Breakout Rooms in a Zoom Meeting

Breakout rooms allow Hosts to group Participants into their own, smaller spaces for collaboration and discussion.

Creating Breakout Rooms

  1. In your meeting controls, select Breakout Rooms


     
  2. The Create Breakout Rooms window will appear

    1. Specify the number of breakout rooms you wish to create
    2. Choose whether Participants are assigned to a room manually or automatically, or if they can choose their own room
    3. Once you have specified the number of rooms and how Participants join them, you can Create the rooms

Breakout Room Settings

After creating your rooms, you can customize them further before opening, or starting, breakout rooms.

  1. You can Rename a room to fit a topic, or Delete it
  2. Select Options to control options such as:
    1. Allow Participants to choose a room
    2. Allow Participants to return to the main session at any time
    3. Automatically move all assigned Participants into breakouts
    4. Set a time (in minutes) that breakout rooms automatically close
    5. Set a countdown timer (in seconds) after breakout rooms close


       
  3. By selecting Recreate to restart the breakout room setup process
  4. By selecting Add a Room, you can add an additional breakout room
  5. By selecting Open All Rooms, you can officially start the breakout rooms

Options for Hosts, Co-hosts, and Participants

While breakout rooms are active, the Host, Co-hosts, and Participants can use various options to move between rooms and control them.

Host/Co-host Options

  • To join a room, over over it and select Join


     
  • You may also be invited by Participants to join a room if they Ask for Help. If a Participant asks for help, you will receive a pop-up where you can immediately join the room. This pop-up will also indicate which room and which Participant asked for help


     
  • Select Broadcast, to send a message to all rooms either by chat or voice:


     
  • You can move Participants to another room by hovering over a Participant and selecting Move To


     
  • You can view Participants’ activity status, such as if their camera is on, if they’re sharing their screen, etc. Join the room to see a participant's actual video/screen view.


     

Participant Options

Participants are able to:

  • Share their screen
  • Use Chat
  • Turn on video and microphone
  • Share their screen
  • Share a collaborative whiteboard
  • Record, if given permission by Host

Closing Rooms

When you want to close, or end, the breakout rooms, select Close All Rooms.

When you confirm closing breakout rooms, participants will receive a warning, based on the amount of time you selected in Options. Your breakout room setup is preserved after closure, just in case you want to start them again.

Need Additional Help?

For additional assistance, please visit the Zoom Knowledge Base for additional articles. You can also contact the IT Help Desk.

Print Article