Breakout Room in Microsoft Teams Meeting

Breakout Rooms in Microsoft Teams allow organizers to split participants into smaller groups for collaboration, discussion, and focused activities. This feature is especially useful for teachers, managers, and teams who want to brainstorm, train, or work on projects in smaller groups before regrouping in the main meeting. In this article, we will learn all about Breakout Room in Microsoft Teams Meeting.

Key Takeaways:

• Breakout Rooms help divide participants into smaller, focused groups.
• Only meeting organizers can create, run, and close Breakout Rooms.
• Attendees can join rooms from desktop, mobile, or web apps.
• Organizers can make announcements to all breakout groups.
• Settings allow time limits, presenter assignments, and easy return to the main meeting.

 

Watch this video on How to Create a Breakout Room in Microsoft Teams Meeting on YouTube and give it a thumbs-up!

 

What is a Breakout Room

Purpose of Breakout Rooms

The breakout room is used to provide a smaller space for participants to discuss ideas or projects and then provide feedback in the main meeting. Once the breakout room discussions are complete, the organizer can close those rooms and participants can reconvene the main meeting to present their ideas and inputs to everyone.

Uses and Benefits

This feature of Microsoft Teams is available only to the paid users of Microsoft 365.

There are several reasons why one should use a breakout room in Microsoft Teams –

• If you are teaching a class, a breakout room can be used for students to partner up for a project
• If you are a manager of a corporate, a breakout room can be used for department-specific discussions
• It can also be used to host any impromptu discussion
• It allows participants to use a virtual whiteboard to draw out ideas
• It can be used to provide training to a smaller group separately
• Breakout Rooms allow even participants to record the room meetings

 

Creating a Breakout Room in Microsoft Teams

Breakout rooms can be created only on the desktop version of Microsoft Teams. However, attendees can join the breakout rooms using any platform, either a web browser or a mobile application.

To create a breakout room in Microsoft Teams, the organizer of the Teams meeting needs to follow the steps mentioned below –

• Open Microsoft Teams and start a meeting
  
  
• Select the breakout room icon on the top right corner of the screen
  
• Select the number of rooms you want to create from the dropdown
  
• Choose an option –
  • Automatic – This will equally assign participants to all the groups
  • Manual – This will allow you to manually select and assign participants to all groups
    
• Click on Create Rooms
  
  
• The breakout room panel will open and you can click on the room to see who is inside a room
  
  
• Click on the delete icon to delete all existing rooms
  

 

Interacting with Breakout Rooms

Joining and Leaving

When you are ready to start the breakout room in Microsoft Teams, simply click on Open.

To enter a breakout room, go to the three dots next to the room and click on Join.

Once you are inside the room, you can see that the main meeting is still running in the background.

To leave the breakout room meeting, simply click on the Leave button.

Managing Rooms

To rename or close a breakout room, simply click on the three dots next to the room name and click on Rename or Close Room respectively.

To add a new room, click on the + sign.

 

Making a Breakout Room Announcement

It is very easy to make an announcement once the group has been divided into small breakout rooms in Microsoft Teams. This feature can be used to provide information to participants such as a general update, remaining breakout session time, or offer suggestions.

To make a text announcement to all breakout rooms in Microsoft Teams, follow the steps below –

• Go to the Breakout room panel
  
• Select Make an Announcement
  
  
• Type the announcement and hit Send
  
  
• Head over to the chat section
  
• You will find the announcement in the chat marked as important
  
  

 

Breakout Room Settings

You can select the settings button to make the following changes –

• Set a time limit to make sure that the breakout room meeting lasts till that time only. Once the time is up, the breakout room will be closed and participants will be returned back to the main meeting.
  
• Let participants decide to leave their breakout room and return to the main meeting.
  
• Assign different presenters to manage different breakout rooms.
  

 

Returning to the Main Meeting

Once the breakout room meetings are over, and you want the participants to return back to the main meeting –

• Go to the Breakout room panel
• Click on Close to close all the breakout rooms
  
• The status of all the rooms will be changed to Closed
  
  
• Select Resume to start the larger group meeting again
  

In this article, we have defined a breakout room and learned how to create, join, add, and rename a breakout room in Microsoft Teams meeting. We have also seen how to make an announcement to all breakout rooms, change settings for breakout rooms, return to the main meeting in Microsoft Teams, and more!

 

FAQs

1. Who can create Breakout Rooms in Microsoft Teams?

Only the meeting organizer has the ability to create, manage, and close Breakout Rooms in Teams. Co-organizers and presenters cannot create or assign rooms unless the organizer gives them control. Attendees can join breakout rooms, but do not have permissions to set them up. This ensures that meeting structure and participant distribution remain under the control of the host. It keeps breakout sessions organized and aligned with the meeting objectives.

2. Can participants join Breakout Rooms from mobile or web apps?

Yes, participants can join Breakout Rooms from any device, including desktop, mobile apps, and web browsers. However, organizers can only create rooms using the desktop version of Microsoft Teams. Once rooms are created, attendees can freely join from whichever platform they are using. This flexibility makes it easy for hybrid teams and remote learners to collaborate. It ensures no participant is left out due to device limitations.

3. What are some common uses of Breakout Rooms?

Breakout Rooms are useful for both education and corporate settings. Teachers can divide students into small groups for project work or peer discussions. Managers can separate teams by department to discuss tasks or brainstorm solutions. Trainers can use them for small-group learning or hands-on activities. In all cases, participants can share ideas, use whiteboards, and later return to the main session with their feedback.

4. How can announcements be made to all Breakout Rooms?

Organizers can send announcements to all rooms at once through the breakout room panel. By selecting Make an Announcement, they can type a message and send it to every active room. These announcements appear in the chat section and are marked as important. They are helpful for giving time reminders, instructions, or session updates. This feature ensures every group stays aligned with the meeting flow.

5. How do participants return to the main meeting after Breakout Rooms close?

Once breakout discussions are complete, the organizer can close all breakout rooms from the panel. The status of the rooms changes to Closed, and participants are automatically redirected back to the main meeting. From there, the organizer can click Resume to continue the full group session. This makes it easy to consolidate discussions and share outcomes. It ensures a smooth transition between smaller group work and the larger meeting.