Guide: How to Use Breakout Rooms in Zoom
People have now adapted to the new reality in which video calls and conferences have become the norm. Apps like Zoom have stabilized over the weeks after adding new security measures and featuresAn interesting one feature that caught my eye were the breakout rooms. Part of the reason is that no other video calling app currently offers it. Breakout rooms allow the host to divide a meeting into smaller rooms and assign participants to each room. Participants in separate virtual rooms keep discussions and chats separate. There is no overlap giving the host much-needed sanity. Imagine the marketing, design and finance teams talking at the same time. You don’t want that. Breakout rooms allow you to invite all attendees at the same time, but divide them into different rooms. Keep relevant participants and thus conversations together. Sounds logical. I’m surprised why Zoom competitors like Google Meet haven’t released something similar. Let’s learn more about breakout rooms, how they work, and everything else you need to know about them.
Availability per platforms and subscriptions
Breakout rooms is turned off by default. You need to turn it on manually to use it during calls. The feature can only be enabled on the desktop app. Smartphone users can participate in breakout rooms as they are managed by the host but cannot create them.
A bit limiting to see how many people are using it mobiles to communicate nowadays. On the plus side, the breakout rooms feature is available in the free plan, which is generous given that no one else is even offering this useful feature
Turn on Breakout rooms in Zoom
You need to log in to the Zoom site on the web to get the featureThat’s kind of strange how only desktop users can create these rooms.
You can create up up to 50 breakout rooms with a limit of 200 participants on each Zoom call, but the number may vary (see screenshot above). I think that should be more than enough for most teams, especially SMBs and startups, where the number of departments is usually below 20-50.
Open the site, log in with your ID, social media or SSO and click My Account.
Click Settings> Meeting, then select In Meeting (Advanced) menu option to find the breakout room.
Once you enable the setting, you will see another option visible called ‘Allow host to assign attendees to breakout rooms while scheduling’. This allows you to create breakout rooms and assign attendees to them, even before the meeting starts in advance. Don’t forget to click Save button when done.
Use breakout rooms in zoom
The steps for creating and using breakout rooms in Zoom remain the same for both Windows and macOS desktop apps. I use Windows for this guide Launch Zoom’s desktop app and sign in if you haven’t already. Create or schedule a new meeting. Both are fine, as only the host can create breakout rooms and no one else. I am creating a new one.
Click the More button button on the far right to find the option Breakout Rooms there.
You will see a pop-out where you can create rooms and control participants in each breakout room. Below that are two options. With the Automatic option, Zoom will assign participants you do not want. So choose the Manual option to get an option to decide which attendees go to which breakout room. Click Create Rooms when you’re done. You can always reassign participants later.
You should see another pop up Hover over the room name to change the default name, this is Breakout Room 1 and so on. Click on Assign button to assign participants to that room. Below are some options such as timing and countdown. Click Add room when you’re done.
Finally, click Open all rooms to officially start the meeting. I suggest you test this feature with your friends and family members to make sure you get the hang of it. Avoid last-minute scrambling and awkward moments.
Facts About Breakout Rooms
There are a few points to remember or keep in mind when using the breakout room feature in Zoom. You already know the limits of space and participants. But did you know that when recording a meeting in the cloud, Zoom only records the main room, regardless of what room the host is currently in? Yes, I cannot include breakout rooms.
The keyword here is ‘cloud’. That means if you record Zoom call locally on your computer, it will record the room the host is currently in. The host can choose to allow multiple users to record the call. An example could be to have one participant included in each room. Let’s say, the head of the department. Now every room is recorded regardless of where the host is located. The host must allow local recording and allow participants to record from the settings for this to happen.
Breaking it down
The Breakout Rooms feature van Zoom is pretty cool. And it is just as easy to use. A better way to organize your meetings. Handy when there are far too many staff from different departments or layers of the population. It should also help with privacy, as you may not want the employees to hear what you just discussed with the top executives. I expect competition to catch on up fast. Things are heating up up in the video conferencing industry. The next up: Have you recorded a Zoom meeting but need to edit it? Click the below to learn how to do exactly that on both Windows and macOS.
How to Use Breakout Rooms in Zoom: benefits
Faq
Final note
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