Breakout Rooms in Google Meet

You can use breakout rooms in Google Meet. These can be created before the start of a scheduled meeting, or can be created during a meeting.

Create breakout rooms during a meeting

1. On your computer, start a meeting.
2. At the bottom right, click Activities   Breakout rooms.
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 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 is displayed above rooms that ask for help.

Optional breakout room features

Learn how safety features work in breakout rooms

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 select 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 select an option:
   • Drag participants into different rooms.
   • Enter their name directly into a room.
   • Click Shuffle  to mix the groups.
6. Click Save.

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 the 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 .