakout rooms if there are more than 300 people in a meeting. Likewise, if you create breakout rooms before a meeting, you won't be able to invite more than 300 people.
- There's no way to let participants choose their own breakout room.
If I have a reoccurring meeting, do I need to setup breakout rooms each time?
No. Breakout room assignments will carry over to the next meeting until they're changed or a room is deleted.
Can someone share a link to a specific breakout room?
No. Sharing a link or inviting individuals into a breakout room is not supported, so only participants in the meeting placed in a room can participate in that room.
How can I, a meeting organizer, chat with participants in a breakout room?
Each breakout room will have its own chat. Organizers and room participants will be able to access it from the Chat menu in the breakout room window and through the Chat menu in their MS Teams app. Here's how it works:
- Participants will be added to a breakout room chat when you open the room, by default, and removed when the room is closed.
- You will have access to all breakout room chats.
- After a breakout room is closed, so is the chat; no more messages can be sent.
- All organizers, co-organizers, and participants can still access the chat history and shared files to their assigned room after the breakout room is closed.
Do breakout rooms show up in the attendance reports?
Yes. Upon viewing the attendance report after breakout rooms were utilized, you can learn which breakout room each person has joined, when they entered it, and when they left. Learn more about attendance reports in Microsoft Teams.