Breakout rooms icon disappeared in private channel 'meet now' meetings

[Sar_21]

My org has used breakout rooms in private channel meetings for several months, then about 2 weeks ago the breakout rooms icon in the meetings disappeared for our entire org. (Yes, we are all up to date on apps, using desktop version, we are the meeting organizer, etc.).

Breakout rooms are available as usual in the general channels. I've contacted support and gone through several checks, but they are now saying that breakout rooms just aren't available in private channels. Why turn off a perfectly great feature? Is anyone else having this issue? I can't find more info online and Microsoft Teams help/tutorial info doesn't mention this limitation.

[#2 · Accepted solution]

Hi, I can confirm that's is missing for me as well. Haven't heard anything about it though. Try creating a new support ticket so you get a new agent to get the possible "withdrawn" verified.

[#3]

@ChristianJBergstrom Thanks for sharing your experience too.... I'll take your advice and try the new support ticket. 

[#4]

I got the same issue from May 7th until now. The Breakout rooms icon is not available in the private channels but the General channel. Also, the “Turn on new meeting experience” disappeared from Teams -> Settings -> General -> Application. 
I tried to reinstall Office 365, but it did not help.
With the current Covid-19, there are already too many teams to manage. A private channel is a perfect choice for organizing private meetings between a small group of members in a big team. Even though it is a small group, we need the breakout rooms sometimes. We don't want to create some more teams for such meetings. Please bring Breakout rooms back to private channels.

[#5]

@Sar_21Same problem here. Also as there is not much information to be found about this issue + The fact that some sources mention that the Breakout Rooms have never existed in Private Chanels, made me very confused. I'm responsible to educate ±10k coworkers with the use of MS Teams and I announced this feature as a possibility ... then it  suddenly dissepeared ... I started to think I did something wrong. It is very unprofessional from the developers to not announce this change in advance. As we all mention, this is one very usefull action in Teams and I hope they will get it back up soon. Still I do wonder why this is escalating like this :\ .

[#6]

@KrisVB Definitely agree with you! The Microsoft representative who is handling my support ticket didn't seem to realize at first that breakout rooms wouldn't work in private channels (they had me screenshare and create test teams and meetings to see the issue). Then after a few days they told me that the breakout rooms had never been and aren't available in private channels. After I assured them we had been using breakout rooms for months, now will check more to find out "why it was working before the update." ...almost as if MS didn't know about it? I just hope they reverse this situation and allow breakout rooms in all meetings - its an essential feature.

[#7]

@Vesa Nopanen Hello Vesa, have you heard anything about breakout rooms being withdrawn from private channels? I've read your article about breakout rooms and private channels so know you have used them as well.

I assume all settings for using breakout rooms are enabled here.

[#8]

Unfortunately I hadn't! I tested Breakout Rooms based on this thread and it is just like you say it - they have disappeared from Meetings in Private Channels. I hadn't used them actively on Private Channels so I had missed this change.
And I updated my blog post based on this thread that Private Channels don't have Breakout Rooms anymore. Thanks for the headsup!

[#9]

I got this response today from my MS support case... looks like they removed the rooms from private channels and don't have any timeline to return this feature. So disappointing - especially making such a huge change without any notice given.

[#10]

@Sar_21 

I just got confirmation from MS Premier support that they indeed pulled out this feature as it had issues:

[#11]

Thank you for sharing that information. Good to know!