Zoom’s Breakout Rooms feature allows you to split participants into multiple rooms.

Smaller Channels . You can add contacts, create contact groups make it easier to speak up, and you can create themed rooms to encourage people to participate in topics of interest.

Zoom breakout rooms used to be managed by the waiting room , the screen will change to the following screen. Please wait until the host when all members moved, but with the implementation of a function that allows participants to move between rooms, the range of usage has expanded.

Overview of Zoom breakout rooms

Key features of Zoom breakout rooms include:

• Separate participants into separate rooms from the main session
• Create up to 50 breakout rooms
• Maximum number of people in one room is 200
• You cannot participate unless you enter the room, and the contents of the conversation will not leak outside the room.
• There are three types of member assignment methods: “Automatically assigned by Zoom (random)”, “Manually assigned by the host”, and “Participants select themselves”
• The host can freely move between rooms and make announcements to all rooms.
• If there is a co-host, you have the same authority as the host to move rooms and make announcements.
• If the host has set it up, participants can also choose to move between rooms.

Preparing the breakout room

To use breakout rooms in a Zoom meeting, you must be using a compatible version of the Zoom app or web browser and enable breakout rooms in your Zoom settings.

Breakout room operating environment

Breakout Rooms are available on Zoom’s desktop and web clients.

The following prerequisites must be met, so update the app to the latest version.

desktop client

web client

Breakout room permissions

The following is a summary of the operation permissions in Zoom’s breakout room.

Moderation and overall control of sessions is a privilege limited to hosts and co-hosts.

Participants do not have control over the entire breakout room, but they can move rooms themselves if the host allows participants to move between rooms.

How to create a breakout room

Breakout rooms are created by the host.
It can be created at any time during the Zoom meeting.

1. Start a Zoom meeting.
2. Click Breakout Rooms from the details menu at the bottom of the screen.
3. Select the number of breakout rooms to create.
4. Choose how to assign participants to the room. You can select “Auto Assign”, “Manual Assign”, or “Allow participants to choose rooms”.
5. After setting the options, click “Open All Rooms” to start breakout rooms.

How members are assigned

There are three ways to assign participants to breakout rooms.

“Auto assign” is fair because Zoom automatically assigns participants.

“Manual assignment” is convenient when the members of each group are decided in advance. For larger groups, breakout rooms can be created and pre-assigned when scheduling a meeting.

If you enable the Allow participants to choose rooms option, participants will see a menu of breakout rooms in their meeting controls and will be able to move between rooms themselves.

About breakout room options

Zoom breakout rooms have the following options:

Settings related to room movement

“Allow participants to select rooms”: After starting a breakout room, participants can select and enter the room themselves.

“Allow participants to return to main session at any time”: A feature that allows participants to return to the main session from their meeting controls. If turned off, participants must wait until the breakout room ends before returning to the main session.

Auto-move all assigned participants to breakout room: All participants assigned to the room will automatically move to the room when you start the room.

timer setting

“Breakout room will automatically close after”: Automatically close the breakout room at the set time.

“Countdown after closing countdown”: Display the remaining time countdown on the participant’s screen.

How to move between breakout rooms

Conversations inside a Zoom breakout room are invisible to participants outside the room.

You must enter the room to participate in the conversation. Also, only members in the room can record sessions in breakout rooms.

Therefore, if you want to talk to participants in other rooms or participate in topics in other rooms, you will need to change rooms.

There are three ways to move between rooms in Zoom breakout rooms:

• move room by yourself
• Host Moves Participant to Room
• Host moves room upon request from participant

How to move rooms by yourself

After starting a breakout room, you can select the breakout room from the meeting controls and move to another room.

How to move rooms on a PC

1. Click Breakout Room in the meeting controls.
2. Click Select Breakout Room.
3. Click “Join” next to the name of the room you want to move to, and select “Yes” to move the room.
4. To move to another room, perform steps 1 to 3 again to move from the current room to another room. If you want to return to the main session, click Leave Room and select Leave Breakout Room.

How to move rooms with a smartphone

1. During a meeting, tap the screen to display the meeting controls.
2. Tap Breakout Room.
3. Select the name of the room you want to move to and tap “Join” to move the room.
4. To move to another room, perform steps 1 to 3 again to move from the current room to another room. To return to the main session, tap Leave, then choose Leave Breakout Room.

Operation method for the host to move the participant to the room

The host can move participants to another room.

1. Click Breakout Room in the meeting controls.
2. Clicking on a room will list the participants in the room.
3. Select the participant you want to move and click “Move to”.
4. Select the destination room. You can also switch back to the main session.

How to move participants to rooms asking the host for help

During a breakout room, participants can request help from the host and invite the host to join their room.

1. A participant clicks Breakout Room in the meeting controls.
2. Click Ask for Help.
3. Click Invite Host.
4. The message “(room name/participant name) has asked for help” appears on the meeting screen of the host. When the host clicks “Join Breakout Room”, they will be moved to the breakout room they were invited to.

Troubleshooting Zoom breakout rooms

Here‘s how to troubleshoot breakout rooms.

Breakout room fails to start

If you cannot start breakout rooms in Zoom, the breakout rooms feature may not be enabled.

Enable breakout rooms

Breakout Rooms are enabled through the Zoom web portal.

1. Sign in to the Zoom web portal (https://zoom.us/).
2. Click Settings.
3. Under In Meeting (Advanced), turn on Breakout Rooms.

Can’t move participants between rooms

Zoom breakout rooms allow hosts to move rooms at any time, regardless of settings.

Setting on the host side is required for room movement of participants.

If you don’t see “Breakout Rooms” on the meeting screen of participants, the Breakout Room option “Let participants choose rooms” may be turned off.

In this case, close all breakout rooms, recreate the breakout room, and turn on “Let participants choose the room” option.

Zoom room move summary

• Zoom’s breakout room is a function to divide into groups and hold sessions
• There are three ways to assign rooms: “automatic (random)”, “manual (decided by the host)”, and “selected by participants”.
• Hosts and co-hosts can freely move rooms regardless of settings
• If you allow participants to select rooms in the breakout room option, participants will be able to move freely between rooms.

Zoom breakout rooms are evolving daily. Please update your Zoom app to experience the latest Zoom.