Use breakout rooms in Google Meet

Meeting hosts can use breakout rooms to divide participants into smaller groups during meetings. Breakout rooms must be started by meeting hosts during a meeting on a computer. Breakout rooms currently can’t be live streamed or recorded.

Anyone who schedules or starts a meeting will be the meeting host. If you transfer or schedule a meeting on someone else's calendar, the other person could become the meeting host. By default, there is only one meeting host per meeting but you can add up to 25 co-hosts once inside the meeting.

Eligibility

Requirements to use breakout rooms

Breakout rooms are available to these Google Workspace editions:

• Essentials
• Business Standard
• Business Plus
• Enterprise Starter
• Enterprise Essentials
• Enterprise Standard
• Enterprise Plus
• Education Plus
• Teaching and Learning Upgrade
• Workspace Business
• Nonprofits
• Workspace Individual Subscriber

You can participate in breakout rooms if:

• You use a computer or the updated version of the mobile Meet or Gmail app .
• You dial into the meeting with your phone. 
• You're invited through a phone call.
• You're signed into a Google Account.
• You're an anonymous user (not signed into a Google Account).
• You use Meet Hardware.
  • Tip: A Meet Hardware device can't be pre-assigned to a breakout room before the meeting. You need to connect from a Google Meet meeting room to be assigned to a breakout room.

You can’t participate in breakout rooms if:

• You aren’t using the updated versions of the mobile Meet or Gmail app .
• You use a 3rd-party video conferencing device.

For meeting hosts

You can create breakout rooms for meetings in Google Calendar when creating an event or editing it. You can also create breakout rooms while a meeting is in progress. Co-hosts can only be added from the main meeting.

Tip: If you invite a Google group to a meeting, participants in that group won't automatically be available to distribute into breakout rooms. It is recommended to individually invite participants from a group to a meeting in order to easily distribute them into breakout rooms later.

Create breakout rooms in advance on Google Calendar

In calendar.google.com choose either:

For a new meeting

1. Create a new Google Calendar event.
2. Click Add Google Meet video conferencing.
3. Add participants.
4. Click Change conference settings .
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.
7. Click Save.

For an existing meeting

1. Open an existing Google Calendar event.
2. Click Edit event .
3. Under Event Details, click Change conference settings .
4. On the left, click Breakout rooms .
5. Choose the number of breakout rooms, then choose an option:
   • Drag participants into different rooms
   • Enter their name directly into a room
   • Click Shuffle to mix the groups
6. Click Save.

 

Create breakout rooms during a meeting

How to: Create breakout rooms in Google Meet

1. On your computer, start a meeting. 
2. At the bottom right, click Activities   Breakout rooms.
   • Tip: To prevent students from having the ability to create breakout rooms, admins should reserve Meet creation privileges for faculty or staff only.
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 meeting host. 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

1. Optional: To remove participants who are currently not in the meeting or to redo your breakout rooms: 

   • At the top of the breakout room panel, click Clear. At the bottom, click Clear on the “Clear disconnected users” notification that appears.
   • Tip: If you are reusing a meeting link where breakout rooms were previously set up, clearing disconnected users will move all participants into the main room and undo any previous breakout rooms. 
2. Optional: You can set up a timer for your breakout rooms. Each room will display a 30 second countdown before the timer ends.
   • At the top of the breakout rooms panel, click Timer.
   • Set the timer amount then click OK.
   • Tip: You can edit or remove the timer at any time. On the breakout room panel, click Timer to edit.

Learn how safety features work in breakout rooms

To keep meetings more secure, Google Meet users can use the following meeting safety features: 

• Quick Access
• Chat Lock
• Present Lock 
• Video Lock
• Audio Lock

Quick Access: Quick Access is always on for breakout rooms. Changes made to Quick Access in the main room only apply to the main room. Quick Access settings are not visible to participants in breakout rooms. 

All other locks: If Host Management is on before breakout rooms are created, changes made to any locks apply to all rooms. If changes are made to any of these locks after breakout rooms are created, changes only apply to the room they’re set in.

If breakout rooms are created while the Host Management setting is turned off, you can’t turn Host Management on and meeting safety features inside the main room or breakout rooms can’t be used.

In such a scenario, Hosts need to:

1. End breakout rooms.
2. Turn on Host Management.
3. Re-open breakout rooms.

Edit, join, or leave breakout rooms

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

Tip: Meeting hosts 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 . 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

1. In the breakout rooms panel, at the top right, click Close rooms .
2. 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, go to the breakout rooms panel and click Close rooms . 

For meeting participants

Join a breakout room

Your meeting host will create breakout rooms and invite you to join one. Your meeting host can join each breakout room at any time during the meeting.

1. On a computer or mobile device, sign in to your Google Account.
2. Join a meeting from your computer or the Meet mobile app. Learn the different ways to join a meeting if you're a student.
3. When your meeting host invites you to join a breakout room, you'll see a prompt on your screen. Click Join. If you click cancel, you'll remain in the main room.
   • Tip: If you dialed in through your phone, tap *2 to go to your breakout room, move between breakout rooms, or return to the main room.
4. Once you're in a breakout room, you can speak to or send chat messages to other participants.

Tips for using breakout rooms

• If your meeting host moves you to another breakout room, you'll see a new prompt on your screen. To switch rooms, click Join.
• If the meeting host sets a timer, the time left in the breakout session is shown at the top of your screen.
• When the meeting host ends the breakout room session or the session ends, you have 30 seconds before your mic and camera turn off and you're automatically moved to the main room. You can turn your mic and camera back on when the meeting host lets you.
• If you need help during your breakout room session, you can ask for help by:
  • Computer: On the top of right of your screen, click Ask for help. If you don't need help anymore, click Cancel ask for help.
  • Mobile: On the bottom right, tap Menu Ask for help. If you don't need help anymore, tap Cancel ask for help.
  • Dial-in users currently can't ask for help.

Return to the main room

During a meeting, you can choose to leave a breakout room and return to the meeting's main room.

• On a computer: At the top, click Return to main call.
• On a mobile device: At the top, tap to Return to main call.

When the meeting host ends the breakout room session, you get an on-screen prompt to return to the main call. You can tap or click the prompt or wait to be moved automatically to the main call.