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How to Start and Manage Breakout Groups

  • Updated

Breakouts are available as a widget in both rooms and sessions via the Host Controls panel. They allow hosts to split attendees into groups that interact in their own mini sessions/rooms.

Important Note: Breakouts are only available to customers on the Pro, Pro+, and Business plans.

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Starting Breakouts

Hosts can hover over the Breakouts widget in the Host Controls panel to reveal a Start button.

Upon clicking Start, a popup dialog box will be displayed for the host to configure the settings for their breakout groups.

After continuing, the host can move attendees around to different groups and also shuffle attendees randomly across all groups. Groups are named in letters (e.g. A, B, C, etc.) but the host can rename the groups before starting breakouts.

After starting the breakouts, everyone in the room/session will be instantly moved into their respective groups and they will see a banner at the top of their screen with actions they can take. Different users will see different action buttons on this banner, depending on their permissions.

Note: It is not possible to edit breakout group names or move attendees around once breakouts are in progress. Additionally, attendees who join the session/room after breakouts have started will be automatically assigned to a group.

 

Chatting in Breakout Groups & Sending Broadcasts

Each group can chat within their breakout group. All attendees also have the option to broadcast chat messages to all breakout groups. These messages will be highlighted in the chat panel. 

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Stopping Breakouts

Hosts can hover over the Breakouts widget in the Host Controls panel to reveal a Stop button. Hosts can also click the End breakouts button in the top banner.

Upon stopping breakouts, the host will see a confirmation dialog box popup to be sure they want to continue. Once breakouts end, all attendees will see a 30-second countdown timer and then be moved back into the main session/room.

 

Things to note

  • For performance reasons, breakouts are not supported for more than 250 attendees.
  • Hosts cannot move attendees around once breakouts have started.
  • Attendees are required to accept their group before being added to it.
  • Attendees who join later will be able to see previous chat messages in breakout groups.
  • Every attendee has the ability to broadcast chat messages to all breakout groups.
  • Breakouts are not recorded. Only the main session/room will be recorded.
  • Hosts are required to manually end breakouts; this cannot be done automatically.