In all but the smallest meetings it can be hard to have open discussions and a meaningful exchange of ideas. Breakout rooms allow you to put participants into smaller groups for more lively conversation or for brainstorming sessions.

In Teams, breakout sessions are only available in the installed version and are created and managed by the meeting organizer.

 

Create breakout rooms

1. Start the meeting
2. In the meeting controls menu, select the Breakout Rooms button

3. Select the number of rooms you want to create – there is a maximum of 50
4. Select whether you would like to Teams to assign people to rooms (Automatically) or whether you want to choose the people for each room yourself (Manually)
5. Select Create Rooms

 

 

Assign people to breakout rooms manually

If you choose Automatically when creating breakout rooms, participants will be assigned to breakout rooms as soon as you open the rooms.

If you choose Manually:

1. Select Assign Participants
2. Choose the people who will share a breakout room by selecting the check boxes next to their names.

3. Select Assign and then select a room for those people

4. Repeat steps 2 and 3 until everyone has been assigned to a room

People can be manually assigned to breakout rooms as soon as the meeting has been created. You do not need to wait for the meeting to start.

NOTE:  Currently, participants who joined the meeting via traditional phone line or Teams devices can’t be assigned to rooms. You can use the main meeting as a breakout room for these people.

 

Rename the Breakout Rooms

If you want, you can rename each room to reflect the group of people it contains, what they’ll be working on, or something else.

1. Hover over the room
2. Select the More Option button (ellipsis)
3. Select Rename room from the menu

4. Enter the new name and select Rename Room

 

 

Start using the breakout rooms

By default, meeting participants are moved to their assigned rooms as soon as you open the room, but you can Turn off automatic entry to breakout rooms.

• To open all the rooms at the same time, select Start rooms.
• To open a single room, select More options  (ellipsis) next to the room and then Open room.

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

 

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.

1. Select More options (ellipsis) at the top of the Breakout rooms pane and then select Rooms settings.

2. Switch the toggle next to Automatically move people into opened rooms to off.

 

 

Join a breakout room

The meeting organizer can join any of the breakout rooms, contribute to any of the room chats, and send announcements to everyone. Other meeting attendees may have to join a room if the Automatic Entry is turned off.

To join a breakout room:

1. Select More options (ellipsis)  next to the room and then Join room
2. To leave a room, select Return.

 

Send an announcement to all breakout rooms

The meeting organizer may want to send announcements to give time updates or share discussion prompts.

1. Select More options (ellipsis) at the top of the Breakout rooms pane and then select Make an announcement.
2. Enter your announcement and select Send.
3. Participants will receive a notification in their meeting chat to check for your announcement.

 

Allow participants to return to 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. 

1. Select More options    at the top of the Breakout rooms pane and then select Rooms settings.

2. Switch the toggle next to Participants can return to the main meeting to on.

 

Move someone to a different breakout room

Note: Currently, participants can be moved only when breakout rooms are closed.

1. Expand the list of participants under a breakout room.
2. Point to someone‘s name and select the check box that appears.
3. Select More options   and then the breakout room you want to move that person to.

 

 

Chat in breakout rooms

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

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

Once you’ve joined a breakout room, you can also select Chat    in the room to chat with the people there.

Note: When the breakout room closes, the room chat ends and cannot 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.

To close rooms individually

• Select More options    next to the room, and then Close room.

To close all the rooms at the same time

1. Select Close rooms in the Breakout Rooms panel.
2. You'll know rooms have successfully closed when their status changes to Closed.
3. When everyone is back from their breakout rooms and you're ready to meet as a larger group again, select Resume.

Note: Breakout rooms remain open until the organizer manually closes them, so they can be reused later in the meeting.

 

 

 

Recreate breakout rooms from scratch

During a meeting, you can return to the beginning of the breakout rooms process to reconfigure the rooms and assignments.

1. Select More options   at the top of the Breakout rooms pane and then select Recreate rooms.

2. Follow the instructions above to create new breakout rooms and assign people to them.