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Moderators can use breakout rooms to divide participants into smaller groups during video calls.

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Info

Breakout rooms must be started by a moderator on a computer.

Note

Breakout rooms currently cannot be live streamed or recorded.

Warning

You can’t participate in breakout rooms if you aren’t using an updated version of the Meet app.

Create breakout rooms in advance on Google Calendar

1

Create a new Google Calendar event.

If you’ve already created your event, open the existing event and click Edit.

2

Click the Add video conferencing tab and select Google Meet. A meeting link will populate.

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Add your meeting participants by adding them to the Guests section of the calendar event.

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Click Change conference settings (gear icon next to Google Meet link)

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On the left, click Breakout Rooms.

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6

Choose the number of breakout rooms, then choose an option:

  • Drag participants into different rooms

  • Enter names directly into a room

  • Click Shuffle to mix the groups

  • Click Clear to reset your rooms.

  • You can rename your rooms if needed, with conversation topics or other identifiers.

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Click Save.

Create breakout rooms during a meeting

1

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On your computer, start a video call.

While in an active meeting, click Activities > Breakout rooms.

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2

In the

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breakout rooms

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panel, choose the number of breakout rooms.

You can create up to 100 breakout rooms

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.

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3

Click Shuffle to randomly assign participants to the rooms.

To manually move people into different rooms, you can:

  • Enter the participant’s name directly into a breakout room.

  • Drag and drop a participant’s name into

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  • a breakout room. 

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Click Shuffle  to randomly mix up the groups.

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At the bottom right, click Open rooms.

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Respond to requests for help

A notification will show at the bottom of the screen when participants ask for help from the moderator.

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To join that participant’s breakout room, click Join. To

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come back to the request later, click Later.

On the breakout room panel, an “Asked for help” banner shows above rooms that ask for help.

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Optional

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breakout room features

Remove participants who are currently not in the meeting or

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redo your breakout rooms

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At the top of the breakout room panel, click Clear.

At the bottom of your screen, click Clear on the “Clear disconnected users” notification that appears.

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Info

Tip (lightbulb): If you are reusing a meeting link where breakout rooms were previously

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set up, clearing disconnected users will move all participants into the main room and undo any previous breakout rooms.

Set

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a timer for your breakout rooms

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Rooms display a 30 second countdown before the timer ends.

1

At the top of the breakout rooms panel, click Timer.

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Set the timer amount and click OK.

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You can edit or remove the timer at any time by clicking on Timer on the breakout room panel.

Edit, join, or leave breakout rooms

Once you’ve created breakout rooms, you can make changes to the rooms or join each room to monitor and participate in discussions.

Tip (lightbulb): Moderators won't see chat messages that were exchanged between participants before they join or after they leave a breakout room.

To make changes to the participant groups or number of breakout rooms, click Edit rooms Edit. Once you’ve made your changes, click Save.

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Join and leave breakout rooms

1

To join an individual breakout room, next to the breakout room number, click Join.

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2

To leave all breakout rooms and return to the main room, next to the current breakout room, click Leave.

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Info

Tip (lightbulb): Moderators won't see chat messages that were exchanged between participants before they join or after they leave a breakout room.

End breakout rooms

1

In the breakout rooms panel,

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click Close rooms.

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Click Close all rooms.

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Important: Participants have 30 seconds to finish their breakout room discussion before they’re automatically moved back to the main room.

To close all rooms before the 30-second timer runs out, return to the breakout rooms panel and click Close rooms now.

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