Google Meet deploys breakout rooms, but only for some users

Google has announced an update to its Google Meet collaboration software, adding a new breakout room feature that makes it easier for smaller teams of people to collaborate. The feature is first arriving for people who organize remote teams on Enterprise for Education, but Google says that it will also roll out the feature for Google Workspace (formerly G Suite) later on this year.

Google Meet is a video collaboration app used for school classes and work meetings, enabling entire teams to video chat with each other in real time. Of course, there are times when working that you may need to collaborate with a smaller group of people, such as joining a couple of friends to work on a project for school or talk about an upcoming work deadline.

Rather than having to leave a group and start a new one, Google Meet is offering the ability to create breakout rooms, which are exactly what they sound like: new groups that branch off from the original group. Up to 100 groups can split off from the original call, according to Google.

Google says that when smaller groups in breakout rooms finish up their private conversation, they can then easily rejoin the main call with the rest of the team. The company says that breakout rooms has been a 'highly-requested feature' from Meet users; moderators will have the ability to jump into breakout rooms to keep an eye on teams.

Operators will likewise have the ability to manually choose which people are moved into specific breakout rooms or to evenly and randomly divide people up into a specific number of rooms. Anyone who has a Google account will be able to participate, but only those who create the events can then create the breakout rooms.