Using breakout rooms in your HeyPeers meetings

Breakout rooms in meetings are smaller sessions that branch off from the main meeting. They allow group leaders and participants to connect in more intimate groups, with audio and video completely separated from the main session.

If breakout rooms were enabled when the meeting was created or edited, you’ll see a Breakout button in the actions menu bar at the bottom of your meeting screen once the session begins.

The Session Setup window gives you control over how breakout rooms are organized. You can choose how many rooms to create, decide whether participants move automatically or manually, and assign people to rooms individually or at random.

STEP 1: Select the number of rooms

Select the number of breakout rooms to create. A minimum of 1 breakout room is required.

STEP 2:  Select how participants will join the breakout room

Use the Participants join automatically option to decide how attendees enter their breakout rooms:

STEP 3: Assigning participants to rooms

The Main Room section of the Session Setup panel displays all meeting participants.

To manually assign participants to rooms, select one or more participants, then choose the room in the Assign selected to drop-down list.

To assign participants to rooms automatically and randomly, simply click on Assign automatically.

STEP 4: Review room assignments

The Rooms section of the Session Setup panel displays room assignments.  

Unnecessary rooms may be deleted. To delete a room, click on the room’s trash icon. If there are any participants assigned to the room, they are reassigned to the main room upon deletion.

Note: There must be two or more breakout rooms for the trash button to work. The trash button is disabled if only one breakout room exists.

Once you’ve finalized your settings and assigned participants to rooms, click the Start Breakout Session button at the bottom of the Session Setup panel. This will launch the breakout rooms and move participants according to your selections.

Once the breakout sessions have been started, the Breakout panel can be used to manage room assignments. It also allows you to join any of the rooms.  

The People panel can also be used to view room assignments. It also gives you the ability to join any of the rooms.

To end breakout rooms, click on the End Breakout Session button at the bottom of the Breakout panel.

This gives you 2 options:

• End the breakout rooms in 60 seconds - this option delays the closing of the breakout rooms for 60 seconds. Participants see a warning message on their meeting panes.

• End the breakout rooms immediately - this option immediately brings all participants back to the main room with no warning.

Once breakout rooms are active, participants can request assistance at any time by clicking the Contact host button located on the bottom menu bar. This sends a notification directly to you, allowing you to join their room and offer help as needed

You will see a message showing that a participant is requesting assistance, with the option to join that room.

Additionally, you will see the assistance request in the People panel. A question mark icon will be displayed beside the participant requesting help.