How to Use Breakout Rooms in Microsoft Teams

Breakout rooms in Microsoft Teams let you split a meeting into smaller separate groups — useful for workshops, training sessions, and discussions where you want smaller groups to work independently before rejoining the main meeting. Here is how to create and manage them.

Requirements

Only meeting organisers can create and manage breakout rooms. Co-organisers can also manage them if given that role. Participants cannot create breakout rooms themselves. The breakout rooms feature is available in most Microsoft 365 plans with Teams included.

Creating Breakout Rooms

1. During a meeting, click the Rooms icon in the meeting toolbar (looks like a box with smaller boxes inside, or check the three-dot More menu if you do not see it immediately)
2. Choose the number of rooms you want to create (up to 50)
3. Choose how to assign participants:
   • Automatically: Teams divides participants evenly across rooms at random
   • Manually: you assign each participant to a specific room
4. Click Create rooms

Opening the Rooms

Creating rooms does not immediately move people — you need to open them:

1. In the Breakout Rooms panel, click Start rooms (or Open rooms)
2. All participants are moved to their assigned rooms simultaneously
3. Each room is a separate mini-meeting — participants can talk, share screens, and chat within their room

As the organiser, you remain in the main meeting and can move between rooms freely to check in.

Joining and Monitoring Rooms

To join a breakout room as the organiser:

1. In the Breakout Rooms panel, hover over the room name
2. Click Join room

You can join any room at any time without being “in” the main meeting. Other participants in the main meeting will see you have stepped away. To return to the main meeting, leave the breakout room.

Sending a Message to All Rooms

To send a message that appears in all breakout rooms simultaneously (useful for time warnings or instructions):

1. In the Breakout Rooms panel, click Make an announcement
2. Type your message and send — it appears in all rooms’ chat

Closing Rooms and Returning Everyone

1. In the Breakout Rooms panel, click Close rooms
2. Teams gives participants a 60-second countdown warning, then returns everyone to the main meeting automatically

Chat and files from within breakout rooms are preserved and accessible after rooms close — participants can scroll back through the room chat even after returning to the main meeting.

Reassigning Participants

To move a participant to a different room while rooms are open:

1. In the Breakout Rooms panel, find the participant under their current room
2. Click the three dots next to their name → Move to room → select the destination room

The participant is moved immediately.

Pre-Assigning Breakout Rooms (Before the Meeting)

You can pre-assign people to rooms when setting up a scheduled meeting:

1. Open the meeting in Teams Calendar
2. Click Breakout rooms in the meeting options
3. Create rooms and assign people by name before the meeting starts

Pre-assignment only works for people who are part of your organisation (not external guests). Guests are assigned automatically when rooms open.

Tips for Effective Breakout Sessions

• Set clear instructions before opening rooms — once in rooms, participants cannot easily communicate with you unless you join their room or send an announcement
• Give a time warning — use the Make an Announcement feature 5 minutes before closing rooms so groups can wrap up
• Assign a notetaker in each room — ask one person per room to capture discussion points to share when reconvening
• Use 4–6 people per room — fewer than 3 can feel awkward; more than 8 makes discussion unwieldy

Related Guides

• How to Record a Microsoft Teams Meeting
• How to Present a PowerPoint in Microsoft Teams
• How to Use Together Mode in Microsoft Teams