In this article
A poll is in the attachment menu next to photos and files, it takes half a minute to write, and it needs no bot. Ten options, results that update as people vote, and a tally anybody in the chat can see.
The setting that decides whether it works is the anonymity toggle. Get that one wrong and the answers you get back are not the answers people would have given.
What you will be able to do
- check_circle Create a poll in a group or channel without any add-on.
- check_circle Choose between anonymous and visible voting deliberately.
- check_circle Use multiple answers and quiz mode where each belongs.
- check_circle Run a poll to a conclusion instead of letting it drift.
The toggles are all on the creation screen. They cannot be changed once the poll is sent, which is why they are worth a moment.
how_to_vote Anonymous is the default for a reason
By default nobody — not other members, not the admins, not you — can see who chose what. The count goes up and the name does not travel with it. That is what lets somebody vote for the unpopular option in a group where they have to keep working with everybody afterwards.
Turning anonymity off makes each vote public inside the chat, so tapping a result shows the list of names. There are real uses for that: confirming attendance, signing up for a shift, recording who agreed to something. In all of them the point is that a vote is a commitment attached to a person.
The mistake is using a public poll for an opinion. Asked publicly, a group agrees with whoever voted first and with whoever is senior, and you learn nothing you did not already assume.
You are organising a dinner and need to know who is coming. Which setting matters most?
The list of names is the entire output here. A percentage cannot book a table, and an anonymous result leaves you unable to chase the people who have not answered because you do not know who they are. Say in the question that votes will be visible — people assume anonymity and should not discover otherwise afterwards.
You want to know what the group really thinks of a plan you proposed. Which setting?
A poll with names attached measures what people are willing to say in front of you at least as much as it measures what they think — and it is your plan they are being asked about. Anonymity is the default for exactly this reason, and it is the right setting for any question where somebody might feel watched.
You allowed multiple answers, and the percentages add up to well over a hundred. What happened?
With multiple answers on, each percentage says what proportion of the people who voted picked that option, so they will not sum to a hundred and are not meant to. That is also the reason this setting is wrong for choosing one thing: if everything can be picked, the poll produces a list rather than a decision.
Somebody taps the wrong option in a quiz-mode poll. What can they do about it?
In an ordinary poll a vote can be retracted and changed while the poll is open, so an accidental tap is not a trap. Quiz mode removes that, which is the whole point of it and also the reason never to use quiz mode for a question that is really an opinion. Write the explanation even when the answer looks obvious — it is the part people remember.
task_alt
settings Running one properly
- Attachment menu, then Poll The same paperclip you use for photos.
- Write the question and up to ten options Fewer is better; long lists split the vote into noise.
- Set the toggles before sending Anonymity, multiple answers, quiz mode. None of them can be changed later.
- Pin it In a busy group an unpinned poll scrolls away within the hour.
- Say when it closes A deadline in the question does more for turnout than any reminder.
- Stop the poll and post the outcome Stopping freezes the result for the record; the sentence you write afterwards is what people act on.
This page is one tool for deciding something. The curriculum step is the container it runs in: how a small group differs from a supergroup, what changes when one becomes the other, and why scale is what makes anonymity matter.
At a glance
- 1Built-in polls
Create a poll from the attachment menu; no bot needed.
- 2Anonymous or visible
Choose before sending; it cannot change later.
- 3Close it
Stop the poll and post what you will do with the result.
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