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Breakout rooms allow moderators to split conference participants into separate sub-sessions that run in parallel within the same meeting. Each breakout room is an independent conference with its own audio and video space — participants in one room cannot see or hear those in another. When breakout sessions end, all participants return to the main room automatically.

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How to Use Breakout Rooms

1

Open the Participants pane

Click the Participants icon in the toolbar (or press Alt+P) to open the Participants panel on the right side of the screen.
2

Open the Breakout Rooms section

At the bottom of the Participants pane, click Breakout Rooms to expand the breakout room controls. This section is only visible to moderators.
3

Create a breakout room

Click Add Breakout Room to create a new sub-session. Rooms are named automatically (e.g., “Breakout Room 1”) or you can provide a custom name.
4

Assign participants

Drag participants from the main list into a breakout room, or click Auto Assign to distribute everyone evenly across existing rooms. Participants can also be moved individually using the action menu next to their name.
5

Close breakout rooms

Click Close Breakout Rooms to end all sub-sessions and return every participant to the main conference.

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IFrame API Commands

All breakout room commands require moderator privileges on the local participant. Commands dispatched without moderator rights will be silently rejected. 
const api = new JitsiMeetExternalAPI(domain, options);

// Create a new breakout room with an optional display name
api.executeCommand('addBreakoutRoom', 'Team Alpha');

// Remove a breakout room by its JID
api.executeCommand('removeBreakoutRoom', 'roomjid@conference.example.com');

// Auto-distribute all participants across existing breakout rooms
api.executeCommand('autoAssignToBreakoutRooms');

// Move a specific remote participant to a room (moderator only)
api.executeCommand('sendParticipantToRoom', participantId, roomId);

// Move the local participant to a specific breakout room
api.executeCommand('joinBreakoutRoom', roomId);

// Close a specific breakout room and return its participants to the main room
api.executeCommand('closeBreakoutRoom', roomId);
CommandParametersDescription
addBreakoutRoomname: stringCreates a new breakout room with the given display name
removeBreakoutRoombreakoutRoomJid: stringPermanently removes the specified room
autoAssignToBreakoutRooms—Evenly distributes all participants across existing rooms
sendParticipantToRoomparticipantId, roomIdMoves a remote participant to the target room
joinBreakoutRoomroomIdMoves the local participant to the target breakout room
closeBreakoutRoomroomIdCloses a room and returns its members to the main conference

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Breakout Room Events

Subscribe to breakoutRoomsUpdated to keep your embedding application in sync with the current room state. 
api.addListener('breakoutRoomsUpdated', ({ rooms }) => {
  console.log('Breakout room state updated:', rooms);
  rooms.forEach(room => {
    console.log(`Room: ${room.name}, participants: ${room.participants?.length ?? 0}`);
  });
});
The event fires whenever a room is created, removed, or whenever participants move between rooms.

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Retrieving Current Room State

Use getRoomsInfo() to fetch a snapshot of all rooms and their current participants — useful for building a custom rooms UI or tracking occupancy. 
api.getRoomsInfo().then(({ rooms }) => {
  const mainRoom = rooms.find(r => r.isMainRoom);
  const breakouts = rooms.filter(r => !r.isMainRoom);

  console.log(`Main room participants: ${mainRoom.participants.length}`);
  breakouts.forEach(room => {
    console.log(`${room.name}: ${room.participants.length} participant(s)`);
  });
});
Each room object in the response contains:
FieldTypeDescription
idstringUnique room identifier (JID)
namestringDisplay name of the room
isMainRoombooleantrue for the main conference room
participantsarrayList of participant objects currently in this room

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Limitations

  • Only moderators can create, remove, or assign participants to breakout rooms. Participants can voluntarily move to a room when invited.
  • Breakout rooms require a Prosody deployment with the muc_breakout_rooms plugin enabled. Self-hosted deployments must configure this explicitly.
  • On JaaS (8x8.vc), the maximum number of active breakout rooms per meeting may be subject to your plan limits.
  • Breakout rooms are not persisted — they are destroyed when the meeting ends.

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