During September 2021, Microsoft will add some much anticipated enhancements to the Breakout Rooms functionality in Microsoft Teams.
Once live, organisers will be able to configure Breakout Rooms ahead of the actual meeting using an additional tab within the meeting. From this tab it will be possible to create and rename rooms and organise participants in advance of the meeting. The full set of features to be enabled are as follows:
- Bulk creating / deleting rooms
- Adding / deleting / renaming individual rooms
- Configuring meeting options for each room
- Adjusting settings for breakout rooms session (timer, selecting breakout rooms managers and more)
- Pre-assigning participants via both manual and automatic assignment options
The “Breakout Room Manager” is a new role which the organiser will be able to assign. This user will then be able to run breakout rooms even if the organiser of the meeting is not present. The Breakout Room Manager will also be able to control and update breakout rooms, start and stop them and set features such as the room timer, and room meeting options.
The new features are expected to be live by the end of September but may be available earlier in the month depending on delivery to the Imperial Office 365 tenant.
NOTE this functionality will only be available in the Teams Desktop client initially.
For more information on Breakout Rooms and settings (this document will be further updated when Microsoft release the new features) see this link.