If you’ve ever wondered how to create a poll in Slack, you’re not alone. Polls can be an excellent way to gather feedback from your team, keep your finger on the pulse of employee engagement, and even break the ice before a meeting. Unfortunately, Slack doesn’t have its own polls feature.

Unlike Microsoft Teams, which allows you to add native polls to chats and channels instantly, Slack is severely lacking in polling options. I find that a little unusual, considering how commonly people use Slack to connect teams and share insights.

Slack may add a native polling option in the future as it continues to enhance its tools with solutions like Slack AI. In the meantime, I’m going to share a few of the ways you can create a poll in Slack without having to switch to another collaboration app.

How to Create a Poll in Slack: The Emoji Option

If you search for “How to create a poll in Slack” on Slack’s help center site, you’ll find a page that tells you to either install an app from the app directory, or use a “native emoji poll”.

The first option basically takes advantage of Slack users’ ability to “react” to a post with emojis. All you need to do is click the “Compose” button in Slack or write a message in the Slack message field asking a question.

Hold shift when pressing “Enter/Return” to add a list of potential answers. Give each answer an associated emoji that users can respond with.

Press the “send” button to “publish” your poll, and wait for your employees to respond. As each person sends an emoji reaction, you’ll see a number next to each image so you can quickly determine the results of your poll. It’s a pretty basic way to conduct a poll, but it works.

How to Create a Poll in Slack: Third-Party Apps

While Slack doesn’t have its own polling feature, it does benefit from a huge app directory, with tons of different tools you can use to boost productivity and collaboration. You can visit the Slack app store here, and search for “Polls” to find a range of poll creation tools.

There are actually quite a few options to choose from. Although many are entirely free to use, I’d recommend looking at the apps with free and paid plans, particularly if you use polls regularly.

Some of the more premium apps will include additional features and benefits, like the ability to experiment with various templates and anonymous polls.

Here are some of the top apps you can use for Slack polls, and how they work.

1. Simple Poll

Simple Poll is one of the most popular apps for anyone wondering how to create a poll in Slack. It’s extremely easy to use and embeds polls natively into your Slack app. You can even set up recurring automatic polls that run on a regular basis. For instance, you could create a recurring poll that asks people how they feel about their work week.

To use Simple Poll, all you need to do is:

  • Install the app from the Slack app directory.
  • Type the /Poll command into Slack to get started.
  • Follow the instructions provided by the app to choose a template for your poll.
  • Edit the template question and answer options.
  • Configure your settings. For instance, you can make answers anonymous, allow other people to submit options, limit the number of votes, or schedule the post for later.
  • Select “Preview” to see what your poll will look like.
  • Click “Create Poll”.

You can also use Simple Poll’s features to remind people to respond, promote your poll and highlight the voting options, and even hide the results of your poll, so only certain people can see them.

2. Polly

Polly is another excellent solution for creating Slack polls. It also integrates with Microsoft Teams, and Zoom, if you’re using an alternative collaboration app. Polly gives you access to more than 30 poll templates to choose from. You can run Q&A sessions with the app, send out pulse and engagement sessions, create single and multi-question polls and more.

Plus, there’s the option to use Polly to create interactive games, such as trivia sessions, or you can ask people to vote on the “employee of the month” and other awards.

To create a poll in Slack with Polly:

  • Install the Polly app from the Slack marketplace
  • Type /Polly into the Slack chat box, along with your question.
  • Follow the instructions on the pop-up screen to customize your poll. You can choose which group to send the poll to, answering options like multiple choice or open-ended, and whether you want to enable comments, or show poll results to team members in real-time.
  • Select your poll audience with the “Choose audience” button, then decide whether you want to run your poll instantly or schedule it for later.
  • Publish the poll, and your respondents will receive a notification. You can even set a time limit on your poll to inform users when they need to stop voting.

One of the best things about Polly is that you can make every aspect of your poll completely anonymous. That’s great if you want to gather information about sensitive topics or worry that employees might not respond honestly if other people can see their votes.

3. Geekbot

Geekbot is an all-in-one app that facilitates collaboration across locations and time zones. As well as allowing you to create native Slack polls, it also gives you tools for standup meetings, surveys, daily check-ins, and sprint retrospectives.

The convenient bot also lets employees keep their team members informed with automated out-of-office notifications and status updates. To create a poll in Slack with Geekbot:

  • Install the Geekbot app from the Slack app directory.
  • Open Geekbot in Slack by sending the message “dashboard” to the bot.
  • Browse through the Slack poll templates and choose the one you want to use. You can also select the option to “build your own” poll.
  • Configure your poll by entering your questions, answer options, and participants (who can vote on the poll). You can also set a schedule for when to publish the poll and how long people can vote.
  • Name your poll and choose where it will be broadcast, such as on the #General channel. At this stage, you can also choose whether the poll should be anonymous by tapping the toggle next to “Anonymous survey.”
  • Enter an introduction message to share alongside your poll, and publish it on your chosen channel.

When participants start responding to your poll, you can review your results in two different ways. One option is to view results directly in Slack as they occur. The other is to revisit your Geekbot dashboard, where you’ll see all of your responses laid out in a visual graph. There’s even a handy participation section, that shows you how many people responded to your question.

How to Create a Poll in Slack: Top Tips

As I mentioned above, polls can be an excellent way to gather insights from your teams, even if Slack doesn’t offer polling as a native feature. Regardless of whether you embrace the “emoji” option, or you decide to use a third-party app, however, there are a few best practices to keep in mind.

  • Keep it simple: The only way to get great insights from your Slack polls, is to convince everyone to get involved. The more complicated your polls are, the less likely it is people will answer them. Keep things simple, with straightforward questions and only a handful of answers to choose from.
  • Make them anonymous: Regardless of how supportive your company culture is, there will be people in your team who feel uncomfortable expressing their true opinions. If your poll asks how much people like your new marketing campaign, most people will be reluctant to give a negative response. Consider making your polls anonymous for honest answers.
  • Prompt engagement: People are busy. They could forget all about a poll when they’re busy with another project. With Slack polling apps, you can usually nudge people to respond to a poll after a while, which can improve your chances of better response rates.
  • Know when to use polls: Polls are great for collecting fast-paced feedback from your teams, but they’re not ideal for every use case. If you want in-depth insights and responses to an important question like “How can we improve our customer retention rates?” it makes more sense to host a meeting.

Additionally, make sure you use the insights you gain from your polls. If you run a poll asking about employee engagement levels and numbers start to drop, create a action plan. Polls should help your employees feel heard and respected. Don’t just ignore their responses.

How to Create a Poll in Slack: Final Thoughts

Learning how to create a poll in Slack can be an excellent way to gather regular feedback and insights from your team. Polls are fantastic for tracking employee engagement and satisfaction, getting quick responses to questions, and boosting collaboration.

While Slack doesn’t have the same polling capabilities as other platforms like Zoom and Microsoft Teams, there are still some options available. You can either create a basic poll with emojis directly in Slack or extend the platform’s functionality with a range of add-ons.

Whichever option you choose, follow the tips above to ensure you’re getting the most value from your polls, and don’t be afraid to experiment with new formats, templates, and ideas.



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