Managing Breakout Rooms in zoom App
You have the option of breaking your Zoom meeting into as many as 50 breakout sessions with breakout rooms. There are a variety of options that the meeting host or co-host can use to partition the meeting attendees into these different breakout sessions, such as allowing them to select and enter breakout sessions as they see fit or manually splitting the meeting participants. In order to switch between sessions, the host or co-host may do so at any time.
Note:
- Before following this article, please make sure that breakout rooms have been enabled.
- Additionally, you can pre-assign participants to breakout rooms at the time of scheduling the meeting rather than having to manage them during the meeting.
- The participants in the breakout rooms will have the same audio, video, and screen sharing capabilities as the attendees in the main session.
- It is important to note, however, that breakout rooms have some limitations.
Prerequisites for managing breakout rooms
Standard Breakout Rooms
- Breakout rooms enabled
- Zoom desktop client, or web client
- Windows: 3.5.31087.1102 or higher
- macOS: 3.5.31087.1102 or higher
- Linux: 2.0.81497.1116 or higher
- Chrome: 2.4.943.510 or higher
- Zoom Rooms
- Windows: 5.8.0 (505) or higher
- macOS: 5.8.0 (4055.0929) or higher
- Appliances: 5.8.0 (293) or higher
- iOS controller: 5.8.0 (110.0927) or higher
- Android controller: 5.8.0 (898) or higher
Self-select breakout rooms:
- Zoom desktop client
- Windows: version 5.3.0 or higher
- macOS: version 5.3.0 or higher
- Linux: version 5.3.0 or higher
- Zoom mobile app
- Android: version 5.3.0 or higher
- iOS: version 5.3.0 or higher
- ChromeOS: version 5.0.0 (4241.1207) or higher
Full co-host control over breakout rooms:
- Zoom desktop client
- Windows: version 5.4.6 or higher
- macOS: version 5.4.6 or higher
- Linux: version 5.4.6 or higher
Note: Both host and co-host must be on version 5.4.6 or higher for this feature.
Share screen to all breakout rooms:
- Zoom desktop client
- Windows: version 5.7.0 or higher
- macOS: version 5.7.0 or higher
- Linux: version 5.7.0 or higher
- Zoom mobile app
- Android: version 5.7.0 or higher
- iOS: version 5.7.0 or higher
Note: This applies to the host, co-hosts, and breakout room participants.
Creating, removing, and renaming breakout rooms after launch:
- Zoom desktop client
- Windows: version 5.9.3 or higher
- macOS: version 5.9.3 or higher
- Linux: version 5.9.3 or higher
Notes:- Specifically, this applies to those who are hosting, co-hosting, and participating in the breakout rooms.
- Zoom should have enabled the ability for you to adjust Breakout Rooms while they are open in the Zoom account settings, and making breakout room adjustments has to be enabled in all participants’ Breakout Room settings, and all participants must be connected via version 5.9.3 or higher.
Limitations of Breakout Rooms
The only people who are able to assign participants to breakout rooms are the host, or a co-host. If they choose to offer participants the option of choosing their own room during the meeting when the breakout rooms are launched, they can be allowed to do so.
Host | Co-Host | |
Assigning*, starting, and ending breakout rooms | ✔ | ✔ |
Move between breakout rooms | ✔ | ✔ |
Broadcast message to all | ✔ | ✔ |
Notified of Requests for Help | ✔ |
Upon clicking Open All Rooms, both the host and any co-hosts will have the ability to assign participants to breakout rooms, however only the first set of assignments to be submitted will be accepted.
It is possible for Zoom meeting users to participate in breakout rooms through the Zoom Mobile App or via H.323/SIP devices, but these users will not be able to manage them.
The host of the meeting will only be able to capture the main meeting if the meeting is being cloud recorded, however he or she will not be able to capture any of the breakout sessions no matter where the meeting is being held. There is currently only the possibility of recording in breakout rooms which have local recording facilities. A specific participant must be able to record locally on the host’s server, and the recording will only take place in the room the participant is in. This permission can be granted to multiple participants at the same time.
The number of breakout rooms that you can create is up to 50. There is no specific number of participants that can sit in a single breakout room, but will depend on how many breakout rooms you create, the meeting capacity, and whether or not participants are assigned during or before the meeting.
In this case, the numbers refer only to the breakout rooms that were created during the meeting. It is possible to pre-assign breakout rooms to up to 50 participants and up to 200 break-out rooms.
Number of breakout rooms | Maximum number of participants who can be assigned to breakout rooms* |
20 breakout rooms | Up to 500 participants |
30 breakout rooms | Up to 400 participants |
50 breakout rooms | Up to 200 participants |
*For the maximum capacity listed, you will need to add the Large Meeting add-on. If you have not purchased an add-on for Large Meetings, the maximum number of participants in your meeting is determined by your meeting capacity.
Note:
ZOOM Support can help increase your account’s Breakout Room capacity to allow up to 100 breakout rooms, with a maximum capacity of 1,000 per breakout room (based on the account limit). The Zoom client version 5.2 or a later version is required for all participants to join a meeting on your account. Any participant who does not have a Zoom client version 5.2 or later will have to update or will be required to join using the web client application.
It will require assistance from your IT Department to update the client if your users do not have administrative control of their machines. Moreover, this has an effect on the pre-assignment limits, too, which are now raised to 100 rooms and a maximum of 1000 participants.
Windows | macOS
How to create breakout rooms
Note:
As an alternative to managing the participants during the meeting, you can also preassign breakout rooms when you schedule the meetings.
- Set up an instant meeting or a scheduled meeting.
- Just click the Breakout Room button.
- It is recommended to create a certain number of rooms and decide how you would like to distribute your participants between those rooms:
- Automatically:
- This will automatically divide your participants evenly between the rooms as you create them.
- Manually:
- Choose the participants that you want to be in each room.
- Let participants choose room:
- You can let participants pick and choose which rooms they want to enter.
- You can do this by clicking on the Create Breakout Rooms button.
- This will create your breakout rooms, however they will not be automatically started. The following instructions can be followed in order to manage the rooms before they are started.
Options for breakout rooms
- You can see additional breakout room options after creating a breakout room by clicking on Options or the gear icon after creating it.
- If you would like to use any other options after creating your breakout room, check them.
- If you would like to allow participants to choose the room:
- As soon as the rooms are launched, participants can choose and enter their own rooms.
- Allow participants to return to the main session at any time:
- The participants can select this option, if it is checked, and from the meeting control panel, they can go back into the main session. If this feature is disabled, then they will have to wait for the host or co-host to end the breakout room.
- Automatically move all assigned participants into breakout rooms:
- By checking this option, every participant will be automatically moved into a breakout room. It is important to note that if this option is unchecked, the participants will need to click the Join button to be added to the breakout room.
- Auto close breakout rooms after () minutes:
- When this option is selected, the breakout rooms will automatically end after the time configured in the settings.
- Notify me when the time is up:
- In the case that this option is selected, the co-hosts and the host will be notified as soon as the breakout room time is up.
- Set Countdown timer:
- In this case, a countdown will be shown to the participants to let them know how much time is remaining before they are returned to the main room.
- In order to assign participants to breakout rooms, you can follow the steps below. Alternatively, you can click Open All Rooms to start the breakout sessions.
How to assign participants to rooms
If you want to assign participants to your meeting rooms, simply select the room next to which you want to assign participants and then choose the participants you want to assign to that meeting room. Simply repeat the process for every meeting room.
The number of participants will appear in the place of the Assign button once the participant has been assigned (manually or automatically).
How to prepare breakout rooms
You can rearrange participants after they have been assigned to rooms either manually or automatically depending on your preferences. It is assumed that any participant who is not assigned to a breakout session will remain in the main meeting when the breakout rooms are opened. By hovering over a participant or breakout room, you will see the following options:
- Move to (participant):
- Select the room where the participant should be moved.
- Exchange (participant):
- Exchange the selected participant with another participant in another room.
- Delete Room:
- Remove the selected room.
- Recreate:
- Recreate all Rooms:
- Breakout rooms are deleted, and new ones can be created by the host/co-host.
- Recover to pre-assigned rooms:
- Set up the breakout rooms according to the pre-assigned arrangements. It is only available if you have pre-assigned breakout rooms in your account.
- Add a Room:
- Create a new breakout room.
- Open All Rooms:
- Let the rooms begin. After each assigned participant confirms the invitation to join the breakout room, they will be guided to their respective rooms.
- You can open a list of rooms and choose one to join if you allow participants to choose their own room.
- When the breakout groups are launched and the original host is left in the main meeting, he or she will have to manually join one of the breakout sessions.
How to manage breakout rooms in progress
Once the breakout rooms have been started, the assigned participants will be asked to join the Breakout Session. The host or co-host who initiated the breakout sessions, as well as the original host, must remain in the main meeting until they join a session manually. If a participant has not joined the session yet, it will be noted by (not joined) next to their name. You can click these options in the breakout rooms window:
- Join:
- We are holding a breakout session.
- Leave:
- Return to the main meeting when you leave the breakout room (only appears when you are in a breakout room).
- Close All Rooms:
- The 60 second countdown stops all conference rooms, and all participants are redirected back to the main meeting after the 60 second countdown.
You can access more options for a breakout room by hovering your pointer over its name and clicking the ellipsis button:
Note:
Breakout Rooms can be adjusted while they are open, provided Zoom has enabled this setting for your account, all participants must be connected through version 5.9.3 or higher, and all of the participants must be registered on Zoom.
- Add Participants:
- You can add more people to a Breakout Room that already exists. You will need to click on Assign and select the participants you wish to add to the room.
- Rename:
- Change the name of the meeting room.
- Click on the Rename button and type the new name of the meeting room.
- Delete Room:
- If the Breakout Room is already in use, it should be deleted.
Note: - When deleting a breakout room you need either not have opened the breakout room, or, if the room has already been opened, you do not have any participants in the room currently.
How to respond to requests for help
If you have a meeting in a breakout room, you can invite the meeting host to join your meeting by clicking Ask for Help at the bottom of the meeting overview.
Upon joining the room where the request originated from, you will be asked to join the room. To do this, simply click the Join Breakout Room button.
How to broadcast a message to all breakout rooms
If the host or co-hosts want to share information with all participants at a breakout session, he or she can broadcast a message to all breakout rooms. It is possible to do this during the main session or during a breakout session.
Note:
Your Breakout Room settings must allow you to enable this feature.
- Under the meeting controls, click the Breakout Rooms button.
- To broadcast your message to all, simply click Broadcast message, then enter the message and click Broadcast.
- All participants will now see the message as it appears in the breakout room.
How to share a screen with breakout rooms?
The host or co-host can share their screen directly from the main session to all breakout rooms as soon as those breakout rooms are open. By using this method, the presenter is able to share visual information with all breakout rooms simultaneously, guiding them with the next steps or tasks.
- From the meeting controls, click on the Share Screen button.
- On the bottom of the share window, you will see the option Share to breakout rooms.
- If you choose to share something other than an entire screen, such as an open program, choose what you want to share from the list.
- Click on the Share button. All breakout rooms will then be able to see what you selected. The host or co-host of the meeting will not be able to share their screen if any active shares are active in breakout rooms. Before the shared content of the host is displayed, the annotation or whiteboarding are saved.
Linux
How to create Breakout Rooms
- You can start a meeting instantly or schedule one.
- Select a meeting room from the list.
- Select the number of rooms you wish to create, and then specify how you want your participants to be assigned to those rooms:
- Automatically:
- Zoom will automatically separate your participants equally among the different rooms that you set up
- Manually:
- The participants that you would like in each room can be selected manually
- Let participants choose room:
- It is up to the participants to choose and enter the rooms independently.
- Click Create Rooms.
This will create your rooms, however, they will not automatically start. Before starting them, you will have the option to manage them.
Options for breakout rooms
- In order to view additional options for breakout rooms, click the gear icon once you have created a breakout room.
- You are then able to choose which breakout room options you would like to use.
- Allow participants to choose room:
- The participants will be able to choose and enter the rooms themselves after rooms are launched.
- Allow participants to return to the main session at any time:
- Using this option, participants can return to the main meeting session from their meeting controls if this option is checked. When this option is disabled, it will be necessary for the breakout rooms to be ended by the host/co-host.
- Automatically move all assigned participants into breakout rooms:
- When this option is checked, all participants will be automatically moved into the breakout rooms. It is necessary for participants to click the Join button in order to join the breakout room if this option is unchecked.
- Auto close breakout rooms after () minutes:
- The breakout rooms will end automatically after the specified period is reached if this option is selected.
- Notify me when the time is up:
- It is important to note that if this option is checked, the host and co-hosts will be notified whenever the breakout room time expires.
- Set Countdown timer:
- In the case of this option being selected, the participants will be shown a countdown that shows how much time is left before returning to the main room.
- In order to assign participants to rooms, follow the steps below or click on the Open All Rooms button to initiate the breakout sessions.
How to assign participants to rooms
When you want to assign participants to your rooms, you need to select Assign next to the room that you would like to assign participants to and then select which participants you want to assign to that room. Repeat this step for all your rooms.
The number of participants will appear in the place of the Assign button once the participant has been assigned (manually or automatically).
How to prepare breakout rooms
You can rearrange participants after they have been assigned to rooms either manually or automatically depending on your preferences. The participants who do not have breakout sessions assigned to them will remain in the main meeting when the breakout sessions are called. When hovering your mouse over the participant or room, you will see the following options:
- Move to (participant):
- Select the room where the participant is to be moved to.
- Exchange (participant):
- If you wish to swap the selected participant with a participant in a different room, select the participant to swap.
- Delete Room:
- Remove the selected participant from the room.
- Recreate:
- The host/co-host can delete existing breakout rooms and create new ones by clicking the New Breakout Room button.
- Add a Room:
- This will add a new breakout room to your meeting.
- Open All Rooms:
- Let’s get started. After confirming the prompt to join the breakout room, all participants will be moved to their respective rooms. Participants can choose their own room if they have the option to do so. They can view the list of available rooms and select one. As a result, the host or co-host who launched the breakouts and the original host will remain in the main meeting until one of the breakout rooms can be manually joined.
How to manage breakout rooms in progress
Once the breakout rooms have been set up, the assigned participants will be invited to join the breakout sessions.
It is the host, co-host, or original host who remains in the main meeting until manually joining a breakout session. It will be noted next to the name of each participant if they have not yet joined the session, indicating that they have not joined. In the breakout rooms window, you have the following options available:
- Join:
- We are holding a breakout session.
- Leave:
- In a breakout room, this will only be displayed when you leave the room and go back to the main meeting.
- Close All Rooms:
- Specifies that all rooms are to be shut down after a countdown of 60 seconds, which will be shown to the host, co-host, and participants, so that all participants may return to the main meeting.
The ellipsis button will appear as soon as your pointer is over the name of the breakout room. You can view more options for this breakout room by clicking that button:
Note:
You must also be able to adjust break out rooms while they are open and have all participants connected through Zoom’s version 5.9.3 or higher to adjust breakout rooms while they are open.
- Add Participants:
- If a Breakout Room already exists, you can add additional participants to it. Click Add Participants and select the participants you wish to include in the breakout room.
- Rename:
- Give the breakout room a new name. To rename the room, enter the new name.
- Delete Room:
- Delete the Breakout Room which is already in progress.
Note: - In order to delete a breakout room, you have to make sure that the breakout rooms have not yet been opened, or if they have been opened, that no participant is currently present in the room.
