Summary
Breakout rooms allow people to gather in small groups for discussion and interaction within the context of a larger Teams meeting. This article reviews how to create breakout rooms and assign participants to those rooms in Teams Meetings.
Note: 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 to the meeting.
How-To
You can automatically assign people to breakout rooms when you create them. If you want to move people around later in the meeting, you'll have to do so manually. To create breakout rooms, you must be a meeting organizer or presenter who's been appointed a breakout rooms manager and from the same organization as the meeting organizer.
Task: To create breakout rooms before the meeting
Instructions
Step 1 - Organizers or presenters must first join the meeting to create or manage breakout rooms.
Step 2 - Go to your Teams calendar and open the meeting invite.
Step 3 - Go to Breakout rooms and select Create rooms.
Step 4 - As soon as the meeting starts, you can open the breakout rooms.
Step 5 - Choose the number of rooms you want (up to 50) and select Add rooms.
In this example, three rooms were created but no one's been assigned to them yet.
Step 6 - Select Assign participants.
Step 7 - Choose whether you want Teams to evenly assign people to rooms (Automatically) or assign people yourself (Manually).
Outcome
A breakout room has been created for Teams Meeting.
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Task: To Create breakout rooms during the meeting
Instructions
Step 1 - Start the meeting.
Step 2 - In the meeting controls, select Breakout rooms .
Step 3 - Do the following:
- Choose the number of rooms you want (up to 50).
- 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.
Step 6 - Select Create Rooms.
Outcome
A breakout room has been created for Teams Meeting.
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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. To assign people, you must be a meeting organizer or presenter who's been appointed a breakout rooms manager, and you must first join the meeting.
Task: Assign people manually before the meeting
Instructions
Step 1 - Go to your Teams calendar and open the meeting invite.
Step 2 - Go to Breakout Rooms and select Assign participants.
Step 3 - Choose Manually and select Next.
Step 4 - Choose the people you want in a room by selecting the checkboxes next to their names.
Step 5 - Select the down arrow next to Assign and choose a room for them.
Step 6 - Repeat the previous steps until everyone in the meeting is assigned to a room. When you're done, select Confirm.
Outcome
Users will be able to create breakout rooms and assign participants to those rooms in Teams Meetings.
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Task: Assign people manually during the meeting
Step 1 - In the meeting controls, select Breakout rooms
Step 2 - 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.
Step 3 - Choose the people you want in a room by selecting the checkboxes next to their names.
Step 4 - Select the down arrow next to Assign and choose a room for them.
Step 5 - 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.
Outcome
Users will be able to create breakout rooms and assign participants to those rooms in Teams Meetings.
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Task: Assign people manually before a channel meeting
To assign channel members to breakout rooms before a channel meeting starts, you must first join the meeting:
Step 1 - Open Teams on your desktop and go to your team channel.
Step 2 - Select the Breakout rooms tab.
Step 3 - Select Assign participants and sort channel members into breakout rooms.
There are several other breakout room features such as participant shuffling, room renaming, appointing breakout room managers, and timers. If you'd like to learn more, please visit Microsoft's Article on Breakout Rooms .
Outcome
Users will be able to create breakout rooms and assign participants to those rooms in Teams Meetings.
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Further Readings
Microsoft Support - Use breakout rooms in Microsoft Teams meetings
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