Breakout Rooms - Google Meet

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

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

Breakout rooms currently cannot be live streamed or recorded.

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.
3	Add your meeting participants by adding them to the Guests section of the calendar event.
4	Click Change conference settings (gear icon next to Google Meet link)
5	On the left, click Breakout Rooms.
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.
7	Click Save.

Create breakout rooms during a meeting

1	On your computer, start a video call.
2	At the bottom right, click Activities > Breakout rooms.
3	In the Breakout rooms creation panel, choose the number of breakout rooms. You can create up to 100 breakout rooms in a call.
4	Call participants are distributed across 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 another breakout room. Click Shuffle to randomly mix up the groups.
5	At the bottom right, click Open rooms.

Tip : A notification will show at the bottom of the screen when participants ask for help from the moderator. To join that participant’s breakout room, click Join. To return to that question later, click Later. On the breakout room panel, an “Asked for help” banner shows above rooms that ask for help.

Optional Breakout Room Features

To remove participants who are currently not in the meeting or to redo your breakout rooms:
1. At the top of the breakout room panel, click Clear. At the bottom, click Clear on the “Clear disconnected users” notification that appears.
2. Tip : If you are reusing a meeting link where breakout rooms were previously setup, clearing disconnected users will move all participants into the main room and undo any previous breakout rooms.
Set up a timer for your breakout rooms. Each room will display a 30 second countdown before the timer ends.
1. At the top of the breakout rooms panel, click Timer.
2. Set the timer amount and click OK.
3. Tip : 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 : 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.

Tip : Before moving to a different room, participants must click Join.

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

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

End breakout rooms

In the breakout rooms panel, at the top right, click Close rooms .

In the notification window that appears, click Close all rooms.

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.