Microsoft Teams rolls out Virtual Breakout Rooms, introduces Holiday themes for Together Mode, custom backgrounds

Last week, Microsoft started rolling out the Virtual Breakout Rooms feature to a limited number of GCC tenants, allowing meeting organizers to split participants into multiple smaller groups for discussions. The company has just announced that it’s expanding availability to more users. (available in all GCC tenants this week).

“Since breakout rooms are Teams meetings, all the innovation that makes Teams meetings inclusive, interactive, and intelligent are available within. Attendees can discuss a topic in their breakout room while in a virtual coffee shop in Together mode. Or students can bring up the Microsoft Whiteboard and draw out their ideas. This is also true of our security features that help make your Teams meetings a safe and secure place to meet,” the company explained.

To get with the new breakout rooms feature, make sure that you have enabled the new meeting experience within Settings. For those interested in learning more about creating and managing Breakout Rooms during meetings, be sure to check out this support page.

Alongside the new breakout rooms feature, the company is also launching some new experiences in Microsoft Teams today. Microsoft is now rolling out new holiday-themed Together mode scenes and custom backgrounds to make virtual holiday gatherings more fun. “With these new scenes, it will feel easier than ever for your team to do everything from tackling a tough problem to hosting a holiday party,” Microsoft said.

Lastly, the company has also introduced a bunch of new holiday-themed custom backgrounds for video calls and meetings. Users will be able to download these holiday backgrounds from this website. You can find detailed guidance about using custom backgrounds in our separate post.

It’s good to see that the company is working to bring joy to the Teams meetings and office parties this holiday season. The team has invited users to share their holiday celebrations and ideas with others using the #HolidaysWithTeams tag. “Happy holidays from the Microsoft Teams team. We hope these new experiences and tips bring joy to your workplace and make meetings and office parties more festive this holiday season,” the company said today.