Breakout rooms allow you to split your Zoom meeting in up to 50 separate sessions. The meeting host can choose to split the participants of the meeting into these separate sessions automatically or manually, and can switch between sessions at any time.
Manage Breakout Rooms (Host)
Important Notes & Limitations:
By default, only the host or co-host can assign participants to breakout rooms. They can choose to allow participants to choose their own room, but this must be done in the meeting when launching the breakout rooms.
* While both the host and any co-hosts have the ability to assign participants to breakout rooms, only the first submitted set of assignments will be accepted upon clicking Open All Rooms.
Users joined into the Zoom meeting from the Zoom Mobile App or H.323/SIP devices can participate in breakout rooms, but cannot manage them.
If the meeting is being cloud recorded, it will only record the main meeting and none of the breakouts will be captured, regardless of what room the meeting host is in. It is currently only possible to record in breakout rooms with local recording. The host must allow specific participants to record locally and it will only record the room the participant who is recording is in. Multiple participants can be given permission to record locally.
You can create up to 50 breakout rooms. The maximum number of participants in a single breakout room depends on the meeting capacity, number of breakout rooms created, and if participants are assigned during the meeting or before the meeting.
These numbers only apply to breakout rooms created during a meeting. Up to 50 breakout rooms and up to 200 participants can be pre-assigned to breakout rooms.
*The maximum capacities listed require a Large Meeting add-on. If you do not have a Large Meeting add-on, the maximum number of participants is limited by your meeting capacity.
Note: Zoom Support can increase the maximum capacity of your account's Breakout Rooms to allow up to 100 breakout rooms, with a maximum capacity of 1000 per breakout room (depending on account limits). This requires ALL participants to be on Zoom client version 5.2 or higher - anyone joining a meeting on your account who does not have Zoom client version 5.2 or higher will be required to update to join the meeting or join through the web client. If your users do not have administrative control of their computers, this will require assistance from your IT Department to update the client. This also affects the pre-assignment limits, raising them also to 100 rooms and 1000 participants.
Creating Breakout Rooms
Note: You can pre-assign participants to breakout rooms when you schedule the meeting instead of managing them during the meeting. Please be aware there are limitations with pre-assigning participants.
- Start your meeting.
- Click Breakout Rooms.
- Select the number of rooms you would like to create, and how you would like to assign your participants to those rooms:
- Automatically: Let Zoom split your participants up evenly into each of the rooms.
- Manually: Choose which participants you would like in each room.
- Click Create Rooms
- Your rooms will be created, but will not start automatically. Please see Options for Breakout Rooms to adjust the default options before you click Open All Rooms.
Options for Breakout Rooms
- After creating the breakout rooms, click Options (on Windows) or the gear icon (on macOS) to view additional breakout rooms options.
- Check any options that you would like to use for your breakout rooms.
- Move all participants into breakout rooms automatically: Checking this option will move all participants into the breakout rooms automatically. If this option is unchecked, the participants will need to click Join to be added to the breakout room.
- Allow participants to return to the main session at any time: If this option is checked, the participants can move back to the main session from their meeting controls. If this is disabled, they need to wait for the host to end the breakout rooms.
- Breakout rooms close automatically after x minutes: If this option is checked, the breakout rooms will automatically end after the configured time.
- Notify me when the time is up: If this option is checked, the host will be notified when the breakout room time is up.
- Countdown after closing breakout rooms: If this option is checked, the participants will be given a countdown of how much time they have left before being returned to the main room.
- Follow the steps below to assign participants to rooms or click Open All Rooms to start the breakout rooms.
Assigning Participants to Rooms
To assign participants to your rooms, select Assign next to the room you wish to assign participants to and select participants you want to assign to that room. Repeat this for each room.
Once a participant has been assigned (manually or automatically), the number of participants will show in place of the Assign button.
Preparing Breakout Rooms
After manually or automatically assigning participants to rooms, you can rearrange the participants. Participants who are not assigned to breakout sessions will remain in the main meeting when the rooms are started.
- Move to (participant): Select a room to move the participant to.
