Microsoft Teams breakout room management

Breakout rooms allow you, as a meeting organizer, to split your meeting or class into smaller groups for focused discussions.

As a meeting organizer you can also add and remove presenters as breakout room managers. These assigned managers can perform breakout room operations from the breakout rooms management panel and join breakout rooms just as the meeting organizer can.

NOTE: Breakout room managers can be assigned to the meeting before it takes place and before breakout rooms have been created.

You can scroll through all of the breakout room management topics on this page or click the individual topics below:

Manage breakout rooms
Appoint managers before the meeting
Appoint managers during the meeting
Take control of the breakout room

Manage breakout rooms

Meeting managers can delegate presenters to manage the meeting’s breakout rooms. Breakout room managers can also join in rooms, to share the load of running and facilitating rooms. These delegated managers can:

Add and delete rooms
Assign and re-assign participants to rooms
Open and close rooms
Join any rooms
Set time limits for room sessions
Send announcements
Recreate rooms

IMPORTANT: Only one person can manage a meeting’s breakout room at any one time. You can switch between managers, please see Take control of breakout room.

Appoint managers before the meeting

Go to your Teams calendar and open the meeting invite.
Go to the Breakout rooms tab and select Room settings.
On the Breakout room settings window, switch the Assign presenters to manage rooms toggle on.
Select Search for presenters.
Choose who you want to be breakout room managers.

Appoint managers during the meeting

In the meeting controls, select Breakout rooms.
Select Room settings.
Switch the Assign presenters to manage rooms toggle on.
On the Settings window, if no one in the meeting is designated as a presenter, select Go to Meeting options to add presenters and choose who you want to be a room manager.
Choose presenters from the dropdown menu.
Select the back button < to save your changes.

appoint managers during meeting

Take control of the breakout room

Breakout room managers who are not in control should first request control. You might be one of a few breakout room managers in your meeting. Only one of you can control the room at a time.

Room management can be open for one user at the time. Organizer and nominated presenters can switch between rooms by first taking control of the rooms management on the Breakout rooms panel and and then join the room.

In the meeting controls, select Breakout rooms.

In the example image, notice that Daniela is the current room’s manager.

Select Manage rooms.

You are now the breakout room manager
Join open rooms and manage them.

take control of breakout room example

NOTE: Breakout room managers are not assignable to rooms, instead they can move freely between rooms.

Currently, only users who are assigned as co-presenters from the same tenant can become breakout room managers.

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