Meeting hosts can use breakout rooms to divide participants into smaller groups during meetings. Breakout rooms must be started by meeting hosts during a meeting on a computer. Breakout rooms currently can’t be live streamed or recorded.
Anyone who schedules or starts a meeting will be the meeting host. If you transfer or schedule a meeting on someone else's calendar, the other person could become the meeting host. By default, there is only one meeting host per meeting but you can add up to 25 co-hosts once inside the meeting.
Eligibility
Breakout rooms are available to these Google Workspace editions:
- Essentials
- Business Standard
- Business Plus
- Enterprise Starter
- Enterprise Essentials
- Enterprise Standard
- Enterprise Plus
- Education Plus
- Teaching and Learning Upgrade
- Workspace Business
- Nonprofits
- Workspace Individual Subscriber
You can participate in breakout rooms if:
- You use a computer or the updated version of the mobile Meet
or Gmail app 
.
- You dial into the meeting with your phone.
- You're invited through a phone call.
- You're signed into a Google Account.
- You're an anonymous user (not signed into a Google Account).
- You use Meet Hardware.
- A Meet Hardware device can't be pre-assigned to a breakout room before the meeting. You need to connect from a Google Meet meeting room to be assigned to a breakout room.
You can't participate in breakout rooms if:
- You aren't using the updated versions of the mobile Meet or Gmail app .
- You use a 3rd-party video conferencing device.
Join a breakout room
Your meeting host will create breakout rooms and invite you to join one. Your meeting host can join each breakout room at any time during the meeting.
- On a computer or mobile device, sign in to your Google Account.
- Join a meeting from your computer or the Meet mobile app. Learn the different ways to join a meeting if you're a student.
- When your meeting host invites you to join a breakout room, you'll see a prompt on your screen. Click Join. If you click cancel, you'll remain in the main room.
- Tip: If you dialed in through your phone, tap *2 to go to your breakout room, move between breakout rooms, or return to the main room.
- Once you're in a breakout room, you can speak to or send chat messages to other participants.
- If your meeting host moves you to another breakout room, you'll see a new prompt on your screen. To switch rooms, click Join.
- If the meeting host sets a timer, the time left in the breakout session is shown at the top of your screen.
- When the meeting host ends the breakout room session or the session ends, you have 30 seconds before your mic and camera turn off and you're automatically moved to the main room. You can turn your mic and camera back on when the meeting host lets you.
- If you need help during your breakout room session, you can ask for help by:
- Computer: On the top of right of your screen, click Ask for help. If you don't need help anymore, click Cancel ask for help.
- Mobile: On the bottom right, tap Menu
Ask for help. If you don't need help anymore, tap Cancel ask for help.
- Dial-in users currently can't ask for help.
Return to the main room
During a meeting, you can choose to leave a breakout room and return to the meeting's main room.
- On a computer: At the top, click Return to main call.
- On a mobile device: At the top, tap to Return to main call.
When the meeting host ends the breakout room session, you get an on-screen prompt to return to the main call. You can tap or click the prompt or wait to be moved automatically to the main call.
or Gmail app 
.
Ask for help. If you don't need help anymore, tap Cancel ask for help.