- Exchange (participant): Select a participant in another room to swap the selected participant with.
- Delete Room: Delete the selected room.
- Recreate:
- Recreate all Rooms: Deletes existing breakout rooms and allows the host/co-host to create new ones.
- Recover to pre-assigned rooms: Recreate the breakout rooms with the pre-assigned arrangement. This is only available if using the pre-assign breakout rooms feature.
- Add a Room: Add another breakout room.
- Open All Rooms: Start the rooms. All assigned participants will be moved to their respective rooms after confirming the prompt to join the breakout room. If allowing participants to choose their own room, they can open the list of rooms and choose which to join. The host, or co-host that launched the breakouts and the original host, will be left in the main meeting until manually joining one of the rooms.
Managing Breakout Rooms in Progress
Once the breakout rooms have been started, the assigned participants will be asked to join the Breakout Session. The host, or co-host that launched the breakouts and the original host, will stay in the main meeting until joining a session manually. If a participant has not joined the session yet, it will be noted by (not joined) next to their name. You can click these options in the breakout rooms window:
- Join: Join the breakout room.
- Leave: Leave the room and return to the main meeting (only shows when in a breakout room).
- Close All Rooms: Stops all rooms after a 60 second countdown, shown to the host and participants, and returns all participants back to the main meeting.
Hover your pointer over the name of the breakout room and click the ellipsis button 
to access more options for that particular breakout room:
Note: Adjusting Breakout Rooms while they are open must be enabled for your account by Zoom, enabled in your Breakout Room settings, and have all participants connected through version 5.9.3 or higher.
- Add Participants: Add additional participants to an existing Breakout Room. Select the participants you want to add to this room and click Assign.
- Rename: Rename the Breakout Room. Enter the new name of the room and click Rename.
- Delete Room: Delete the already in-progress Breakout Room.
Note: The option to delete a breakout room is only available if the breakout rooms have not been opened, or, if already opened, the room has no participants currently in the room.
Responding to Requests for Help
Participants in breakout rooms can request that the meeting host join their meeting by clicking Ask for Help. 
You will be prompted to join the room where the request originated from. Click Join Breakout Room to join the room.
Broadcasting a Message to all Breakout Rooms
The host can broadcast a message to all breakout rooms to share information with all participants.
- Click Breakout Rooms.
- Click Broadcast a message to all, enter your message and click Broadcast.
- The message will now appear for all participants in Breakout Rooms.
Screen Share to Breakout Rooms
Once breakout rooms are open, the host or co-host can share their screen from the main session directly into all open breakout rooms. This allows the presenter to share visual information to all breakout rooms as once, guiding them on next steps or tasks.
- Click Share Screen in the meeting controls.
- Enable the Share to breakout rooms option along the bottom of the share window.
- Choose what you would like to share, including an entire screen, a specific open program, or others.
- Click Share. The selected content will be shared to all breakout rooms. Any active shares in any breakout rooms will be interrupted for the host's/co-host's shared screen. Annotation or white boarding is saved before the host's shared content is viewed.
Participate in Breakout Rooms (Participants)
Join a Breakout Room
- The host will need to invite you to join the breakout room.
- Click Join.
- If you choose Later, you can join by clicking the Breakout Rooms.
- Click Join Breakout Room.
Asking for Help
If you click Ask for Help, it will notify the meeting host that you need assistance and they will be asked to join your breakout room.
- Click Ask for Help.
- Confirm that you would like assistance by clicking Invite Host.
Leaving a Breakout Room
You can leave the breakout room and return to the main meeting session at any time, or you can leave the meeting entirely from the breakout room.
- Click Leave Breakout Room.
- Choose if you want to leave the breakout room or the entire meeting.
- When the host ends the breakout rooms, you will be notified and given the option to return to the main room immediately, or in 60 seconds.
Additional Information
IT Knowledge Base: www.nic.edu/it
Zoom Knowledge Base: https://support.zoom.us
For any additional questions, please contact the IT Help Desk at (208) 769-3280 or helpdesk@nic.edu