Breakouts

A Breakout is a side conversation inside a Channel. You start one when an idea deserves some room but would hijack the main conversation if you had it there: a rough first draft, a "what if we tried it the other way", a question you want to think through before you ask everyone.

Every Channel has its main conversation and as many Breakouts as you like. A Breakout opens beside its Channel, so you can keep an eye on both.

Start a Breakout#

A Breakout always starts from a message, and branches from that exact point in the conversation.

• From Rally's latest reply. Under it is a line, ↳ Start a breakout from this message. Click it.
• From any other message. Hover over a finished message and click ↳ New breakout among the buttons underneath it.

A launch screen headed New breakout from this message opens to the right of the Channel, with a reminder: Private to you until you add somebody. Rally brings the conversation so far with it.

1. In the box labelled What should this breakout work on?, write your first message, the same way you would in any Channel.
2. Press Return to create the Breakout. ⇧ Shift Return starts a new line instead.

Nothing exists until you send that first message, so changing your mind costs nothing. Click the X (Cancel new breakout) to back out, and Rally keeps what you had typed.

Rally gives the new Breakout a title based on what you asked for. You can rename it whenever you like, as described below.

Starting a Breakout needs a live connection. While Rally is still connecting, the launch screen says Starting a breakout is available once Rally connects. If it fails, you will see The breakout couldn't be created. Try again.

A Breakout beside its Channel#

An open Breakout sits in a pane to the right of its Channel, so the main conversation stays in view while you work on the side. Drag the line between them to share the room differently.

• Where it started. The top of a Breakout shows the message it started from as a card, with up to three earlier messages above it, each a little fainter the further back it goes.
• Chips under messages. In the Channel, every message that started a Breakout gets a small chip underneath with the Breakout's name. It says how many things are new (2 new), and Open when that Breakout is the one beside you. Click a chip to open its Breakout.
• The tick bar. Down the edge of the Channel's conversation runs a column of small ticks, one per Breakout, in the order they started. A longer, red tick has news; the longest is the one that is open. Hover over a tick for the Breakout's name, and click it to open the Breakout and scroll the Channel to where it started.
• The list. Click the Channel's name in its title pill and choose Breakouts for every Breakout in the Channel, newest activity first, with a dot beside any with news. Past six, the rest wait behind Show N more, and a Find a breakout box appears.
• Show in channel. In a Breakout's menu, Show in channel scrolls the Channel to the message the Breakout started from.

Click the X (Close breakout) at the top right of the Breakout to close it and have the Channel to yourself again.

A Breakout's title pill shows how many replies it has, such as 12 replies, once all of it has loaded.

If the window is too narrow for two conversations side by side, the Breakout takes the whole window instead. Its close button takes you back to the Channel. Opening a file or the built-in browser from the Breakout puts the file on the right and moves the Breakout into the Channel's place; click the Channel's name, now at the top left, to close the file and go back to the two side by side.

What Rally knows in a Breakout#

Rally does not start a Breakout from a blank page. It begins with a summary of the main conversation up to the point you branched from, so it already knows what the Channel is about and what has been decided.

From there:

• Rally in the Breakout can read the main conversation when it needs more detail than the summary holds.
• It cannot post in the main conversation. What happens in the Breakout stays in the Breakout until you choose to share it.
• The summary leaves things out. If one exact detail matters, say it again in the Breakout.

You cannot choose how much Rally brings with it. It always brings the summary.

Who can see a Breakout#

A new Breakout is private to you. Nobody else sees it, not even the Channel's other participants, until you invite them. It is the one room in Rally with a door that starts closed.

To bring someone in, click the Breakout's name in its title pill, choose Add people and add them, as described in People in the room. The Add a participant window reminds you of an important rule: Added participants can read this breakout and its shared context. This does not grant access to the parent channel.

So adding a colleague to a Breakout lets them read that Breakout, including what Rally brought into it from the main conversation, but it does not give them the rest of the Channel. That makes Breakouts a good way to involve someone in one part of the work without opening up everything.

To share a Breakout with someone outside your Organization, see Sharing with people outside your Organization.

The Breakout menu#

Click the Breakout's name in its title pill for its menu. At the top it names the Channel it belongs to, with Show in channel, and the message it started from. Then come the same buttons a Channel has:

• Add people brings someone in.
• Rename gives it a new name.
• Copy link copies a link that opens this Breakout. See Search and links.
• Share invites people to this Breakout by email.
• More holds Icon and color and Make public to organization.

Under the buttons are People and Sidekicks, and at the bottom Archive breakout retires it.

The Channel's own menu, from its title pill, has the same buttons for the whole Channel. Its More has Make public to organization, greyed out if the Channel is already open to everyone. That item makes the whole Channel visible to your Organization; Who can see what explains what that means and how to undo it.

Archiving a Breakout#

Archive breakout asks you to confirm, then the Breakout leaves the Channel for everyone in it and stops accepting messages. Rally keeps the conversation, but there is no way in the app to restore it. Archive a Breakout when you are sure you are finished with it.

Bring a result back to the Channel#

Because a Breakout is private, the documents and files Rally makes there do not show up in the Channel. When one is worth sharing, attach it:

1. In the Breakout, find the artifact card in the conversation.
2. Right-click it and choose Attach to channel.

The artifact now also appears in the Channel, and everyone who can read the main conversation can open it. The Breakout keeps its own copy of the link, so people in either place can open it. The conversation that produced it stays private, including the twenty minutes spent arguing about the font.

A few details:

• Only artifacts Rally made in the Breakout can be attached this way.
• If the Channel already has that artifact, the item is greyed out.
• Rally attaches one thing at a time.

Artifacts themselves are covered in Artifacts.

Next: Who can see what, the rules behind all of these doors.