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Breakout Rooms

Breakout rooms allow participants of a meeting to split into smaller groups for targeted discussions and collaboration. With the rise of remote work and online learning, breakout rooms have become an essential tool for enhancing engagement and building community in virtual settings. They are an ideal choice for workshops, online classrooms, or when you need to speak privately with select participants outside the main meeting.

In RealtimeKit, breakout rooms are created as a separate meeting. Each breakout room is an independent meeting and can be managed like any other RealtimeKit meeting. RealtimeKit provides a set of SDK APIs to create, manage, and switch between breakout rooms.

Key features

The following are some of the key features of RealtimeKit's breakout rooms:

  • Manage permissions and privileges of hosts and participants using presets
  • Hosts can create breakout rooms, assign participants, start and close the breakout rooms, and switch between rooms
  • Participants can start and stop video, interact with other participants using chat and polls, and mute/unmute audio
  • Record all breakout sessions individually like any other RealtimeKit meeting

Roles in a breakout room

Roles in the breakout room are managed by presets.

Host

Hosts can create breakout rooms, assign participants, start and close the breakout rooms, and switch between rooms.

Participants

As a participant in a breakout room, you can:

  • Switch to Parent Meeting - Switch back to the main meeting (if you have the required permissions)
  • Switch Connected Meetings - Move from the main meeting to smaller, focused discussion groups (breakout rooms) for collaboration
  • Collaborate - Use tools such as chat and polls during breakout sessions

Audio and video

Each breakout room functions as an independent meeting. When you switch to a breakout room from the main meeting, it automatically switches to the audio and video of the breakout session. You can mute or unmute your audio and start or stop your video at any time during the breakout session, just as you can in the main meeting.

When the breakout session ends, your audio and video automatically switch back to the main meeting.

  • If your video was turned on during a breakout session, it will remain on when you return to the main session
  • If your microphone was on during a breakout session, it will stay on when you return to the main session

Recording breakout sessions

Each breakout session is a separate session. Each breakout session's recording is stored and managed separately, just like any other RealtimeKit meeting. For more information, refer to Recording.

Breakout rooms management

Breakout rooms allow the participants to split into separate sessions. The host can create breakout rooms, assign participants, start and close the breakout rooms.

Create presets

A preset is a set of permissions and UI configurations that are applied to hosts and participants. They determine the look, feel, and behavior of the breakout room.

For breakout rooms, you must provide the following permissions for hosts and participants in Connected Meetings:

Host

The host preset should have Full Access permission in Connected Meetings. This allows the host to:

  • Create breakout rooms
  • Assign participants to rooms
  • Start and close breakout rooms
  • Switch between rooms

Participants

You can choose to provide the following permissions to participants:

  • Switch Connected Meetings - Allows participants to move between breakout rooms
  • Switch to Parent Meeting - Allows participants to return to the main meeting

Save the preset

  1. Once you have made all the changes to your preset, click Save
  2. Enter a name for your preset and click Save
  3. Your preset is listed - click Edit to make any changes

Create a meeting

Create a RealtimeKit meeting using the Create Meeting API. This API returns a unique identifier for your meeting.

Add participants

After creating the meeting, add each participant using the Add Participant API. The presetName created earlier must be passed in the body of the Add Participant API request.

Validate permissions

Before creating breakout rooms, validate the permissions of the current participant to ensure that the participant has the required permissions to create breakout rooms. Incorrect permissions can lead to errors being thrown.

JavaScript
// Check if breakout rooms are supported
const areBreakoutRoomsSupported = meeting.connectedMeetings.supportsConnectedMeetings;


// Check if any breakout rooms are already created
const areBreakoutRoomsActive = meeting.connectedMeetings.isActive;


// Check if the current participant has permission to create breakout rooms
const hasPermissionToCreateBreakoutRooms = meeting.self.permissions.connectedMeetings.canAlterConnectedMeetings;


// Check if the current participant has permission to switch to parent meeting
const hasPermissionToSwitchToParentMeeting = meeting.self.permissions.connectedMeetings.canSwitchToParentMeeting;


// Check if the current participant has permission to switch to connected meeting
const hasPermissionToSwitchToConnectedMeeting = meeting.self.permissions.connectedMeetings.canSwitchConnectedMeetings;

Create breakout rooms
JavaScript
const breakoutRooms = await meeting.connectedMeetings.createMeetings([
  { title: "Breakout Room 1" },
  { title: "Breakout Room 2" },
  { title: "Breakout Room 3" },
]);


console.log("Created Breakout Rooms: ", breakoutRooms.map((room) => "Id:: " + room.id + " --- Title:: " + room.title).join("\n"));

breakoutRooms is an array of basic meeting information such as id and title. You can use the id of these objects to move participants to the breakout room.

