Creating a breakout room in Teams takes three steps: start a meeting, select the participants icon, and choose "Create breakout rooms"

Breakout rooms let you split a Teams meeting into smaller groups for discussion or work. The host creates them during an active meeting, assigns people to each room, and can move between rooms to check on progress. Participants see their assigned room in the meeting window and join with one click.

You need to be the meeting organizer or have presenter permissions to create breakout rooms. The feature works on desktop, web, and mobile versions of Teams, though the mobile experience is more limited.

Key Takeaways

  • Only the meeting organizer or someone with presenter role can create breakout rooms during an active Teams meeting.
  • You can create up to 50 breakout rooms and manually assign participants or let Teams distribute them automatically.
  • Breakout rooms stay open for up to 24 hours, and you can move between them to monitor group work.
  • Participants receive a notification when their breakout room is ready and can rejoin the main meeting whenever the host closes the rooms.

Step-by-step: Creating breakout rooms during a meeting

Start your Teams meeting and wait until at least one other person has joined. Once the meeting is underway, look for the Participants icon in the meeting toolbar at the top of your screen — it shows a head-and-shoulders symbol. Click it to open the participants panel on the right side.

At the top of the participants panel, you will see a button labeled Create breakout rooms. Click this button. A dialog box appears asking how many rooms you want to create (between 2 and 50) and whether you want Teams to assign people automatically or whether you will assign them yourself. Choose your preference and click Create.

If you chose automatic assignment, Teams distributes participants evenly across the rooms. If you chose manual assignment, you will see a list of each room with empty slots. Click and drag participant names into the rooms, or click a participant's name and select which room to place them in. Once everyone is assigned, click Start rooms to send participants to their assigned breakout rooms.

Assigning people to specific rooms

Manual assignment gives you control over who works together. This is useful when you want to pair stronger readers with weaker ones, separate friends who might distract each other, or group people by language level or skill.

After you click Create breakout rooms and select manual assignment, the dialog shows each room as a separate section. Drag participant names from the Unassigned list into the room you want them in. You can also click a participant's name and use a dropdown menu to choose their room. If you change your mind, drag them to a different room or back to Unassigned.

You do not have to fill all rooms. If you create 5 rooms but only assign people to 3, the empty rooms simply will not open. You can also leave some participants unassigned — they will stay in the main meeting until you manually move them to a room.

Managing breakout rooms while they are active

Once rooms are running, you will see a list of all active rooms in your participants panel. Click Join next to any room to enter it and see what that group is working on. You can move between rooms as often as you want — when you leave a room, it continues without you.

If you need to send a message to all groups at once, click Make announcement at the top of the breakout rooms section. Your message appears in every room's chat. You can also extend the time rooms stay open by clicking the timer icon and choosing a new duration — rooms run for up to 24 hours total.

To bring everyone back to the main meeting, click Close all rooms. Participants get a two-minute warning before rooms close, and any chat messages or files shared in the breakout rooms are saved in the main meeting chat for later reference.

Reopening rooms or creating new ones mid-meeting

If you close breakout rooms and then want to reopen them with the same people in the same assignments, click Create breakout rooms again. Teams remembers your previous setup and offers to recreate it — just click Recreate instead of starting from scratch.

You can also create entirely new rooms with different assignments. This is useful if you want groups to work on different tasks in sequence. Close the current rooms, then create new ones and reassign people as needed. There is no limit to how many times you can do this during a single meeting.

Troubleshooting common issues

If the Create breakout rooms button does not appear, check that you are the meeting organizer or have presenter permissions. Regular participants cannot create rooms. Also confirm that at least one other person has joined the meeting — you cannot create breakout rooms in a meeting where you are alone.

If participants cannot see or join their assigned room, ask them to refresh their Teams window or close and reopen the meeting. On mobile devices, the breakout room experience is limited — some participants may need to use the desktop or web version to fully participate. If a participant is having persistent trouble, try removing them from the room and reassigning them.

Breakout rooms work best on stable internet connections. If the connection drops, participants may be disconnected from their room and returned to the main meeting. They can rejoin the room if it is still active.

When to use breakout rooms and what they work well for

Breakout rooms are most useful in meetings with 8 or more people where you want smaller group discussion. Common uses include small-group project work, peer review sessions, language practice in different proficiency groups, and breakout discussions during training or workshops.

They are less useful in very small meetings (4 people or fewer) where everyone can hear each other in the main room, or in meetings where you need the whole group to see one person's screen at all times. If you need to show different content to different groups, you will need to share your screen in each breakout room separately.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can participants see what other breakout rooms are doing?

No. Each breakout room is separate — participants only see and hear the people in their own room. They cannot see other rooms' video, hear their audio, or access their chat unless you close all rooms and bring everyone back to the main meeting.

What happens to chat messages sent in a breakout room?

Chat messages stay in the breakout room while it is active. When you close the rooms, all messages from all breakout rooms are combined and appear in the main meeting chat so everyone can see what each group discussed.

Can I record a meeting that uses breakout rooms?

Yes. The main meeting is recorded, but breakout room audio and video are not captured separately. Only the main meeting recording will be saved. If you want to preserve what happened in breakout rooms, ask groups to share their key points back in the main meeting before you end the call.

How long do breakout rooms stay open?

Breakout rooms can stay open for up to 24 hours. By default they close after one hour, but you can extend the time by clicking the timer icon in the breakout rooms section and selecting a longer duration.

Can I add or remove people from breakout rooms after they start?

Yes. While rooms are active, you can click a participant's name in the main meeting and move them to a different room, or remove them from all rooms to keep them in the main meeting. Changes take effect immediately.