Organizer support for breakout rooms for VDI users is now available in public preview. Breakout rooms allow meeting organizers to split main meetings into smaller sessions for focused discussions.

Teams VDI refers to a virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) solution that is specifically designed to run Microsoft Teams within a virtualized environment. VDI allows users to access virtual desktops that are hosted on a central server, which can be accessed from any device with an internet connection.

With Teams VDI, users can access the full features of Microsoft Teams, including video conferencing, chat, and collaboration tools, from their virtual desktops. This solution is particularly useful for remote teams or companies that need to support a distributed workforce.

Teams VDI solutions typically require specialized software and hardware configurations to ensure that the virtual desktops can support the demands of Teams, such as high-quality video and audio. Organizations may choose to deploy Teams VDI on-premises or in the cloud, depending on their specific needs and resources.

Features available for organizer:

• Setup breakout rooms on Teams VDI client
• Create breakout rooms in scheduled private meetings (including recurring), channel meetings and private meet now meetings
• Meeting organizers, co-organizers and breakout rooms managers can manage rooms and hop between rooms freely
• Via the Breakout rooms settings panel meeting organizers can appoint breakout room managers to manage of rooms during the live session
• Setup breakout rooms during an active meeting or prior to the meeting
• Create up to 50 breakout rooms in a single meeting
• Add, remove, delete and rename breakout rooms
• Reassign room participants from one room to another before as well as while the rooms are open
• Send an announcement that will show up as a meeting chat message in each room.
• Chats, files, and recordings: organizer will always have access to all rooms meeting artifacts
• Organizers can set a timer for all breakout rooms created in a meeting session via the Breakout rooms settings panel.

Features available for participants:

• Join breakout rooms from web, desktop, iOS, iPads, Android mobiles and tablets, PSTN and VDI.
• Participants join the room as presenters, so they can present, share Whiteboard, etc. freely.
• Participants cannot add others to meeting chat, copy meeting details, nudge others to the meeting
• Participants cannot hop back to main meeting or between rooms on their own. They must wait for the meeting organizer to pull them back to the main meeting.
• Chat and artifacts shared during meeting are viewable for room participants.
• Participants remain assigned to their breakout rooms unless the meeting organizer chooses to change them. The assignment persists across subsequent sessions or recurring meetings.

Flighting status

Available to everyone in Public Preview channel.

How to enable

Administrators

As an admin, ensure users can schedule private meetings with the following settings:

• Allow scheduling private meeting = on
• Allow Meet now in private meeting = on
• Allow channel meeting scheduling = on
• Allow meet now in channels = on