Create breakout rooms in advance on Google Calendar

You can create Breakout rooms for meetings in Google Calendar when creating an event or editing it. You can also create breakout rooms while a meeting is in progress.

Create breakout rooms in advance on Google Calendar

In calendar.google.com chose either:

For a new meeting

1. Create a new Google Calendar event.

2. Click Add Google Meet video conferencing.

3. Add participants.

4. Click Change conference settings .

5. On the left, click Breakout rooms .

6. Choose the number of breakout rooms, then choose an option:

   • Drag participants into different rooms.

   • Enter names directly into a room.

   • Click Shuffle to mix the groups.

7. Click Save.

For an existing meeting

1. Open an existing Google Calendar event.

2. Click Edit event .

3. Under Event Details, click Change conference settings .

4. On the left, click Breakout rooms .

5. Choose the number of breakout rooms, then choose an option:

   • Drag participants into different rooms

   • Enter their name directly into a room

   • Click Shuffle to mix the groups

6. Click Save.

Create breakout rooms during a meeting

1. On your computer, start a video call.

2. In the top right, click Activities Breakout rooms.

   • Tip: To prevent students from having the ability to create breakout rooms, admins should ensure Meet creation privileges are reserved for faculty/staff organizational units only.

3. In the Breakout rooms panel, choose the number of breakout rooms. You can create up to 100 breakout rooms in a call.

4. Call participants are then distributed across the rooms. To manually move people into different rooms, you can:

   • Enter the participant’s name directly into a breakout room.

   • Click the participant’s name. Hold down the mouse, drag the name, and then drop it into another breakout room.

   • To randomly mix up the groups again, click Shuffle .

5. In the bottom right, click Open rooms.

Tip: A notification will show at the bottom of the screen when participants ask for help from the moderator. To join that participant's breakout room, click Join. To return to that question later, click Later. On the breakout room panel, an “Asked for help” banner shows above rooms that ask for help.

Optional breakout room features

Edit, join, or leave breakout rooms

Once you’ve created breakout rooms, you can make changes to the rooms or join each breakout room to monitor and participate in discussions.

Tip: Moderators won't see chat messages that were exchanged between participants before they join or after they leave a breakout room.

• To make changes to the participant groups or number of breakout rooms, click Edit rooms . Once you’ve made your changes, click Save.

  • Tip: Before moving to a different room, participants must click Join.

• To join an individual breakout room, next to the breakout room number, click Join.

• To leave all breakout rooms and return to the main room, next to the current breakout room, click Leave.

End breakout rooms

1. In the breakout rooms panel, at the top right, click Close rooms .

2. In the notification window that appears, click Close all rooms.

Important: Participants have 30 seconds to finish their breakout room discussion and will be asked to rejoin the main room. To bypass the 30 seconds and close all rooms immediately, on the breakout rooms panel, click Close rooms . Participants will have to click join to re-enter the main room even if you close all rooms immediately.

Pin or mute Google Meet participants

Select a participant from the "People" tab to mute or pin them.

Important: For meetings organized using a personal Google Account, only the meeting moderator can mute other participants.

Computer AndroidiPhone & iPad

Pin a participant

To only view one specific participant, pin them to your screen.

• In a video call, hover over a person’s icon tap pin .

Tap the People tab select a participant to pin.

Mute a participant’s microphone

If there is feedback or background noise in a video call, you may want to mute other participant’s microphones.

Eligibility

Once in a video call, to mute a participant:

1. At the top, click People .

2. Next to a participants name, click Mute .

Important: If you don’t see the People tab, long press/tap a participant’s thumbnail, tap .

Tip: For privacy reasons, you cannot unmute another person. Ask the participant to unmute their audio. To mute or unmute yourself, tap Mute .

Mute all participants

Important: Mute all participants is only available for Education accounts.

Meeting creators and calendar event owners can mute all participants at the same time. Participants can unmute themselves after they’ve been muted.

• In a video call, at the top, click People Mute all .

Learn how to set up Meet for distance learning.

Dial-in participants

For video calls organized by Google Workspace users only.

• Phone participants always press *6 to mute or unmute their phone.

• If someone else mutes you, you can only unmute using *6.