Google launches Meet breakout rooms for small group discussions

Huge online classes can be overwhelming, not just for teachers but also for students who learn better when interacting with others. To help solve that problem, Google has launched a new Meet feature called “breakout rooms,” which would give educators a way to divide participants into smaller groups during video calls. At the moment, the feature is exclusively available to Enterprise for Education customers, but the tech giant says it will be available to more users (including Education and standard Enterprise customers) later this year.

Google said the ability to group people and put them smaller rooms was highly requested, since it has the potential to increase engagement by allowing simultaneous small group discussions. The call’s creator can make up to 100 breakout rooms in a call. Participants will be randomly and evenly distributed across the rooms, but the organizer can manually move them into different rooms if needed. Moderators can also jump from one room to another to monitor and join discussions.