How to Use Breakout Rooms in Zoom: Host Guide for Meetings

A room full of people on one Zoom call goes quiet fast. Ask a question and you get silence, split everyone into small groups and suddenly there's chatter. That's what breakout rooms are for, and they're brilliant for workshops, training days, client brainstorms and team check-ins.

The feature is switched on in settings first, then run by the host during the call. Below I'll take you through both halves using Zoom's own help centre, plus the host tools that make a session feel smooth rather than chaotic.

What Zoom breakout rooms do for a host

Zoom's help centre describes breakout rooms as a way for hosts to split a meeting into separate sessions, up to 100 of them, and to switch between sessions whenever they like. You choose how people get sorted:

• Automatically, where Zoom divides participants for you.
• Manually, where you place each person in a room yourself.
• By participant choice, where people pick the session they want to join.

Think of it as a workshop with a main hall and side rooms. You, as host, can walk between them, but everyone else stays in the room you've assigned unless you let them roam.

Turning on breakout rooms in your Zoom settings

If you can't find the Breakout Rooms button, the feature probably isn't enabled. According to Zoom, an account owner or admin controls it at account or group level, and users can switch it on for themselves unless it's locked. The route for your own settings looks like this:

1. Sign in to the Zoom web portal.
2. Click your profile picture or initials, then Settings.
3. Open the Meeting tab.
4. Under In Meeting (Advanced), switch on Breakout room - Meetings.
5. Confirm if a pop-up asks, then choose any options you'd like and click Save.

If the toggle is grayed out, Zoom says to contact your admin, because someone has locked it at a higher level. On a team account, that's usually whoever set up the company's Zoom.

Starting Zoom breakout rooms during the meeting

Once the setting's on, the live bit is straightforward. Zoom's help for pre-assigned rooms gives the in-meeting controls, and they apply to rooms you've arranged in advance:

1. Start your meeting from the desktop app or web client.
2. Click Breakout Rooms in the meeting controls.
3. Click Open All Rooms to start the sessions.
4. When it's time to bring everyone back, click Close All Rooms.

Participants get a notification when they're assigned. According to Zoom, they can click Join straight away or choose Later and join from the Breakout Rooms control. When you close the rooms, people are told and can return immediately or wait 60 seconds.

Pre-assigning Zoom breakout rooms before the call

If you run the same workshop every week, sorting people by hand each time is a drag. Zoom lets you pre-assign when you schedule the meeting. Sign in to the web portal, click Meetings, then Schedule a Meeting, tick the Breakout Room pre-assign box under Options and click Create Rooms. From there you add rooms, rename them with the pencil button, add people by name or email, and click Save.

A few limits from Zoom's help are worth knowing before you promise your client a perfect split:

• Pre-assignment allows up to 100 rooms and 1000 participants.
• Everyone pre-assigned needs a Zoom account.
• People must be signed in to the account that matches the email you used, otherwise the assignment won't apply.
• If someone isn't placed in their room, use the Recreate option then Recover to pre-assigned rooms, or move them yourself.

For a big group, Zoom also offers a CSV import: download the sample file, fill in the room name and email address columns, then drag the file into the import window.

Talking to people inside Zoom breakout rooms

Here's where hosts usually stumble. Once rooms are open you can't just speak to everyone, so use the tools Zoom provides. Its help article says you can broadcast a message or your voice to open rooms, and you can share your screen into all of them.

• To broadcast a text message, click Breakout Rooms, then Broadcast, then Broadcast Message. Zoom notes these messages disappear after about 10 seconds, so keep them short.
• To broadcast your voice, choose Broadcast Voice from the same menu. This needs a recent desktop or mobile app version, and the setting must be enabled.
• To share a slide with every room, click Share Screen, then turn on Share to breakout rooms before you click Share.

Sharing your screen interrupts any shares already running in the rooms, although Zoom says annotations or whiteboarding in those rooms are saved first. If you'd rather not rely on a notetaker bot in every room, my piece on what AI meeting notes get right and miss explains why someone in each group should still jot down actions by hand.

What people see when they join a Zoom breakout room

Spare a thought for your attendees. According to Zoom, someone in a room can click Ask for Help and then Invite Host, which asks you to drop into their room. To go back, they click Leave Breakout Room and choose whether to leave the room or the whole meeting. Tell them that before you open the rooms, because the Leave button sits next to the one that ends the entire call.

People joining by phone have a simpler experience: Zoom says they're told when the host starts rooms and assigns them, and when rooms end they can press # to rejoin the main session straight away.

Zoom breakout rooms for client workshops and small teams

For a small business, rooms are a quiet superpower. A few ways I'd use them:

• Split a training session into pairs for role play, then regroup for feedback.
• Give each group one question to answer, then ask a spokesperson to report back.
• Run a client brainstorm with one room per idea, and drop in using Ask for Help requests as your cue.

If you record the main session, do tell people first, and remember that official Zoom help describes what recording covers, so check it before promising anyone a replay of every room. My piece on where Zoom recordings end up will help you track the file down afterwards.

Frequently asked questions

How many breakout rooms can you have in Zoom?

Zoom's help centre says hosts can split a meeting into up to 100 separate sessions.

Why can't I see the Breakout Rooms button in Zoom?

The feature has to be enabled in the Meeting tab of your settings under In Meeting (Advanced). If the toggle is grayed out, an admin has locked it and you'll need to ask them.

Can I choose who goes in which Zoom breakout room?

Yes. Zoom lets hosts assign people automatically, manually, or let participants choose a room. You can also pre-assign people when you schedule, if they have Zoom accounts.

How do I talk to everyone once the rooms are open?

Use Broadcast Message or Broadcast Voice from the Breakout Rooms menu, or share your screen to all rooms. Zoom says broadcast messages disappear after about 10 seconds.

How do people leave a Zoom breakout room?

On desktop, they click Leave Breakout Room and choose whether to leave the room or the entire meeting. When the host closes the rooms, they can return straight away or wait 60 seconds.