Instructions for using the breakout rooms feature in Google Meet

In November 2020, Google launched  the  Breakout rooms feature  in Google Meet for Google Workspace for Education customers. This feature makes your online classes or meetings more efficient, allowing moderators to divide meeting participants into smaller groups  (You can create up to 100 breakout rooms in Google Meet)

The Breakout Rooms feature in  Google Meet  makes it possible to create 1 or more separate video calls in the main video, where each group cannot see or hear the other groups. Facilitates remote teaching and learning through technology applications become more convenient and efficient.

Creating breakout rooms in Google meet  takes just a minute and can change the way you think about online meetings. In this article, the Teaching Manual will show you how to use this feature, it's very easy, follow along.

Prerequisites

Breakout rooms feature is available in the following versions of Google Workspace:

• Essentials
• Business Standard
• Business Plus
• Enterprise Essentials
• Enterprise Standard
• Enterprise Plus
• Education Plus
• Teaching and Learning Upgrade
• Workspace Business
• Nonprofits
• Workspace Individual Subscribers

You can join a small group meeting room if:

• You use a computer or an updated version of the Meet   or Gmail   mobile apps.
• You call this meeting using your phone. 
• You are invited through a phone call.
• You are signed in to a Google Account.
• You are an anonymous user (not signed in to your Google Account). 

You cannot join the small group meeting room if:

• You are not using an updated version of the Meet   or Gmail   mobile apps.
• You are using a Meet device or an Interoperable device.

How to create breakout rooms in Google Meet (as a moderator)

1. Start a meeting in Google Meet.

2. Click on the “Activities” icon (circle, square and triangle icons) in the top right corner.

Click on the “Activities” icon in Google Meet

3. Click “Breakout rooms.”

Click “Breakout rooms.” on the screen of Google Meet

4. Click the pencil icon “Edit” and select the number of breakout rooms you want to create.

5. The participants are then distributed across the rooms. Moderators can move people to different rooms by typing someone's name into the room or clicking and dragging into it. Mix button will shuffle the groups randomly.

Click “Open Rooms” on the Google Meet screen

6. Click “Open Rooms” at the bottom right to activate the rooms.

After participants join the breakout rooms in Google Meet, they can ask for your help. A message for you to join their room will appear – click “Join” to join or “Later”. A banner that says “Asked for help” will appear above the rooms you've contacted.

“Ask for help” in Google Meet

You can also set the timer for breakout rooms by going to the top of the control panel and clicking the hourglass icon. You can change or remove the timer at any time.

How to join, exit, edit or end all breakout rooms

Once you've created breakout rooms in Google Meet, you can make changes to them or start your own. One caveat is that moderators can only view the internal messages of the breakout room while they are in it. 

• Join a room by selecting and clicking “Join”.
• Exit from that room, click “Leave” next to the room number.
• To make changes to the number of groups or people in the group, click “Edit rooms”.
• Close all rooms by selecting “Close rooms” at the top right of the panel. Click “Close all rooms” in the pop-up window.

Close all rooms on Google Meet by selecting “Close rooms”

How to join breakout rooms in Google Meet (as a participant)

You will receive an invitation to join a breakout room in Google Meet that has been created for you. When it's over, you'll get a notification that you're back in the main room.

1. Join the call

2. You'll see a prompt to join the room the moderator invited you to. Click “Join”. You will be in the main room if you click “Cancel”.

Click “Join”

3. If you are on the phone, dial 2 to go to the breakout room or to return to the main room.

4. If you use the desktop or mobile app, click “Return to main call” at the top of the screen if you want to enter the main room.

If you use desktop or mobile app, click “Return to main call”

The above are instructions for using the Breakout rooms feature in Google Meet, hoping to bring you interesting experiences and effective lessons and meetings.

Explore more

• Troubleshooting in Google Meet Classrooms (for teachers)
• Add a co-teacher to a Google Meet classroom