How to Use Breakout Rooms in Microsoft Teams

Breakout Rooms allow meeting organizers to split participants into smaller groups for focused discussions or collaborative activities. Once participants are placed in breakout rooms, the organizer can communicate with all rooms simultaneously, adjust settings on the fly, and bring everyone back to the main meeting when ready.

Step 1: Open the Breakout Rooms Panel

Once your Teams meeting is active, locate the meeting toolbar at the top of the screen. Click the Breakout Rooms button — it looks like a small box with a dividing line inside. This will open the Breakout Rooms setup panel.

Step 2: Assign Participants

A dialog will appear asking how you would like to assign participants. You have two options:

• Automatically — Teams distributes participants evenly across the number of rooms you specify. This is the fastest option for large groups.
• Manually — You add participants to each room individually. Use this when specific groupings matter, such as assigning students to pre-planned teams.

Select your preferred method, then click Create Rooms to proceed.

Step 3: Configure Room Settings

Before opening rooms, review the available settings by clicking the ... (More options) menu at the top of the Breakout Rooms panel and selecting Rooms settings. Two key options are available:

• Automatically move people into opened rooms — When enabled, participants are moved to their assigned rooms as soon as you open them. When disabled, participants receive an invitation they must accept.
• Let people go back to the main meeting — When enabled, participants can return to the main meeting on their own at any time. When disabled, only the organizer can bring them back.

Step 4: Manage Individual Rooms

Each room in the panel has its own set of options. Hover over a room name or click its ... icon to access the following:

• Join room — Enter the room yourself to observe or participate.
• Open room — Open a specific room so participants can join.
• Rename room — Give the room a descriptive name to help participants identify their assignment.
• Close room — Return all participants in that room to the main meeting.
• Delete room — Permanently remove the room from the session.

You can also use the Add room and Close rooms buttons in the panel header to manage all rooms at once.

Step 5: Send Announcements to All Rooms

Once rooms are open and populated, you can broadcast a message to all participants simultaneously without entering each room individually. Click ... (More options) in the panel header, select Make an announcement, type your message, and send. It will appear in the chat of every active breakout room at once. This is useful for time warnings, redirecting discussion, or sharing a prompt with all groups.

Need Help?

If you have questions or run into any issues with Breakout Rooms, we're here to help! Reach out to us at kpsomit@kp.org.