There is currently no way to join multiple breakout rooms at the same time. I tried running Zoom as different user on Windows but that gave me an error. The business version allows you join multiple meeting simultaneously, but not the same meeting multiple times. There really should be some way to do this. I cant use the web browser version because I need to let my client’s access my screen from multiple breakout rooms. Sounds like a pretty basic feature that is not too difficult to implement (I think), but can give many users, especially teachers, a much better experience. I would definitely consider upgrading my account if this feature was there.
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YES!!! Me too. As I teacher, I would love to be able to listen to my students in more than one breakout room. I would definitely upgrade.
But, thank you, Zoom, for all you’ve done to help us in distance learning.
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This would be game changing! Otherwise, we leave students unattended in their breakout rooms - not always the best situation for students.
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This feature is much needed for education. Supervising students in breakout rooms is paramount to not only learning progression but to a safe environment.
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I think it will be great, if the teacher can talk to all students in the rooms and on other hand all students can hear the teacher
with this feature we can segregate students in better way
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This feature is so needed for my trainings. I cannot afford the time to jump from group to group and repeat the same instructions.
In addition to classroom applications, I am also trying to do a trivia program where many of the teams are virtual - for example, one team has members in South Carolina, Illinois, and Minnesota. I’d love to be able to put teams in breakout rooms where they can openly discuss a questions amongst their team to come up with an answer. To do this, I need to be able to speak or stream audio into each break room (aka team) at the same time.
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I would also like to see the camera and mic icon for each of the people in the breakout room. And I would like to see the chat in each of the breakout rooms, and have that recorded in the log. We are required to supervise our students. It would be fine if the chat in the breakout room informed that the host can read.
As a platform that is now working with schools, there needs to be a way to supervise all the aspects of breakout rooms.
This would be great and helpful.
Sometimes I need to give a lecture simultaneously to two or more separate classes at the same time. The suggested features would be:
- All rooms can hear the host and see the shared screen simultaneously.
- Each room should have its own chatbox.
- All participants are muted by default, unmute by permission only (by host or co-host).
- Unmute with the option to be to all rooms or to only the room the participant joined.
- Host can mute him/herself and stop shared screen to only one or more rooms.
I hope to see this feature soon.
I agree with all your suggested features
There is a workaround for this.
I’ve used this on more than one occasion without a problem.
It seems a bit complicated at first look but once you got the preliminary steps (the initial setup), the actual process will be fairly trivial.
• Setup 1
Firstly, (this is very important), sign out from your main Zoom app. Then sign back in but first uncheck the box that says keep me signed in (right under the username & password inputs) to prevent Zoom automatically signing you in whenever you open the app.
• Setup 2
Second, edit your meeting settings ( Sign In | Zoom ) and uncheck the Require authentication to join option to allow joining without having a Zoom account and/or login.
• Setup 3
Third, you should be able to run multiple instances of Zoom on your computer.
For mac it’s rather easy, open a terminal window and type (or copy-paste) the following command:
open -na /Applications/zoom.us.app
For windows, it’s less straightforward yet not that hard. Just follow this tutorial:
Run Multiple Instances on Windows
Currently, I don’t have a Linux box but I’m sure that a simple search would reveal how to do this on your favorite Linux distro.
• Process
Now, the setup’s done.
Open Zoom (just one instance), sign in ( you do remember that you should always uncheck the keep me signed in option, right?), start your meeting.
When the time comes, start your breakout rooms and assign the participants.
Let’s say that you have 4 breakout rooms which you want to join in.
That means, you need to open 4 more instances of Zoom app.
Do that.
Now, you have 5 instances of Zoom.
One for the main room (you are the host) and 4 for the breakout rooms (not signed in, just the welcome window).
Align the apps for your convenience, either by resizing them or using virtual desktops or moving to your secondary monitor; you got the idea.
Click the Join a Meeting buttons on the additional instances, enter your meeting id, give yourself a descriptive name (something like Host for BR 01), enter your meeting passcode (if you have one).
Return back to your main Zoom window (where you’re host) and assign the additional instances to their breakout rooms respectively.
For each Zoom instance:
- you can set a different speaker (or turn off completely)
- set a different microphone (if you have multiple) or share the same one so that you can address all rooms’ participants at once
- set a different camera (if you have multiple or if you use virtual cams)
Again, it’s really not that much complicated, especially after you’ve done it once or twice and familiar with the flow.
Hope it helps…
Best,
~ Fatih
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Thank you! It took me over four hours but I managed to get it working on Windows and tested it out with as many as 12 simultaneous instances of Zoom.
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Thanks so much for this. As mentioned pretty easy to get multiple. room on a Mac with the ‘open -na /Applications/zoom.us.app’ command.
I only have one mic - how can I speak only in one breakout room at a time – even when I mute myself in all the other rooms I get feedback?
Thanks for your help.
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Hi Colin (@perspect) ,
I´d recommend to install a virtual sound device.
That way, you can select the virtual mic for those Zoom instances (rooms) which you don’t want to be heard in.
Also, as an added benefit, you can select the same virtual device as speaker for the Zoom instances which you don’t want to hear. Maybe you want to focus on one room and one room only for a moment?
I’m using multiple virtual sound devices and configurations but for your needs I can recommend Soundflower from Rogue Amoeba.
It’s not actively developed for a long time but hey, you only need a void device so it’ll be more than enough. Also, it’s free (as in beer and as in freedom).
You can read about it in their website then download and install from the developer’s Github page.
Best,
~ Fatih
Will this also enable me to share the screen with all the rooms at the same time?
Hi Masad ( @zamzami.masad ),
Well, yes and no.
You can only share your screen or a selected window from only one Zoom instance / one room at a time.
If you start another screen share from another Zoom instance, the former share will stop.
So, that was the no.
But, there’s a workaround.
If you want to share a PowerPoint slide, you can use the Slides as Virtual Background feature of Zoom.
Then yes, you can share your PowerPoint to all rooms at the same time.
Beware that this is a virtual background feature.
That means, your camera feed will be at the screen, on top of the slides, as well.
If that’s not you want, you can use a webcam cover or simply a piece of black tape to hide your video feed.
Hope it helps…
~ Fatih
I, too, need this type of feature for guided meditation in breakout rooms. But I teach meditation teachers, too, and they are not all going to do all the tech setup that Faith so kindly recommends. This should be a native option in the Zoom client. Alternately, can the host simply broadcast audio instructions to all the rooms. We could not listen in, but at least we could provide guidance without reconvening. See www.insightdialogue.org for what I’m talking about.