Self-select sub-meetings in videoconferencing

A non-transitory computer-readable media communicatively coupled to one or more processors and storing processor-executable instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform operations comprising:

• establishing, responsive to a first instruction from a host client device to start a main meeting of a video conference, the main meeting by connecting the host client device to the main meeting and processing multimedia streams to and from the host client device for the main meeting;
• joining a plurality of participants to the main meeting in response to requests from each of the participants to join the video conference;
• receiving, from the host client device, a second instruction to start a plurality of sub-meetings for the main meeting;
• establishing the plurality of sub-meetings;
• in response to determining that a self-selection mode for the plurality of sub-meetings is enabled,
• transmitting one or more notifications to participant client devices associated with the plurality of participants, the one or more notifications identifying a list of sub-meetings available to the participant client devices;
• receiving, from a participant client device, a request to connect to a particular sub-meeting of the plurality of sub-meetings;
• forwarding the request to connect to the particular sub-meeting to the host client device and receiving approval of the request from the host client device;
• in response to receiving the approval of the request from the host client device, connecting the participant client device to the particular sub-meeting and processing multimedia streams to and from the participant client device for the particular sub-meeting;
• receiving a second request from the participant client device to connect to a second sub-meeting of the plurality of sub-meetings;
• forwarding the second request to the host client device and receiving approval of the second request from the host client device;
• and
• disconnecting the participant client device from the particular sub-meeting and connecting the participant client device to the second sub-meeting.

A system comprising:

• a processor;
• and
• a memory device including instructions that are executable by the processor to cause the processor to perform operations comprising:
• establishing, responsive to a first instruction from a host client device to start a main meeting of a video conference, the main meeting by connecting the host client device to the main meeting and processing multimedia streams to and from the host client device for the main meeting;
• joining a plurality of participants to the main meeting in response to requests from each of the participants to join the video conference;
• receiving, from the host client device, a second instruction to start a plurality of sub-meetings for the main meeting;
• establishing the plurality of sub-meetings;
• and
• in response to determining that a self-selection mode for the plurality of sub-meetings is enabled,
• transmitting one or more notifications to participant client devices associated with the plurality of participants, the one or more notifications identifying one or more lists of sub-meetings available to the participant client devices;
• receiving, from a participant client device, a request to connect to a particular sub-meeting of the plurality of sub-meetings;
• forwarding the request to the host client device and receiving approval of the request from the host client device;
• responsive to receiving the approval of the request from the host client device, connecting the participant client device to the particular sub-meeting and processing multimedia streams to and from the participant client device for the particular sub-meeting;
• receiving a second request from the participant client device to connect to a second sub-meeting of the plurality of sub-meetings;
• forwarding the second request to the host client device and receiving approval of the second request from the host client device;
• and
• disconnecting the participant client device from the particular sub-meeting and connecting the participant client device to the second sub-meeting.