Breakout rooms allow you to split your Zoom Events meeting session into separate sessions. The host or co-host can choose to split the participants of the event into these separate sessions automatically or manually, or they can allow participants to select and enter breakout sessions. The host or co-host can switch between sessions at any time, and monitor the level of activity in each room. Breakout room participants will have the same audio, video, and screen share capabilities as allowed in the main session.
This article covers:
Notes:
This feature has the following limitations:
Users who join the Zoom Events meeting session from the Zoom mobile app or H.323/SIP devices can participate in breakout rooms, but cannot manage them.
If the meeting session is being cloud recorded, it will only record the main meeting session and none of the breakouts will be captured, regardless of what room the meeting host is in. It is currently only possible to record in breakout rooms with local recording. The host must allow specific participants to record locally and it will only record the room the participant who is recording is in. Multiple participants can be given permission to record locally.
You can create up to 50 breakout rooms. The maximum number of participants in a single breakout room depends on the meeting capacity, the number of breakout rooms created, and if participants are assigned during the meeting or before the meeting.
Host | Co-Host | |
Assigning*, starting, and ending breakout rooms | ✔ | ✔ |
Move between breakout rooms | ✔ | ✔ |
Broadcast message to all | ✔ | ✔ |
Notified of Requests for Help | ✔ | |
View activity statuses of participants | ✔ | ✔ |
*While both the host and any co-hosts have the ability to assign participants to breakout rooms, only the first submitted set of assignments will be accepted upon clicking Open All Rooms.
Once a participant has been assigned (manually or automatically), the number of participants will show in place of the Assign button.
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. Hover over the participant or room for these options:
Once the breakout rooms have been started, the assigned participants will be asked to join the breakout session. The host, or co-host that launched the breakouts and the original host, will stay in the main session until joining a room manually.
The breakout room window will split into two tabs, one listing the open breakout rooms and their participants and the other listing all total participants. If there are 7 or more participants, a search tool will appear. If an assigned participant has not joined a breakout room yet, it will be noted by (not joined) next to their name. Unassigned participants will be listed under the Unassigned category.
The following options can be shown in the breakout rooms window:
Note: Adjusting Breakout Rooms while they are open must be enabled for your account by Zoom, enabled in your Breakout Room settings, and have all participants connected through version 5.9.3 or higher.
Upon hover, each participant will have the following options available:
If you want to save these assignments, either done automatically or manually, for use in a future meeting in this series. Up to 10 different saved assignments are supported for each user.
Note: The recurring meeting must have a fixed recurrence pattern. No-fixed-time meetings are not supported.
Participants in breakout rooms can request that the meeting host join their meeting by clicking Ask for Help .
You will be prompted to join the room where the request originated from. Click Join Breakout Room to join the room.
Once breakout rooms are open, the host or co-host can share their screen from the main session directly into all open breakout rooms. This allows the presenter to share visual information with all breakout rooms at once, guiding them on the next steps or tasks.
You can also use the Video option, found under Advanced sharing tab, to share playback of a locally stored file, which will also share the audio. This also requires version 5.10.0 or higher.
Once breakout rooms are open, hosts and co-hosts can view the level of activity in each breakout room to get an idea of how active the participants are. On the Rooms tab in the breakout rooms panel, you can view which participants are in each room, along with icons that designate if their audio or video is on, if they're sharing their screen, and if they have any active reactions or nonverbal feedback. This feature can be particularly useful for instructors looking for student engagement in breakout room sessions.
Notes:
Note: You can also pre-assign participants to breakout rooms when you schedule the meeting instead of managing them during the meeting.
Once a participant has been assigned (manually or automatically), the number of participants will show in place of the Assign button.
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. Hover over the participant or room for these options:
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. You can click these options in the breakout rooms window:
If you want to save these assignments, either done automatically or manually, for use in a future meeting in this series. Up to 10 different saved assignments are supported for each user.
Note: The recurring meeting must have a fixed recurrence pattern. No-fixed-time meetings are not supported.
Participants in breakout rooms can request that the meeting host join their meeting by clicking Ask for Help .
You will be prompted to join the room where the request originated from. Click Join Breakout Room to join the room.