Microsoft Teams is getting new meeting and breakout rooms features

Microsoft Teams is getting new meeting and breakout rooms features as part of the upcoming update.

For those unaware, the Microsoft Teams Breakout rooms feature was first introduced last year and it basically allows users to create brainstorming sessions by splitting meetings into different groups.

Breakout rooms feature was recently updated with better controls and it is now getting a new feature that will allow organizers to select managers for the groups. These managers can now manage rooms, set timers, customize the settings of Microsoft Teams meetings, and open/close the rooms.

It is worth noting that users must be part of the organization to manage rooms and access rooms’ settings. It is not available for external users. Additionally, Microsoft has confirmed that the presenter can manage one room at a time. For now, the ability to manage several rooms will require the organizer’s access.

Microsoft Teams breakout rooms feature is getting these new options:

Ability to bulk create or delete rooms, and add/rename individual rooms.
You’ll be able to configure meeting options for each room or adjust settings using a timer.
Teams is getting the ability to pre-assign participants and select breakout rooms managers easily.

New meeting controls for participants

Microsoft Teams’ new update will allow attendees to pin their own video on the front page of the Teams meeting. The pinned video will appear alongside other participants.

Additionally, users will be able to hide their own video preview which appears at the bottom right corner of the meetings. You’ll be able to turn off the self-view in Teams from the meetings settings.

Microsoft is also experimenting with other improvements. For example, Microsoft will allow managers, teachers or moderators to delete messages from other people. Right now, you can only delete your own messages and it is not possible to delete messages sent by other people of the organizations.

Using this new moderation feature, you’ll be able to delete unwanted or irrelevant messages in Teams. This feature has been designed to improve the quality of online education and it will be released for Microsoft Education users first.

It will begin rolling out to Microsoft Teams users in GCC, GCC High, and DoD channels later this year.

Microsoft is also testing support for Windows 11 Mica-style design for Teams app window, but this feature will be exclusive to Microsoft Teams 2.0 client.

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