Although breakout rooms are easy to use, we still make mistakes from time to time. Take assigning someone to the wrong room, for instance; it’s an honest mistake. But, despite the simplicity of the mistake, it leaves a lot of people perplexed; how do they move to the right room?
Only breakout room managers can freely move between breakout rooms. Hence, to let people move between breakout rooms in Teams, you must assign them to be breakout room organizers or presenters. I will show you how. Follow the steps provided below.
- Schedule a meeting
- Name the meeting
- Add meeting participants
- Save the meeting
- Open the meeting’s page
- Click “Create rooms” under the “Breakout rooms” tab
- Enter the number of rooms you desire
- Click the cog (
⚙) - Enable the “Allow presenters to manage meetings” rooms
- Appoint managers via the dropdown box
In this post, I’ll be helping you work out what breakout room managers (or presenters) are, how you can assign them, and how you (or a manager/presenter) can move yourself (or others) between breakout rooms. If you get stuck during any guides, refer to the screenshots I have provided. Each screenshot adds greater visual clarity to the guide’s various steps.
If you’re here for something specific, you can use the following link. Each link redirects to a particular part of the page, allowing you to access relevant content quickly.
- What are breakout room managers?
- How do I pre-assign a breakout room manager?
- How do I move someone between breakout rooms?
- Blog post recap
What are breakout room managers?
A breakout room manager is responsible for maintaining order within a meeting’s breakout rooms. In that regard, a breakout room manager can be considered an extension of the meeting organizer’s will.
What can a breakout room manager do?
Breakout room managers possess a degree of power absent from other users; they can manipulate users’ experience within their own breakout room and another breakout room. However, a breakout room manager cannot affect breakout rooms in a separate meeting. Below, I have provided a list detailing the privileges you will attain should you become a breakout room manager.
- You can assign and re-assign users to breakout rooms.
- You can remove the said users from breakout rooms.
- You can create and delete breakout rooms.
- You can jump between these rooms.
- You can set time restrictions for breakout rooms.
- You can send announcements to rooms.
- You can open and close existing rooms.
How do I pre-assign a breakout room manager?
Sure, you know what a breakout room manager does, but how do you make one? You can assign a breakout manager when pre-assigning breakout rooms. However, you cannot assign a breakout room manager during an existing meeting.
If you would like to pre-assign a breakout room manager to an ongoing meeting, please refer to the guide below. Do not attempt to follow the guide via an ongoing meeting.
Step 1 — Draft a scheduled meeting
The upper right corner of Teams’ desktop client stores a dropdown labeled “Meet.” Open the dropdown and select “Schedule a meeting.”
Step 2 — Set up and save your meeting
Name your meeting; keep names appropriate, concise, and informative. Then, add your meeting’s required and optional attendees. I have added four associates of my own. Lastly, click the purple “Save” button on the right side of the screen.
Step 3 — Open your meeting
When you save your meeting, you will send a shortcut to the meeting’s respective channel. Click the purple box to open your meeting. The referenced area will usually be titled with your meeting’s name.
Step 4 — Create a breakout room
You will find the “Breakout rooms” tab in the tab bar. Click on the tab and select the “Create rooms” button. Teams will ask how many rooms you would like to create. You can create any amount between one and fifty.
Step 5 — Access the breakout room settings page
After creating one or more rooms, turn your attention to the cog (⚙) button in the top right. Click the button to generate the required menu.
Step 6 — Assign a presenter
Ensure the “Assign presenters to manage rooms” toggle is enabled. Then, open the dropdown below the toggle and select your appointed managers. Once you have finished, save your settings.
How do I move someone between breakout rooms?
Meeting organizers and breakout room managers can re-assign attendees to different rooms. Albeit, you might not know how to do that.
The following guide is intended for the Microsoft Teams desktop client. Please do not follow the guide with another client— it will not work.
Step 1 — Open the assignment menu
The breakout rooms panel allows you to observe each room you have created and who is in each one. Above the list of rooms is the “Assign participants” button; click it.
Step 2 — Re-assign attendees
You now see a table. The table contains three key headers: “Name,” “Room,” and “Status.” Each entry under the header “Room” includes a dropdown; you can use the dropdown to alter an attendee’s assigned room. Please remember to click “Assign” when you have finished. Failure to do so will result in the loss of your changes.
Blog post recap
By default, meeting attendees cannot move between breakout rooms; however, presenters or breakout room managers can move themselves or other attendees. Your meeting organizer appoints these people. A meeting organizer must use the desktop client for Teams if they would like to create and assign breakout rooms. By extension, the desktop client is required by presenters/managers looking to exploit their new privileges.
Please check out the rest of our content if you found this post helpful. We offer frequent troubleshooting and support guides for the Microsoft 365 suite. Below, I have provided several related posts you may be interested in.