Teams - Breakout rooms & Gallery

Question

Hello
Would it be possible to help with the following points?

1.How do i activate the breakout rooms in Teams - I do not have the available icon
2.How can i increase the gallery size - it only displays the option 6 and 9

Thank you in advance

Answer 1

Hi @Cristina Robalo, 

Thank you for reaching out and sharing your concern regarding breakout rooms and gallery size in Teams meeting. I can totally understand how important it is for you to be able to create breakout rooms and increase the gallery size for your Teams meeting. 

Based on your description, to create breakout rooms, please follow these steps: 

1. Navigate to Calendar in Teams, then select a meeting. 
2. Select View event.  
3. Select More options > Breakout rooms. 

 

4. Select Create rooms. 
5. Enter the number of rooms. 

 

6. Select Assign participants. 
7. Select Add rooms. 

Please note that this option will only appear after invites have been sent to attendees. 

 

Regarding your query to increase the gallery size in a Teams meeting, the number of participants shown in the gallery is directly affected by how many attendees have their cameras turned on. Teams dynamically adjusts the gallery layout based on active video feeds. When fewer people have their cameras on, the gallery is limited to smaller layouts such as 6 or 9 tiles. Larger gallery options, including Large gallery, only become available when enough participants are actively sharing video. This behavior is by design and helps Teams balance performance and video quality during meetings. 

 

For more information, please refer to these documents: 

• Manage breakout rooms in Microsoft Teams - Microsoft Support 
• Customize your meeting view in Microsoft Teams - Microsoft Support 

I hope this information is helpful. Please follow the steps above and let me know if it works for you. If not, we can continue working together to resolve the issue.  

Thank you for your patience and understanding. If you have any questions or need additional assistance, please don’t hesitate to reach out so I can continue to support you. If you found the response useful, please consider marking it as accepted, as this may help other community members who are looking for similar guidance.  

I look forward to continuing the conversation.

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Answer 2

1. Activating and using breakout rooms

In a Teams meeting where breakout rooms are available, use the meeting controls bar:

1. In the meeting window, look on the meeting controls bar for Breakout rooms (sometimes shown as Rooms).
2. Select Breakout rooms.
3. Choose how many rooms are needed and how participants should be assigned.
4. Select Create rooms, then Start rooms to open them.

If the Breakout rooms / Rooms button is not visible:

• Breakout rooms are only available in scheduled meetings (not all call types) and only certain roles (typically the organizer or designated managers) can create them.
• Ensure the meeting is using the standard Teams meeting experience and not a scenario where breakout rooms are disabled by policy.

2. Increasing gallery size

Gallery is the default view in a Teams meeting. To change how many people appear on screen:

1. In the meeting window, select View.
2. Select Select max gallery size.
3. Choose how many people to see at once.

Notes from the product behavior:

• On the desktop app, it is possible to choose 4, 9, 16, or 49 participants at a time, depending on how many people are in the meeting.
• On Teams for web, only 4 or 9 participants can be shown at a time.
• Devices might show fewer videos based on hardware capabilities, bandwidth, or memory. In those cases, only smaller options (such as 6 or 9) may appear.
• Ensure Gallery is selected under View before changing the max gallery size.

If only smaller options are available, it is due to one or more of:

• Using Teams on the web instead of the desktop app.
• Hardware not meeting the requirements for larger galleries.
• Teams automatically limiting videos because of low bandwidth or device memory.

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References:

• Tips for Teams meetings
• Tips for better meetings
• Use video in Microsoft Teams