Breakout Rooms have now been implemented in Microsoft Teams. These allow meeting organisers to create and name separate rooms during a meeting, and assign attendees to these rooms. Updates to Breakout Rooms Recently added updates Breakout rooms pre-meeting room creation and participant assignment Microsoft have added some new updates to breakout rooms in Teams. These features are available to meeting organisers setting up breakout rooms on the Teams desktop app. Organisers of Channel and Private meetings will be able to perform the following Breakout Rooms configuration tasks before a meeting begins: Bulk creating / deleting rooms Adding / deleting / renaming individual rooms Configuring meeting options for each room Adjusting settings for breakout rooms session (timer, selecting breakout rooms managers and more) Pre-assigning participants via both manual and automatic assignment options Before a meeting starts, meeting organisers will be able to access a new tab in scheduling form called Breakout rooms that will enable them to pre-create breakout rooms and pre-assign participants. Please note, this feature will only be available on the teams desktop app. Breakout room presenter support Meeting organisers can now extend the management of Breakout Rooms to specific presenters. This feature allows meeting organizers to add and remove presenters as Breakout Room managers, giving presenters permission to perform breakout room operations. Presenters given these permissions will be able to: assign users to rooms add/delete rooms open/close rooms re-assign users to rooms send announcements recreate rooms set timer adjust other Breakout rooms settings Further information on this new feature is available in the guidance below. Breakout room assignment retention Participants remain assigned to their breakout rooms unless the meeting organiser chooses to change them. The assignment persists across subsequent sessions or recurring meetings. Reassign participants when the breakout rooms are open Organisers can now reassign the meeting participants when. breakout rooms are already open, instead of just when they are closed. Set timers for breakout sessions Organisers can set a timer for all breakout rooms created in a meeting session via the Breakout rooms settings panel. When the organiser has set a timer, the clock will show participants the time left in the room (countdown) rather than time elapsed. The timer alerts participants that the breakout room session will close in 60 seconds. The organiser can choose to automatically redirect participants to the main meeting room (auto-move On) or to provide participants with the option to return to the main meeting room or disconnect. Should the timer expire before participants take action, they will see an alert informing them that the session has ended which contains a button to return to the main meeting. Note: Once the organizer opens a timed breakout room, participants are invited to join; the timer starts when the first participant joins. If no participants join, the breakout room will not open. If all participants leave a breakout room before the timer expires, the room will close automatically. Updated user experience for manual participant assignment Microsoft have released an updated user experience for manual participant assignment in breakout rooms. Participant assignment has been moved from the Breakout Rooms’ right panel to a separate window that pops up when selecting Assign Participants. This updated interface will allow you to sort by participants or rooms. You can also select multiple participants and assign them to rooms by using the check boxes next to the participants' names. You will also have the ability to assign participants when rooms are closed and/or re-assign them while rooms are open via this new modal window. This should be helpful in allowing you to quickly find your participant or room and speed up the assignment process. What are breakout rooms? Breakout rooms in Microsoft Teams allow meeting organisers to create and name up to 50 separate rooms within scheduled and meet now meetings. They are separate, virtual rooms within a meeting that groups can move to during the meeting. What can I use breakout rooms for? You can decide how you want to make use of the breakout rooms feature, but it may be particularly useful for people running workshops or other sessions that require separate group discussion. Using Breakout Rooms with students If you intend to use Teams breakout rooms with your students, please read "Keeping students safe while using Teams" for some guidelines and recommendations on ensuring your student's safety with Teams. How do I get the breakout rooms feature? Breakout rooms organiser To organise breakout rooms, you must be using the latest Teams Desktop client, as the feature is not available in the Teams web browser version. Please note that there is no breakout rooms function in Private Channel meetings and as of now there is no update when this feature might be available in future. Microsoft Teams meeting organizers will need to schedule meetings in the general channels to create Breakout Rooms for participants. However, Breakout rooms in a normal channel are essentially private to the participant(s) which the organiser adds to the room. There's also the chat function or group chat function for more private conversations. Presenter assigned breakout rooms manager role If you are a presenter in the