How To: Use Breakout Rooms in a Teams Meeting

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Learn how to split a Teams meeting into small groups with breakout rooms, then bring everyone back together.

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Only the meeting organizer, or a co-organizer they've named as a breakout room manager, can set up breakout rooms. Breakout rooms work in scheduled meetings, not channel meetings.

Create the rooms

1

Open Breakout rooms

In the meeting, select Rooms (or More > Breakout rooms).
2

Pick how many

Choose the number of rooms, and whether Teams assigns people Automatically or you assign them Manually.
3

Create

Select Create rooms. To assign people manually, select Assign participants.

Run them

  • Select Start rooms to send everyone to their groups.
  • Select Make an announcement to send a message to every room.
  • Select Rooms settings to set a timer, so rooms close and people return on their own.
  • Select Close rooms to bring everyone back to the main meeting.

You can set up rooms ahead of time: open the meeting in your Teams calendar, select Breakout rooms, and create them before the meeting starts.

Get help

Still need help? Submit a request through Microsoft Teams, call the IT Service Desk at 612.343.4170, or visit Miller Hall 226.

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