Breakout rooms generally available today in Microsoft Teams
Published Dec 09 2020 06:00 AM 932K Views

Creating meaningful connection can be difficult in larger group settings. Breakout rooms allow organizers to divide the meeting into sub-groups to facilitate discussions and brainstorming sessions.

 

We are excited to share that Breakout rooms are generally available in Microsoft Teams today (available in GCC this week).

 

The meeting organizer can create up to 50 breakout rooms and choose to automatically or manually assign participants into rooms. The organizer can start a breakout room in a Teams meeting or a Teams channel meeting, allowing greater flexibility on how you want to meet.

Create Breakout room.png

 

Using the breakout room settings, the meeting organizer can choose to allow participants to come back to the main meeting at any time, then return to the assigned breakout room. This way participants can ask a clarifying question without disturbing the breakout room discussions.

 

Also, organizers can use the setting to re-create breakout rooms in the same meeting. This allows them to assign participants into new room setups.

Recreate breakout rooms.png

 

The meeting organizer can create, rename, and delete rooms as needed.

Rename Breakout room.png

 

Once the breakout rooms are open, meeting organizers can join any of the breakout sessions. And should the need arise, you can quickly switch attendees in between breakout rooms.

Switch breakout rooms.png

 

Organizers can send announcements to the breakout rooms, and recall all participants back to the main meeting at any time.

Announcement in Breakout rooms.png

 

Since breakout rooms are Teams meetings, all the innovation that makes Teams meetings inclusive, interactive, and intelligent are available within. Attendees can discuss a topic in their breakout room while in a virtual coffee shop in Together mode. Or students can bring up the Microsoft Whiteboard and draw out their ideas. This is also true of our security features that help make your Teams meetings a safe and secure place to meet.

Breakout Room Whiteboard.png

 

Any files from the breakout rooms can be shared in the main meeting once everyone is back together and will be available afterwards in the meeting chat.

Meeting chat from breakout rooms.png

 

FAQ
Who can start a breakout room?

  • Only the meeting organizer can start breakout rooms.

How can I use breakout rooms?

  • The meeting organizer can start a breakout room on the desktop client only.
  • Participants can join a breakout room from desktop, web or mobile. Microsoft Teams Rooms do not have breakout room capabilities yet.
  • Participants logged in from multiple devices will have all end points join the same breakout room.

How do I make sure I can start using breakout rooms?

I’m an educator, what will my students be able to do?

  • Educators will have the option to push students into the breakout rooms and pull them back to the main meeting, without any additional action needed by the student.
  • Students can be assigned to breakout rooms, join breakout rooms, use the whiteboard or screen share if allowed to in normal school meetings, re-join the main meeting, and see their breakout room chat.
  • Since breakout rooms are Teams meetings, the same security policies and options apply to the breakout room.
  • Learn more about using breakout rooms at your school or university here.
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Last update:
‎Jan 26 2021 11:16 AM
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