FluidMeet: Enabling Frictionless Transitions Between In-Group, Between-Group, and Private Conversations During Virtual Breakout Meetings

Abstract

People often form small conversation groups during physical gatherings to have ad-hoc and informal conversations. As these groups are loosely defined, others can often overhear and join the conversation. However, current video-conferencing tools only allow for strict boundaries between small conversation groups, inhibiting fluid group formations and between-group conversations. This isolates small-group conversations from others and leads to inefficient transitions between conversations. We present FluidMeet, a virtual breakout meeting system that employs flexible conversation boundaries and cross-group conversation visualizations to enable fluid conversation group formations and ad-hoc, informal conversations. FluidMeet enables out-group members to overhear group conversations while allowing conversation groups to control their shared level of context. Users within conversation groups can also quickly switch between in-group and private conversations. A study of FluidMeet showed that it encouraged users to break group boundaries, made them feel less isolated in group conversations, and facilitated communication across different groups.