Retrieve list of breakout rooms and their participants

If there are more than one host in the room creating breakouts, you can retrieve consolidated list of breakout rooms using the following API.

JavaScript
const breakoutRoomsInfo = await meeting.connectedMeetings.getConnectedMeetings();

breakoutRoomsInfo is an object containing the list of breakout rooms and their participants, along with details of the parent meeting.

This data can be used to display the list of breakout rooms & participants in the UI. This API refetches the list of breakout rooms & participants, therefore can be considered the source of truth for breakout rooms & participants. It is advised to call this API, to get the latest list of breakout rooms & participants, if a lot of changes are in progress.

You can also listen to stateUpdate event to get the latest list of breakout rooms & participants, as they are updated in real-time.

JavaScript
meeting.connectedMeetings.on("stateUpdate", ({meetings, parentMeeting}) => {
  console.log("stateUpdate", {meetings, parentMeeting});


  // Alternatively, you can access the meetings and parentMeeting from the connectedMeetings object
  console.log("Meetings List", meeting.connectedMeetings.meetings);
  console.log("Parent Meeting", meeting.connectedMeetings.parentMeeting);
});

Move participants to breakout rooms

Once you have created breakout rooms, assign participants to the rooms.

JavaScript
// Retrieve list of breakout rooms & participants
const breakoutRoomsInfo = await meeting.connectedMeetings.getConnectedMeetings();


/*
* You can retrieve meetingIds and participantIds from the breakoutRoomsInfo object.
* Based on where the participant currently is, you can decide the sourceMeetingId and targetMeetingId.
*/


// Move participants to breakout rooms
const response = await meeting.connectedMeetings.moveParticipants(
  "SOURCE_MEETING_ID", // sourceMeetingId, meeting id where participants are currently in
  "TARGET_MEETING_ID", // targetMeetingId, meeting id where participants are to be moved
  ["PARTICIPANT_ID_1", "PARTICIPANT_ID_2"], // participantIds, array of participant ids to be moved
);

Move participants, with a specific preset, to breakout rooms

Once you have created breakout rooms, assign participants to the rooms.

JavaScript
const response = await meeting.connectedMeetings.moveParticipantsWithCustomPreset(
  "SOURCE_MEETING_ID", // sourceMeetingId, meeting id where participants are currently in
  "TARGET_MEETING_ID", // targetMeetingId, meeting id where participants are to be moved
  [{ presetId: "PRESET_ID_1" }, { presetId: "PRESET_ID_2" }], // array of objects with presetId field
);

Move local participant to breakout room

To move the local participant to a different breakout room or back to the parent meeting, use the same API as for moving other participants, but pass the local participant's ID. The local participant must have the appropriate permissions: canSwitchConnectedMeetings to switch between breakout rooms, or canSwitchToParentMeeting to return to the parent meeting, if the request was originated by the non-host local participant.

Handle breakout room events

If a participant has been moved to a breakout room, the changingMeeting event is triggered, followed by the meetingChanged event. These events are also triggered when a participant switches between the main meeting and breakout rooms. Participants will autojoin the breakout room if they are assigned to it. You won't have to join meeting explicitly.

JavaScript
// Listen to changingMeeting event to show a custom UI to indicate that a meeting switch is happening
meeting.connectedMeetings.on("changingMeeting", (meetingId) => {
  console.log("Switching to breakout room or main meeting with id: " + meetingId);
  console.log("Show a Custom UI to indicate that a meeting switch is happening");
});


// Listen to meetingChanged event to update the meeting object reference
meeting.connectedMeetings.on("meetingChanged", (newMeeting) => {
  console.log("Switched to breakout room or main meeting");
  console.log("Every action now should be performed on this meeting");
});

Close breakout rooms

You can close/delete the breakout rooms. This will force participants in those meetings to come to the main room.

JavaScript
await meeting.connectedMeetings.deleteMeetings([
  "MEETING_ID_TO_CLOSE_1",
  "MEETING_ID_TO_CLOSE_2",
]);

This would also trigger stateUpdate event updating the list of breakout rooms & participants.

JavaScript
meeting.connectedMeetings.on("stateUpdate", ({meetings, parentMeeting}) => {
  console.log("stateUpdate", {meetings, parentMeeting});
});


// Alternatively, you can access the meetings and parentMeeting from the connectedMeetings object
console.log("Meetings List", meeting.connectedMeetings.meetings);
console.log("Parent Meeting", meeting.connectedMeetings.parentMeeting);

Next steps

You have successfully integrated breakout rooms into your RealtimeKit application. Participants can now:

  • Join the main meeting
  • Be assigned to breakout rooms by the host
  • Switch between the main meeting and breakout rooms
  • Collaborate in smaller focused groups

For more advanced customization, explore the following: