How to Create and Manage Breakout Rooms in Microsoft Teams

Running highly interactive virtual meetings can be challenging when you have a large group of participants. To encourage meaningful discussions and brainstorming, knowing how to create and manage breakout rooms in Microsoft Teams is a critical skill for educators, managers, and event hosts.

Breakout rooms allow you to temporarily split your main meeting into smaller, isolated sessions. Participants can collaborate closely, and you can bring everyone back to the main room with a single click. In this guide, we will show you exactly how to set up and manage these rooms effectively.

How to Create Breakout Rooms During a Meeting

You must be the meeting organiser or an appointed breakout room manager to create rooms. It is highly recommended to use the Microsoft Teams desktop application for full functionality.

1. Join your scheduled Microsoft Teams meeting.
2. In the meeting controls at the top of the screen, click the Breakout rooms icon (it looks like a small square inside a larger square).
3. A configuration window will appear. Choose the number of rooms you want to create (you can create up to 50 rooms).
4. Decide how you want to assign participants:
   • Automatically: Teams will evenly distribute participants across the rooms.
   • Manually: You can choose exactly who goes into which room.
5. Click Create rooms.

How to Manage and Assign Participants Manually

If you chose the manual assignment option, or if new participants join the meeting late, you will need to assign them to rooms yourself.

1. In the Breakout rooms panel on the right side of the screen, click Assign participants.
2. Select the checkboxes next to the names of the people you want to group together.
3. Click the Assign dropdown and select the specific room you want them to join.
4. Repeat this process until everyone is assigned to a room.

How to Open and Close the Rooms

Creating the rooms does not automatically send people there. You must explicitly open the rooms to start the breakout sessions.

1. To open all rooms simultaneously, click Open in the Breakout rooms panel. Participants will see a brief notification before being automatically transitioned to their assigned room.
2. As the organiser, you can join any active room by clicking the three dots (More options) next to a room’s name and selecting Join room.
3. To send a message to everyone (such as a 5-minute warning), click the megaphones icon to Make an announcement.
4. When you are ready to bring everyone back to the main meeting, click Close. Participants will be given a countdown before being automatically pulled back.

Learning how to create breakout rooms in Microsoft Teams transforms chaotic, crowded meetings into productive collaborative sessions. By mastering manual participant assignment and announcements, you can facilitate highly professional and engaging digital workshops.