meeting who has been assigned the breakout rooms manager role by the meeting organiser, you must be using the latest Teams Desktop client, as the feature is not available in the Teams web browser version. Meeting participant If you are a participant in a meeting using breakout rooms, you can join on the desktop, web or mobile app versions of Teams. However, please make sure you are using the latest version of Teams. If joining via the Teams mobile app, make sure you have gone to the App Store and downloaded the latest update If joining via the Teams desktop client, make sure you have checked if you have the latest update. To do this, click "Settings and more" to the left of your profile picture, then "check for updates", then select "Refresh Teams" if this shows as a banner. What types of Teams meeting are breakout rooms available in? What types of meeting are Breakout Rooms available for? The Breakout Rooms feature is available for: Scheduled meetings Both private (meetings without a Channel added) and Channel meetings (not including private channels) Ad-hoc meetings set up via the "Meet now" button Teams Webinars The Breakout Rooms feature is not available for: Private Channel Meetings - Microsoft have removed the ability to use breakout rooms in private channel meetings. This is because they were seeing issues and errors with this feature. There is no timeline for when or if the feature will be reintroduced. Calls in Teams Teams Live Events What can meeting organisers, breakout room managers and participants do with breakout rooms? What can meeting organisers do with breakout rooms? Meeting organisers can: Create up to 50 breakout rooms Assign specific presenters as breakout room managers Move between breakout rooms freely Add, move and delete breakout rooms Rename breakout rooms Decide if participants are automatically added to breakout rooms or if the participant needs to confirm Reassign participants to different rooms Have access to all breakout room artefacts (chat, files, recordings) Set a timer for the breakout session, to automatically close the breakout rooms when this timer ends. For more information on this and how to use it see Microsoft's guidance on setting a timer for breakout rooms. The same rooms and assignments remain available for recurring meetings Allow participants to return to the main meeting - further guidance on this from Microsoft What can breakout room managers do with breakout rooms? Meeting organisers can assign the breakout room manager role to specific presenters in a meeting. This allows those presenters to: Add and delete rooms Assign and reassign participants to rooms Open and close rooms Join any rooms Set time limits for room sessions Send announcements Recreate rooms What can meeting participants do with breakout rooms? Note - Breakout rooms are not private chat spaces, while only the participants that are assigned to a breakout room can see the conversations and presentations in that breakout room, the meeting organiser can join any breakout room at any time. Participants can: Join breakout rooms from Teams for browser, desktop and mobile Share content (PowerPoint presentations, Whiteboards) in the breakout room Chat in the breakout room (this will only be visible to those in the room and the meeting organiser) Participants cannot: Move freely between breakout rooms and the main meeting. Participants must wait until the organiser brings them back to the main meeting or reassigns them to another breakout room. However, they can request that the meeting organiser call them back. How do meeting organisers create breakout rooms and assign participants? Creating your breakout rooms If you are the meeting organiser, your breakout rooms can be created before or during your meeting. For help creating your breakout rooms either before or during your meeting see the following guidance: How to create breakout rooms (Microsoft site) Assigning participants to the breakout rooms You can either automatically or manually assign users to breakout rooms. Automatically assign participants To automatically assign users, select "automatically assign" when creating your breakout rooms Manually assign participants If you want help with manually assign participants to breakout out rooms see the following guidance: How to manually assign participants to breakout rooms (Microsoft site) How do I allow presenters to manage breakout rooms? Meeting organisers can now allow presenters to manage breakout rooms on their behalf. To do this: Open your meeting and set up your breakout rooms as normal Then, open the breakout rooms tab, to open breakout rooms on the right side Click "Settings" (icon of a cog) Then, click the toggle beside "assign presenters to manage rooms" Then, type the presenter's name that you want to assign to manage your breakout rooms Presenters given these permissions will be able to: assign users to rooms add/delete rooms open/close rooms re-assign users to rooms send announcements recreate rooms set timer adjust other Breakout rooms settings Further help Guidance from Microsoft Microsoft provide in depth and up to date guidance on breakout rooms via the following link: Microsoft Guidance on Breakout rooms in Teams Mastering Breakout rooms video The following video from Microsoft gives an in-depth look at Breakout Rooms, if you only want to see how to create rooms in your Teams meetings, skip the video to 6:07. HTML This article was published on 2024-10-08
