How to Create Breakout Rooms in Teams

Carmen Cheng

Oct 14, 2021

170

Start the meeting.
In the meeting controls, select Breakout rooms .
Do the following:
1. Select the number of rooms you want (50 max).
2. Choose whether you want Teams to evenly assign people to rooms (Automatically) or assign people yourself (Manually).
  
  Note: You won't be able to automatically assign people to breakout rooms later in the meeting.
Select Create rooms.

Assign people to breakout rooms manually

Assign participants to each breakout room if you didn't do so automatically or need to reassign someone to another room.

Note: Currently, people who join the meeting using PSTN or Teams devices can't be assigned to rooms. Use the main meeting as a breakout room for these people instead.

In the meeting controls, select Breakout rooms .
Select Assign participants. From this window, sort people to see who's been assigned where by selecting the down arrow next to Name or Room.
Choose the people you want in a room by selecting the checkboxes next to their names.
Select the down arrow next to Assign and choose a room for them.
Repeat the previous steps until everyone in the meeting is assigned to a room. When you're done, select Confirm.

If someone joins the meeting late, select Assign participants again to assign them to a room.

Rename the breakout rooms

If you want, rename each room to reflect its purpose (for example, what the people in that room will be working on).

In the meeting controls, select Breakout rooms .
Hover over the room and select More options then Rename room.
Enter the new name and select Rename room.

Tip: During the meeting, you can delete all the breakout rooms and set them up differently (see Recreate breakout rooms from scratch).

Set a time limit for breakout room sessions

When you set a time limit, a timer is visible in each breakout room so that participants are aware of when the session will end. When time is up, the rooms close and participants return to the main meeting.

Note: If you turn off the Automatically move people to rooms setting (see Turn off automatic entry to breakout rooms), participants will have the option of returning to the main meeting or leaving the meeting when time is up.

In the meeting controls, select Breakout rooms .
Select Rooms settings .
Select Set a time limit and choose a session length.
Select the back button < to save your changes.

Start using the breakout rooms

By default, meeting participants are moved to their assigned rooms as soon as you open them, but you can turn off this setting (see Turn off automatic entry to breakout rooms).

In the meeting controls, select Breakout rooms .
Do one of the following:
- To open all the rooms at the same time, select Open.
- To open a single room, hover over the room, select More options , and choose Open room.

You can open and close breakout rooms more than once during a meeting.

Join a breakout room

As a meeting organizer, you can join any of the breakout rooms.

In the meeting controls, select Breakout rooms .
Hover over the room and select More options then Join room.

Leave a breakout room

In the meeting controls, select Return.

Interact with breakout room participants

As meeting organizer, you can send announcements to all the breakout rooms and contribute to any of the room chats.

Send an announcement to all breakout rooms

You may want to tell everyone the remaining breakout session time, offer discussion ideas, or just give general updates.

In the meeting controls, select Breakout rooms .
Select Make an announcement .
Enter your announcement and select Send.

Participants are notified in their meeting chat to check for your announcement.

Chat in breakout rooms

Each breakout room has its own chat. All of the chats are available in your main Teams Chat list.

Chat from main Chat area

Here you can chat with the members of any breakout room.

Once you join a breakout room, you can also select Chat Open chat button in the room to chat with the people there.

Note: When the breakout room closes, the room chat ends and can't be continued. However, you'll still be able to view the chat history and any shared files.

Close breakout rooms

When you close the breakout rooms, the participants return to the main meeting.

Note: If you turned off the Automatically move people into opened rooms setting (see Turn off automatic entry to breakout rooms), participants will have the option of returning to the main meeting or leaving the meeting when the rooms are closed.

Close rooms individually

In the meeting controls, select Breakout rooms .
Hover over the room and select More options then Close room.

Close all the rooms at the same time

In the meeting controls, select Breakout rooms .
Select Close.

You'll know rooms have successfully closed when their status changes to Closed.

When everyone is back from their breakout rooms and you're ready to meet as a larger group again, select Resume.

Notes:

Breakout rooms remain open until the organizer manually closes them or unless they set a timer.
If the rooms are reopened later in the meeting, participants keep the same room assignments they had before.

Room assignments in recurring meetings

Unless the organizer manually unassigns people from their breakout rooms, the same rooms and room assignments will be available for the next meeting.

Additional options

Turn off automatic entry to breakout rooms

By default, participants are automatically moved into breakout rooms when they're opened. When you turn off this option, participants receive a message asking them to join a breakout room. They select Join room (Join on a mobile device) before being moved.

In the meeting controls, select Breakout rooms .
Select Room settings .
Switch the Automatically move people to rooms toggle off.
Select the back button < to save your changes.

Meeting attendees can learn more about joining and participating in breakout rooms here: Join a breakout room in a Teams meeting.

Allow people to return to the main meeting

By default, this setting is off. Turning it on gives participants the option to leave their breakout rooms and return to the original meeting to rejoin the larger discussion.

In the meeting controls, select Breakout rooms .
Select Room settings .
Switch the Let people return to the main meeting toggle on.
Select the back button < to save your changes.

Move a person to a different breakout room

Participants can be moved when breakout rooms are open or closed.

In the meeting controls, select Breakout rooms .
Select Assign participants and select the checkbox next to the person's name you want to move.
Choose a new room for the person and select Assign then Move.

Add another breakout room

In the meeting controls, select Breakout rooms .
Select Add room .

Delete an individual breakout room

In the meeting controls, select Breakout rooms .
Hover over the room and select More options then Delete room.

Delete all breakout rooms at once

In the meeting controls, select Breakout rooms .
Select Remove rooms then Remove.

Recreate breakout rooms from scratch

During a meeting, you can delete all the breakout room and create new ones and reassign participants.

In the meeting controls, select Breakout rooms .
Select Recreate rooms and confirm the decision.
Follow the instructions above to create new breakout rooms and assign people to them.