WhatsApp has become one of the most popular messaging apps, with over 2 billion users worldwide. Its widespread adoption and ease of use make it a great platform for creating polls to survey friends, family, colleagues, customers and more. WhatsApp’s poll feature allows you to easily create voting polls to gather feedback and opinions from groups. Here’s a guide on how to make a simple poll on WhatsApp.
Requirements for Creating WhatsApp Polls
Before creating a poll on WhatsApp, you need to ensure:
- You have the latest version of WhatsApp installed on your phone
- You’re using an Android smartphone or iPhone (WhatsApp polls aren’t available on Windows phones or WhatsApp Web/Desktop)
- You have at least 3 participants added in the group or chat where you want to create the poll
These requirements are set by WhatsApp to enable polls. As long as you meet these, you can easily create voting polls on WhatsApp groups and individual chats. Polls are currently limited to groups and 1-on-1 chats – you can’t create them in community/broadcast messages.
Steps to Create a Poll on WhatsApp
Follow these simple steps to create and send a poll on WhatsApp:
- Open the WhatsApp group or individual chat where you want to create the poll.
- Tap on the attach button (paperclip icon) at the bottom.
- From the attachment menu, tap on the Poll option.
- You will now see a screen with two empty fields – Question and Options. Type your poll question in the Question field.
- In the Options sections, tap on the + icon to add each of the poll choices, one by one. You can add up to 12 options.
- Once you’ve added all the options, tap on the check icon below to enable multiple choice or no-multiple choice poll.
- You can allow users to choose one or multiple options. Tap on Multiple Choice for multi-select, No Multiple Choice for single-select polls.
- Tap on the send icon once your poll is ready.
The poll will be sent as a message and appear at the top of your chat screen. Recipients in the chat can tap on the options to cast their votes. They can change votes within the first 1 hour, 8 minutes and 16 seconds after you send the poll.
Examples of Poll Types You Can Create
Here are some examples of polls you can create and get quick feedback:
- Simple Yes/No polls – e.g. Should we go ahead with Project X?
- Multiple choice polls – e.g. Which pricing model do you prefer? $10/month, $5/month + commission, commission only
- Voting polls – e.g. Vote for your favorite feature – Option 1, Option 2, Option 3
- Schedule polls – e.g. Are you available for a meeting on Monday at 10am, Tuesday 11am or Wednesday 9am?
- Location polls – e.g. Which restaurant should we go to for team lunch? Options list out locations.
These are just a few ideas – you can get creative and make polls for any kind of questions, feedback or voting!
Poll Limitations on WhatsApp
While WhatsApp polls provide an easy way to gather opinions, there are some limitations to be aware of:
- You can only create polls in groups and individual chats, not broadcast lists or status updates.
- Polls are limited to a maximum of 12 options.
- Users can’t add new options once you’ve created and sent the poll.
- You can’t rename or delete a poll once it’s sent.
- Poll results and metrics aren’t available once voting ends. You only see who voted for what in real-time.
- There’s no way to extend the voting period after initially sending the poll.
Due to these restrictions, WhatsApp polls are best suited for quick, real-time feedback and opinions. For more advanced surveys and voting, third-party polling apps may be more useful.
Tips for Better WhatsApp Polling
Here are some tips to help you create effective polls and get more votes on WhatsApp:
- Keep poll questions short and specific – Long wordy questions can confuse users.
- Limit options to 2-6 – Too many options can overwhelm users and lead to lower response.
- Use neutral and unbiased language – Don’t use leading questions that influence the answer.
- Allow multiple options if needed – Enable multiple choice for ‘select all that apply’ type questions.
- Mention the poll in your message – Alert users about the poll if it wasn’t discussed prior.
- Give a deadline – Let participants know how long they have to respond.
- Send reminders to vote – Followup if you notice low response rates.
Following these best practices will help you create effective WhatsApp polls and improve participation rates.
Analyzing WhatsApp Poll Results
While WhatsApp doesn’t provide full analytics for polls, you can still view live results and get insights:
- Monitor the real-time poll responses to see voting percentages.
- Look at who voted for what option in your chat – names are displayed next to choices.
- Make a note of total votes and percentages for each option.
- Screenshot the final poll results before voting ends for future reference.
- Compare poll results to any offline or followup responses to validate.
By observing poll participation and recording final results, you can gauge response rates and extract key learnings from the poll.
Alternatives to WhatsApp Polls
While WhatsApp polls offer a quick and convenient way to survey groups, there are some limitations as discussed earlier. Here are a few alternative options you can consider:
- Google Forms – Create surveys with multiple detailed questions and share via chat links.
- SurveyMonkey – Feature-rich online survey tool with analytics and sharing options.
- Poll Maker Apps – Simple poll apps like Straw Poll, Easy Polls, etc allow anonymous voting.
- Facebook Polls – Add polls to Facebook Groups and Pages to target specific audiences.
- Slack Polls – Slack app enables creating polls in work channels.
These provide more advanced features than WhatsApp polls, however may be less convenient than in-chat polls for quick feedback.
Conclusion
WhatsApp’s native polling feature makes it incredibly easy to create polls and surveys within your chats. With just a few taps, you can add polls to gather opinions from friends, family, colleagues, customers and more. While basic in functionality, it’s a great starting point to collect instant feedback right where your conversations happen. Just be mindful of the limitations, and don’t hesitate to explore other polling tools if you need more advanced and customizable surveys.