How to respond to requests for help
If you are in a breakout room, you can request that the meeting host join your meeting by clicking the Ask for Help link.
If you wish to join the room that originated the request, you will be prompted to do so. To join, click Join Breakout Room.
How to broadcast a message to all breakout rooms
To share information with all participants, the host or co-host can broadcast a message across all breakout rooms.
Note:
Breakout Room settings must enable this.
- Go to the meeting controls and click Breakout Rooms.
- Click Broadcast message to all, type your message, and then click Broadcast.
- The message has now been broadcast to all participants in breakout rooms.
How to share screen to breakout rooms
As soon as breakout rooms are available, the host or co-host of the main session can share their screen directly into each breakout room that is currently available. This allows the presenter to share visual information with all breakout rooms at the same time, so that they can be guided on the next steps to take.
- In the meeting control panel, click the Share Screen button.
- On the bottom of the Share window, there is an option that says Share to breakout rooms.
- Then, select what you would like to share, such as an entire screen, a specific program, or anything else you want to share.
- Simply click the Share button. Shared content includes all breakout rooms where it has previously been selected. If there is an active screen share taking place in any breakout room, it will be interrupted so that the host or co-host can present their screen. Before the host’s shared content is viewed, the annotation or whiteboarding is saved.
Web client
If you are using Zoom’s web client, then read this section.
How to create Breakout Rooms
Note:
When you schedule the meeting, you can also pre-assign the participants to breakout rooms, so you don’t have to manage them during the meeting.
- Create an instant meeting or a scheduled meeting.
- Simply click the Breakout Rooms button.
- It is important to decide how many rooms you would like to create, and how you want to assign your participants to each of those rooms:
- Automatically:
- Zoom will automatically divide your participants evenly between each of the rooms.
- Manually:
- If you would like to choose which participants go into which room, you must do this manually.
- Click on the Create Breakout Rooms button.
This will create your rooms, but they won’t be started automatically. In order to manage these rooms before starting them, please refer to the instructions below.
Options for breakout rooms
- If you have created a breakout room, click Options to view additional options for breakout rooms.
- If you would like to use any of the following options for your breakout rooms:
- All participants will be moved to the breakout room automatically:
- If this option is selected, all participants will be moved into the breakout room automatically. When this option is unchecked, when a participant wants to join a breakout room, he or she will then need to click Join.
- Allow participants to return to the main session at any time:
- By checking this box, the participants will be able to move back to the main session from the meeting controls. It is important to note that if this option is disabled, the attendees need to wait until the host or co-host ends the breakout rooms.
- Breakout rooms close automatically after x minutes:
- It should be noted that this option will automatically end the breakout rooms after the specified time when this option is checked.
- Notify me when the time is up:
- As long as this option is selected, the host will be notified when the breakout room time has expired.
- Countdown after closing breakout rooms:
- There is an option that will let you know how much time you have left before the participants are returned to the main room if this option is checked.
- It is possible to assign participants to rooms by following the steps below, or you can click on Open All Rooms to start the breakout sessions.
How to assign participants to rooms
When you want to assign participants to your rooms, you need to select Assign next to the room that you would like to assign participants to and then select which participants you want to assign to that room. This process has to be repeated for each room.
The number of participants will appear in the place of the Assign button once the participant has been assigned (manually or automatically).
How to prepare breakout rooms
You can rearrange the participants after they have been assigned to rooms manually or automatically. It is important to note that participants who are not supposed to attend a breakout session will remain in the main meeting during the start of the breakout sessions. If you hover your mouse over a participant or room you will see the following options:
- Move to (participant):
- To move the participant to another room, select the appropriate room.
- Exchange (participant):
- To exchange the selected participant with another participant in a different room, select the other participant.
- Delete Room:
- Select the room you wish to delete.
- Recreate:
- Deletes existing breakout rooms and allows the host to create new ones.
- Add a Room:
- Create an additional breakout room.
