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Breakout Rooms for Microsoft Teams
Is Microsoft planning on creating breakout rooms for Teams meetings? If so when? I noticed a post in uservoice and it says it is planned but no timeline and I don't see it on the M365 Roadmap, so checking here. https://microsoftteams.uservoice.com/forums/555103-public/suggestions/35000044-introduce-breakout-room-functionality
Jeffrey Allen there is a roundabout way to do with as many breakout rooms / small groups as you want, but it must be set up in advance. I made a video tutorial aimed at teachers, but I've included the steps below too.
- In the Team where you want breakout rooms, create a new Channel for each breakout room.
- Open the Outlook desktop app, click into the Calendar, and then click 'New Teams Meeting' to generate a link to a new video chat.*
- Copy the 'Join Microsoft Teams Meeting' link from the Calendar invite, and paste it into the first channel / breakout room.**
- Repeat this same procedure for each breakout room / channel. It's important to generate new links for each group, or else everyone will end up in the same video chat.
- The teacher / owner of the Team can see all of the private channels and enter any breakout room they want.
Some caveats: this creates the video call as a 'Chat'--the video calls aren't being hosted within the Team itself. So any transcript of the meeting conversation will live inside the 'Chat' (not in the 'Team' itself). Additionally, while it's possible to re-use the same breakout rooms, I think anyone who has ever entered the room at any time (a) will always have access to it from the Chat tab (even if you have removed them from the private Channel), and (b) may get notifications showing the text conversations (even if you have removed them from the private Channel).
*We don't have Exchange Online accounts, but if you do, I believe step 2 can be achieved more easily without exiting Teams by clicking on the 'Meeting' button from the left-side toolbar.
**I find that it works best to paste the link into a new conversation. I tried creating a new Website tab at the top of the Channel and pasting the link, but this added some steps. When I clicked the link from the Website tab, it opened the meeting in my web browser, and then I had to click 'Open in Desktop App' (or something along those lines) before being brought into the video chat. Oddly, the only method that automatically loaded the video chat in the desktop app was pasting the link into a new conversation.
In line with other comments above... I've used the functionality for the first time with a client yesterday. And honestly, my experience was really dissapointing. After long months of waiting, I can't understand the errors and constraints I found.
- Users who I couldn't assign to the rooms.
- Impossibility to move users from one room to another
- Impossibility to name "co-hosts"
- Incredibly slow process of opening & closing
Please, I'd need to know when such basic improvements will be addressed. In the meanwhile, I'll have to go back to zoom. I cannot take risk agian in a session with clients...
Thanks for keeping us posted here.The function is now there but it's far from reliable. People seem to get ghosted - they're in the main meeting but don't appear when allocated to break out rooms. It's also common (as a facilitator trying to visit the breakout rooms) to go to the first and then not get into subsequent ones. I hope it continues to improve as it's by far the most tiresome aspect of online gatherings for me.
- the fact that only the meeting organizer can do the rooms (and you can't change the organizer) is a huge limitation. It has tripped us up multiple times.
We SO need this.... Jeffrey Allen
It just opens a lot of possibilities for training, break out meetings, speed networking and so much more. Hoping Microsoft delivers on this because it'll make things a lot easier for meeting facilitators especially where brainstorming, ideating and collaborative work is involved.
Currently yes, you can do breakout rooms in Teams but I still find it fiddly. Maybe I just need more practice to create the various sub team channels and click on the cameras and move in and out of them seamlessly. Also, it doesn't allocate people randomly to breakout rooms either like Zoom does so I don't find it as easy to use - that is, it requires a bit more forethought and planning to advise people which team they're going into. FlorianKurrle
- Agree. This is needed! Would love clarity of an ETA.
We are also in need of this feature. Our IT Team mentioned it may only be available to Education tenants, is this likely do you think.
- Hi. It has been confirmed that all relevant features like Breakout rooms and 7x7 video will be coming to non-education tenants.
Jeffrey Allen has anyone added to https://microsoftteams.uservoice.com/ this is where most ideas are taken forward.
JennM There is actually already a user voice for this particular feature and has moved into a "working on it" state so at this point we know it's coming, we just don't know when.
Jeffrey Allen This recently just got bumped to "Working On It" - so let's hope that they get it done sooner than later!
Jeffrey Allen I completely agree with this! I work for Pinellas County Schools and we would LOVE the function of breakout rooms for small group instruction and having a focus on content! I'm really keeping my fingers crossed that this will appear soon!
arriolaj, yes, I hope it rolls out soon but the above workarounds in this thread are an option.
True! Thank you!
- Breakout Rooms being made a priority!
When looking at tools, you have to consider all of the requirements. Teams meets this one (for many teachers that are in this thread):
The free service tier offered by Zoom has no assurance of student data privacy, and it is unclear whether their standard terms of service meets the requirements of Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA). XYZ has confirmed FERPA compliance with Microsoft Teams. We have consulted with other school systems in the area, and they have all taken similar positions. While it is clear that vendors such as Zoom are extending these offers with the best of intentions, it is best to use the XYZ- approved tools that have been vetted for student use.
- But isn't E2E compliance. Is a C2S Service and when calls are inside Microsoft datacenters is accesible by NSA,hackers and Microsoft employees? Data inside is not encrypted.
I used Zoom with a group today and LOVED the breakout rooms feature! One assignment had them breaking into groups and I was trying to figure out how to divide them, not knowing for sure who would be logged in at the time and the quick option to select how many rooms and then have them broken up automatically? Priceless! Would LOVE to see that in Teams.
- La posibilidad de crear equipos mas pequeños para que, por ejemplo debatan durante una reunión, trabajen en pequeños grupos, para que más tarde (con control del tiempo) puedas convocarlos de nuevo a la reunión principal y aporten conclusiones o sus trabajos grupales a la reunión principal, es primordial y es la gran diferencia entre zoom y teams a la hora de escoger la herramienta para trabajos en equipos y principalmente en educación. Microsoft ya esta tardando en ponerse en marcha para ofrecer esta funcionalidad. Además poder cerrar al mismo tiempo todas las salas, con preaviso y cuenta atrás, aún la hace más atractiva.
