Tutorial - Managing Breakout Rooms

Breakout rooms allow you to split your Zoom meeting in up to 100 separate sessions. The meeting host can choose to split the participants of the meeting into these separate sessions automatically or manually, or let participants choose a session to join. The host can switch between sessions at any time.

You can also pre-assign participants to breakout rooms when you schedule the meeting instead of assigning them during the meeting. Please see our Tutorial - Zoom Pre-assigning Participants to Breakout Rooms for more information.
Breakout room participants have full audio, video, and screen share capabilities.

Prerequisites

Host:

Breakout rooms enabled (enabled by default for ITS licensed Zoom accounts)
Zoom Desktop Client

Windows / macOS / Linux / Chrome: version 5.9.3 or newer

Version 5.9.3 or newer needed for “Let participants choose room” option

Android and iOS: version 5.9.3 or newer

Version 5.9.3 or newer needed for “Let participants choose room”
Cannot Create, remove, or rename breakout rooms after launch

Zoom web client

Cannot Create, remove, or rename breakout rooms after launch

Limitations

Only the Host can assign participants to breakout rooms.
By default only Host and Co-hosts can leave and join any breakout room.

Co-hosts must join their assigned breakout room first.

Participants may join and move between breakout rooms only if “Let participants choose room” or “Allow participants to choose room” is enabled.
Users joined into the Zoom meeting from the Zoom Mobile App or H.323/SIP devices can participate in breakout rooms, but cannot manage them.
If the meeting is being cloud recorded, it will only record the main room.

Local recording will record the room the participant who is recording is in.
Multiple participants can record locally.

Room count/size restrictions

Number of Breakout Rooms	Maximum number of participants who can be assigned to breakout rooms*
0-100 Breakout Rooms	Up to 1000 participants total across all breakout rooms**

*ITS licensed Zoom accounts have a 300 participant limit

**Example: 1 breakout room of 1000 participants or any combination of breakout rooms from 0-100 with total participants across all breakout rooms equal to or less than 1000 participants.

Starting a meeting with pre-assigned breakout rooms

Start the meeting with participants pre-assigned to breakout rooms.
Click Breakout Rooms () in the meeting controls to access the breakout rooms you created.

Note:

If a participant is not automatically assigned to the breakout room you specified when scheduling the meeting, Recover to pre-assigned breakout rooms to re-assign participants to their pre-assigned breakout rooms.
You can manually assign participants using the in-meeting breakout room controls.

Click Open All Rooms to start the breakout rooms.

Recovering to pre-assigned breakout rooms

After starting the breakout rooms, you can recover to the breakout rooms assignment you previously specified. This can be useful if you changed your breakout rooms during the meeting, or pre-assigned participants have joined the meeting after you joined the meeting or started breakout rooms.

Start the meeting with participants pre-assigned to breakout rooms.
Click Close All Rooms to end all breakout rooms.
Click Recreate then Recover to pre-assigned rooms.

Participants will be reorganized into the breakout rooms you specified when you scheduled the meeting.

Creating breakout rooms

Start an instant or scheduled meeting.
Click Breakout Rooms () located at the bottom of the Zoom interface.
Select the number of rooms you would like to create, and how you would like to assign your participants to those rooms:

Assign automatically: Let Zoom split your participants up evenly into each of the rooms.
Assign manually: Choose which participants you would like in each room.
Let participants choose room: Let participants choose which breakout room to join.

Click Create Breakout Rooms.
Your rooms will be created, but will not start automatically. You can manage the rooms prior to starting them by following the instructions below.

Options for breakout rooms

After creating the breakout rooms, click Options to view additional breakout rooms options.
Check any options that you would like to use for your breakout rooms.

Allow participants to choose room: Allows participants to to choose which breakout room to join, as well as allows participants to move between rooms
Allow participants to return to the main session at any time: If this option is checked, the participants can move back to the main session from their meeting controls. If this is disabled, they need to wait for the host to end the breakout rooms.
Automatically move all assigned participants into breakout rooms: Checking this option will move all participants into the breakout rooms automatically. If this option is unchecked, the participants will need to click Join to be added to the breakout room. ITS recommends enabling this option.
Auto close breakout rooms after x minutes: If this option is checked, the breakout rooms will automatically end after the configured time.
Countdown after closing breakout rooms: If this option is checked, the participants will be given a countdown of how much time they have left before being returned to the main room.

Follow the steps below to assign participants to rooms or click Open All Rooms to start the breakout rooms.

Assigning participants to rooms

To assign participants to your rooms, select Assign next to the room you wish to assign participants to and select the participants you want to assign to that room. Repeat this for each room.

Once a participant has been assigned (manually or automatically), the number of participants will show in place of the Assign button.

Preparing breakout rooms

After manually or automatically assigning participants to rooms, you can rearrange the participants. Participants who are not assigned to breakout sessions will remain in the main meeting when the rooms are started.

Move to (participant): Select a room to move the participant to.

Exchange (participant): Select a participant in another room to swap the selected participant with.

Delete Room: Delete the selected room.
Recreate: Deletes existing breakout rooms and creates new ones.
Add a Room: Add another breakout room.
Open All Rooms: Start the rooms. All participants will be moved to their respective rooms after confirming the prompt to join the breakout room. The host will be left in the main meeting until manually joining one of the rooms.

Managing breakout rooms in progress (Host)

Once the breakout rooms have been started, the participants will be asked to join the Breakout Session. The host will stay in the main meeting until joining a session manually. If a participant has not joined the session yet, it will be noted by (not joined) next to their name.

Join: Join the breakout room.
Leave: Leave the room and return to the main meeting (only shows when in a breakout room).
Close All Rooms: Stops all rooms after a 60 second countdown, shown to the host and participants, and returns all participants back to the main meeting.

Moving between breakout rooms (participants)

If “Let participants choose room” or “Allow participants to choose room” is enabled, participants may join and move between open breakout rooms. Participants must be using Zoom Desktop/Mobile Client version 5.9.3 or newer or Zoom web client.

To join or move between breakout rooms

Click on Breakout Rooms
In the pop-up menu click Choose Breakout Room
In the Breakout Rooms - In Progress panel click Join and then Yes to join or move to the desired breakout room.