Use breakout rooms in Microsoft Teams meetings
Use breakout rooms in medium to large meetings with up to 300 people to foster more personal connections and meaningful discussions.
Meeting organizers using Teams for desktop can create and manage breakout rooms.
Notes: These features aren't currently available in breakout rooms:
-
Adding people to the meeting from the participant's panel
-
Adding additional people to the meeting chat
-
Copying the Join meeting info
Important: If you create breakout rooms before a meeting, you won't be able to invite more than 300 people. For more info about managing large Teams meetings, see Best practices for a large Teams meeting.
In this article
Tip: For additional assistance, see Breakout rooms troubleshooting guide.
Create breakout rooms
To create breakout rooms, you must be a meeting organizer or a presenter in the meeting organizer's organization who's been appointed a breakout rooms manager.
To create breakout rooms before a meeting:
-
In your Teams calendar, select a meeting to view details.
-
Select Breakout rooms > Create rooms.
-
Choose the number of rooms you want (up to 50) and select Add rooms.
-
Select Assign participants
-
Choose to assign people to rooms automatically or manually.
-
Select Next > Save.
As soon as the meeting starts, you can open the breakout rooms.
To create breakout rooms during a meeting:
-
Start the meeting.
-
In the meeting controls, select Rooms
-
Do the following:
-
Choose the number of rooms you want (up to 50).
-
Choose to assign people to rooms automatically or manually.
-
-
Select Create rooms.
To add another breakout room during the meeting, select Rooms 
Note: You won't be able to automatically assign people to breakout rooms later in the meeting.
Change breakout room settings
Make your meetings more efficient by adjusting breakout room settings before they start. Meeting organizers can plan ahead by creating and naming breakout rooms, sorting attendees into rooms, setting timers, and more.
To change breakout room settings before a meeting:
-
In your Teams calendar, select a meeting to view details.
-
Go to Breakout rooms > Rooms settings
-
Select Save to apply changes.
Rename breakout rooms
If you want, rename each room to reflect its purpose (for example, what the people in that room will be working on).
-
In your Teams calendar, select a meeting to view details.
-
Select Breakout rooms.
-
Hover over a room and select More options
-
Enter a new name.
-
Select Rename.
Tip: During the meeting, you can delete all the breakout rooms and set them up differently (see Recreate breakout rooms from scratch).
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.
To assign people to breakout rooms manually before a meeting:
-
In your Teams calendar, select a meeting to view details.
-
Select Breakout rooms.
-
Select Assign participants
-
Select checkboxes to group people together and assign them to the same room
-
-
In the Room
-
Select the room you want to assign them to.
-
When you're done, select Confirm.
To assign people to breakout rooms manually during a meeting:
-
In the meeting controls, select Rooms
-
Select Assign participants.
-
Select the dropdown arrow next to Name or Room to sort participants by name or room.
-
Select checkboxes to group people together and assign them to the same room.
-
-
In the Room
-
Select the room you want to assign them to.
-
When you're done, select Save.
-
If someone joins late, select Assign participants to assign them a room.
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:
-
Open Teams on your desktop and go to your team channel.
-
Select the Breakout rooms tab.
-
Select Assign participants and sort channel members into breakout rooms.
Meetings with breakout room capabilities are limited to 300 participants. If the channel contains more than 300 members, pre-assignment won't be available. Meeting organizers can also assign participants to breakout rooms during the meeting.
Shuffle participants in breakout rooms
Randomly assign participants to breakout rooms before and during a meeting. Shuffle everyone or only shuffle people who haven't been assigned a room yet.
To shuffle participants in breakout rooms before a meeting:
-
From your Teams calendar, select a meeting to view details.
-
Select Breakout rooms.
-
Select Assign participants > Shuffle.
-
From the Shuffle dropdown menu:
-
Select Everyone to shuffle all participants.
-
Select Only unassigned people to shuffle participants who haven't been assigned to a room.
-
-
Select Save to reassign participants to new breakout rooms.
To shuffle participants in breakout rooms during a meeting:
-
Select Rooms
-
In Breakout rooms, select Assign participants > Shuffle.
-
From the Shuffle dropdown menu:
-
Select Everyone to shuffle all participants.
-
Select Only unassigned people to shuffle participants who haven't been assigned to a room.
-
-
Select Save to reassign participants to new breakout rooms.
Appoint breakout room managers
Meeting organizers can appoint presenters to help manage breakout rooms.
Breakout room managers can:
-
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
Important:
-
To make someone a room manager, they must be invited to the meeting and made a presenter first. To learn more, see Roles in Microsoft Teams meetings.
-
Only one person at a time can manage a meeting's breakout rooms.
To appoint room managers before a meeting:
-
From your Teams calendar, select a meeting to view details.
-
Select Breakout rooms > Rooms settings
-
Turn the Assign presenters to manage rooms toggle on.
-
Select Search for presenters and designate room managers.
-
Select Save.
To appoint room managers during a meeting:
-
In the meeting controls, select Rooms
-
Select Room settings
-
Turn the Assign presenters to manage rooms toggle on.