- Open All Rooms:
- Make sure all rooms are running. After confirming the prompt to join the breakout room, participants will be moved to their designated rooms. The host will remain in the main meeting until one of the rooms is manually joined.
How to manage breakout rooms in progress
Breakout sessions will begin once the breakout rooms have been set up. Until the host joins a breakout session manually, he or she will remain in the main meeting. There will be a note next to a participant’s name if they have not joined the session yet. The breakout room window contains these options:
- Join:
- This is a breakout session.
- Leave:
- Return to the main meeting after leaving the breakout room (only shown when in a breakout room).
- Close All Rooms:
- Stops all rooms after a 60 second countdown is shown to the host and to the attendees of the meeting, and returns all attendees to the main meeting.
How to respond to requests for help
When a meeting host is asked to join a breakout room, the participants can click Ask for Help.
If you wish to join the room that originated the request, you will be prompted to do so. To join, click Join Breakout Room.
How to broadcast a message to all breakout rooms
In order to share information with all participants, the host can broadcast a message to all breakout rooms.
Note:
Breakout Room settings must enable this.
- Go to the meeting controls and click Breakout Rooms.
- Enter your message in the text box provided, and click Broadcast Message to all.
- All the participants in the breakout rooms will be able to see the message.
Chrome OS
How to create breakout rooms
- Set up a meeting either instantly or on a recurring basis.
- Just click on the Breakout Rooms tab.
- In order to create a room, you need to first specify the number of rooms and how you want your participants to be assigned to those rooms:
- Automatically:
- You can let Zoom split the participants into the rooms as evenly as possible
- Manually:
- Select the participants that you wish to have in each room
- and then click the Create Rooms button.
You will see that your rooms have been created, but they will not automatically start. If you want to start them before they are created, you can do so.
How to assign participants to rooms
When you want to assign participants to your rooms, you need to select Assign next to the room that you would like to assign participants to and then select which participants you want to assign to that room. This process has to be repeated for each room.
The number of participants will appear in the place of the Assign button once the participant has been assigned (manually or automatically).
How to prepare breakout rooms
You can rearrange participants after they have been assigned to rooms either manually or automatically depending on your preferences. As soon as the breakout sessions begin, participants who have not been assigned to breakout sessions will remain in the main meeting. When hovering the mouse over a participant or room, the following options will appear:
- Move to (participant):
- Move the participant to a new room.
- Exchange (participant):
- Switch the selected participant with another in another room.
- Delete Room:
- Remove the selected room from the list.
- Recreate:
- Creates a new breakout room by deleting the existing one.
- Add a Room:
- Create a new breakout room.
- Open All Rooms:
- All rooms should be open. Upon confirming the prompt to join the breakout room, all participants will be moved to their respective breakout rooms.
- The host will remain in the main meeting until a room is manually joined.
How to manage breakout rooms in progress
Once the breakout rooms have been set up, the assigned participants will be invited to join the breakout session as soon as the breakout rooms have been set up. Until a session is manually joined by the host, the host will stay in the main meeting. In the event that a participant has not yet joined the session, it will be noted by a notation next to their name (not joined). In the breakout rooms window, you can choose from the following options:
- Join:
- We are going to break out into smaller groups.
- Leave:
- Return to the main meeting by leaving the breakout room and returning to the main meeting (only visible in breakout rooms).
- Close All Rooms:
- When the host and participants see the 60 second countdown, the host stops all rooms, and all participants go back to the main meeting after the countdown.
How to respond to requests for help
When a meeting host is asked to join a breakout room, the participants can click Ask for Help.
If you wish to join the room that originated the request, you will be prompted to do so. To join, click Join Breakout Room.
How to broadcast a message to all breakout rooms
In order to share information with all participants, the host can broadcast a message to all breakout rooms.
Note:
Breakout Room settings must enable this.
- Go to the meeting controls and click Breakout Rooms.
- Enter your message in the text box provided, and click Broadcast Message to all.
- All the participants in the breakout rooms will be able to see the message.