Microsoft Teams' Breakout Rooms are about to get a major improvement

By Robert Carnevale
published

Breakout Rooms are slated to get a useful feature in September.

Microsoft Teams PC
Microsoft Teams PC (Image credit: Windows Central)

What you need to know

  • Microsoft Teams Breakout Rooms are about to get a new feature.
  • Specific presenters will be able to manage Breakout Rooms.
  • The feature is slated for a September 2021 release.

If you like Breakout Rooms in Microsoft Teams but wish there was a bit more flexibility in how they're managed, strap in for the newest Teams feature update that'll match your wishes to a T.

Microsoft Teams: Breakout Room Presenter support is listed in the Microsoft 365 roadmap (opens in new tab) under feature ID: 81118. Here's what the feature entails, according to the roadmap: "Extend the management of Breakout Rooms to specific presenters." It's currently in development and is slated for a September 2021 release, though no release date plans on the roadmap are final, so understand that the actual release date could vary.

This feature would allow for meetings with multiple presenters who all need Breakout Room control to have an easy, built-in way to facilitate meeting management changes. On top of all the other useful functionalities built into Teams, this is icing on an already stacked cake.

For example, have you read up on the new Parent connection feature coming to Teams for Education? It'll allow parents and guardians to easily reach educators via Teams chat.

And perhaps you're not just invested in Teams for the features, but also the aesthetics. Check out the new NFL backgrounds for Teams that Microsoft just released. With these backgrounds, even if you're trapped behind a desk chatting it up on Teams, you can still fantasize about those who spend their professional lives playing football.

Microsoft Teams App Icon
Microsoft Teams


Microsoft Teams gets better every day thanks to an ever-expanding laundry list of both existing and incoming features. Today's new inclusion is Breakout Room Presenter support.

Robert Carnevale
Robert Carnevale

Robert Carnevale is the News Editor for Windows Central. He's a big fan of Kinect (it lives on in his heart), Sonic the Hedgehog, and the legendary intersection of those two titans, Sonic Free Riders. He is the author of Cold War 2395. Have a useful tip? Send it to robert.carnevale@futurenet.com.

2 Comments
  • About time. Zoom has had this feature for a while. I've had clients ask me about this since May.
  • I have heard that we are getting access to teams at work, it has been on the cards for a while,, managers have been using it for a couple of years or so. We have had access to yammer for a few years now, I really don't see the point. I suppose it is to try and stop using whatsapp for communication and groups as some departments have groups on it and the company I work for don't think that WhatsApp is secure enough, and yet they think MS products are, very strange. The department I work on don't have whatsapp groups, I don't it does.
    Teams will be pretty limited to use anyway, just for chats and that about it. I don't use yammer as I feel it is not required for my job, so i expect they will try and push Teams onto me, the trial as it is a trial will start on Monday, but no doubt we will have a lecture about downloading the app and what it means for the company.
    Most of the people there I don't want to communicate with, certainly once I have clocked out. I go there to do my job and then go home and get paid at the end of four weeks.
    It is all about apps and technology, nothing is easy any more. Where have the days of opening a mouth and telling people what is happening or even putting a notice on a notice board, is it that difficult these days that people have forgotten how to do these things? They want everyone to get behind this, well I am not going to, and I expect there will be others that won't, certainly the ones without smartphones will not be using it.