-
If no one in the meeting has been made a presenter yet, select Go to Meeting options to add presenters to select someone.
-
-
Choose presenters from the dropdown menu.
-
Select Save.
Set a time limit for breakout room sessions
When you set a time limit, a timer is visible in each breakout room so that participants are aware of when the session will end. When time is up, the rooms close and participants return to the main meeting.
To set a time limit for breakout room sessions before a meeting:
-
From your Teams calendar, select a meeting to view details.
-
Select Breakout rooms > Rooms settings
-
Turn the Set a time limit toggle on.
-
Set a time limit using the dropdown menus.
-
Select Save.
To set a time limit for breakout room sessions during a meeting:
-
In the meeting controls, select Rooms
-
Select Rooms settings
-
Turn the Set a time limit toggle on.
-
Choose a duration period for breakout room sessions.
-
Select Save.
Note: If you turn off automatic entry to breakout rooms, participants can return to the main meeting or leave the meeting when time is up.
Open breakout rooms
When breakout rooms open, people will go to their breakout rooms right away. You can choose to turn off automatic entry to breakout rooms.
To open and start breakout room sessions:
-
In the meeting controls, select Rooms
-
To open all the rooms at the same time, select Open.
-
To open a single room, hover over the room and select More options
-
Join a breakout room
If you're the meeting organizer or a breakout rooms manager, you can join any of the rooms.
-
In the meeting controls, select Rooms
-
Hover over a room and select More options
Leave a breakout room
To leave a breakout room and return to the main meeting, select Leave room in the meeting controls.
Interact with breakout room participants
As meeting organizer, you can send announcements to all the breakout rooms and contribute to any of the room chats.
Send an announcement to all breakout rooms
You may want to tell everyone what the remaining breakout session time is, offer discussion ideas, or just give general updates.
-
In the meeting controls, select Rooms
-
Select Make an announcement
-
Enter your announcement and select Send.
Participants will see your announcement in their meeting chat.
Chat in breakout rooms
Each breakout room has its own chat. All of the chats are available in your main Teams chat list. Here you can chat with the members of any breakout room.
After you join a breakout room, you can also select Chat 
Note: When the breakout room closes, the room chat ends and can't be continued. However, you'll still be able to view the chat history and any shared files.
Close breakout rooms
When you close the breakout rooms, participants will return to the main meeting.
Note: If you turn off the Automatically move people into opened rooms setting (see Turn off automatic entry to breakout rooms), participants will have the option of returning to the main meeting or leaving the meeting when the rooms are closed.
To close rooms individually:
-
In the meeting controls, select Rooms
-
Hover over a room and select More options
To close all rooms at the same time:
-
In the meeting controls, select Rooms
-
Select Close rooms.
You'll know a room has successfully closed when its status changes to Closed.
Notes:
-
Breakout rooms remain open until the organizer manually closes them. If you set a time limit for breakout rooms, the rooms will close automatically after time runs out.
-
If the rooms reopen later in the meeting, participants will stay assigned to the same rooms.
Room assignments in recurring meetings
When an organizer assigns people to breakout rooms in a meeting series, the room assignments will apply to future meeting occurrences unless the organizer manually changes them.
Attendance reports for breakout rooms
If you organize a meeting, you can gain insight into its participants and their breakout room activity through attendance reports. Learn which breakout room each person has joined, when they entered it, and when they left.
To view breakout room data from a meeting:
-
Go to your Teams calendar.
-
Select the meeting you want to see attendance reports for.
-
Select Attendance.
-
Under Participants, select an attendee to see which breakout room they entered and what time they joined and left it.
To reference breakout room data later, download the attendance report in CSV format.
Notes:
-
Only meeting organizers can view attendance reports.
-
Attendance reports don’t include data from deleted breakout rooms.
Additional breakout room options
Turn off automatic entry to breakout rooms to let people join breakout rooms on their own. They'll be able to see the rooms available and select Join to enter one.
-
In the meeting controls, select Rooms
-
Select Room settings
-
Turn the Automatically move people to rooms toggle off.
-
Select Save.
Meeting attendees can learn more about joining and participating in breakout rooms here: Join a breakout room in a Teams meeting.
Give participants the option to leave their breakout rooms and return to the original meeting.
-
In the meeting controls, select Rooms
-
Select Room settings
-
Turn the Let people return to the main meeting toggle on.
-
Select Save.
Participants can be moved when breakout rooms are open or closed.
-
In the meeting controls, select Rooms
-
Select Assign participants.
-
Select the checkbox next to the person you want to move.
-
Select multiple checkboxes to group people together and assign them to the same room
-
-
In the Room
-
Select the room you want to assign them to.
-
Select Save.
-
In the meeting controls, select Rooms
-
Hover over the room and select More options
-
In the meeting controls, select Rooms
-
Select Remove rooms
During a meeting, you can delete all the breakout rooms, create new ones, and reassign participants to them.
-
In the meeting controls, select Rooms
-
Select Remove rooms
Related articles
Need more help?
Want more options?
Explore subscription benefits, browse training courses, learn how to secure your device, and more.
Communities help you ask and answer questions, give feedback, and hear from experts with rich knowledge.
