Polls

A poll is a message like any other. It sits in the conversation, everyone in that conversation can answer it, and the results update in place as they do.

Create a poll

Platform

On the web, select + beside the composer and choose Create Poll. On iOS and Android, select + and choose the Poll tile. Both open the same form, titled Create Poll.

1. Type your question into Ask a question.
2. Fill in Option 1 and Option 2. Two options is the minimum.
3. Select Add option for more. You can have up to ten. To drop one, use the cross beside it — it appears once you have more than two.
4. Set the two switches (see below).
5. Select Create. Cancel closes the form and throws the draft away.

The poll then posts into the conversation as a message from you, and everyone sees Poll created confirm it went.

The two switches

Switch	Default	What it does
Allow multiple answers	Off	Lets each person pick several options instead of exactly one
Allow changing the vote	On	Lets people change or withdraw their answer after voting

Turning Allow changing the vote off makes every answer final, including your own. Nobody can correct a mistake afterwards, so leave it on unless a locked answer is the point.

If the form will not submit

The form checks your poll before sending it, and says what is wrong just above the buttons:

• Add a question — the question is empty.
• Add at least 2 options — fewer than two options have text in them.
• Options must be unique — two options say the same thing. Capitalisation does not make them different.

If it fails for any other reason you get Couldn't create the poll. Please try again. and your draft is left intact so you can retry.

Vote

Select an option on the card. Your answer registers immediately — there is no separate submit.

• Single-answer polls. Selecting a different option moves your vote. Selecting the option you already chose withdraws it.
• Multiple-answer polls. Each option toggles on and off independently, so you can select several and deselect any of them.

Both of these need the poll to allow changing your vote. On a locked poll, your first answer stands: selecting anything afterwards tells you Vote locked, because the poll doesn't allow changing your vote.

note

Voting is not sending a message. In a group restricted to administrators, where you cannot type, you can still answer a poll.

Reading the results

The card shows the current standing without you having to do anything:

• Each option carries its own vote count and a bar filled to its share of the total.
• Your own choices are ticked — a circled check on a single-answer poll, a checkbox on one that allows several.
• Along the bottom left is the total, either No votes yet or a count such as 7 votes.
• Along the bottom right is a reminder of the rules — Select one or Select one or more, with · can't change added when the poll is locked.

Results are live. When somebody else votes, the counts on your card move without you reopening anything.

See who voted

Once a poll has at least one vote, a View votes link appears at the bottom of the card.

Platform

On the web this opens a panel beside the conversation. On iOS and Android it opens a Votes window over it, with the question repeated underneath the title.

Either way the list is grouped by option, showing each option's text and count as a heading with the people who chose it underneath, by name and picture. An option nobody picked reads No votes yet. Long lists are paged — select Show more under an option to load the rest of its voters.

caution

Polls are not anonymous. Anyone in the conversation can open View votes and see exactly who chose what, including you.

Polls behave like messages

Because a poll is a message, most of what you can do to a message you can do to a poll: reply to it, react to it, or unsend it. Unsending a poll takes it out of the conversation and closes it — an unsent poll stops accepting votes and can no longer be opened.

Forwarding is the exception. A poll cannot be forwarded to another conversation, because its votes belong to the conversation it was posted in. To ask the same question elsewhere, create a new poll there.

Limits at a glance

Limit	Value
Options per poll	2 to 10
Question length	300 characters
Option length	120 characters