Guide overview
Polls in Microsoft Teams are a quick and effective way to gather feedback, check understanding, and engage meeting participants. Teams uses the Polls App in the background to create and manage poll questions.
This guide explains how to create polls in channels, chats, and meetings.
1. What You Can Do With Polls in Teams
What You Can Do
You can create polls to:
- Run quick opinion checks in a channel or group chat
- Gather real‑time feedback in meetings
- Allow participants to respond before, during, or after a meeting
- View results instantly and export responses for later analysis
2. Creating a Poll in a Teams Channel or Chat
A Poll in a Teams Channel or Chat
You can create an instant poll that appears directly in the chat thread.
Steps
- Open the Teams channel or chat where you want to post a poll.
- Next to the message box select + , and then select or search for the Polls app.
- Choose Polls.
- Enter your poll question and at least two answer options.
- Select Preview to review your poll.
- Choose Send to post it.
Tips
- Turn on Multiple selections if you want users to choose more than one answer.
- Optional: record respondents’ names (visible only to the poll creator).
3. Creating a Poll in a Teams Meeting
A Poll in a Teams Meeting
Meeting polls allow you to check comprehension, gather feedback, and increase participation. Polls can be created before or during the meeting.
Create a Poll Before a Meeting
- Open the scheduled meeting in Teams.
- Select Apps → Polls.
- Click on New poll.
- Write your question and answer options.
- Save the poll as a Draft to launch later during the meeting.
Create a Poll During a Meeting
- In the meeting toolbar, select Apps → Polls.
- Choose New poll.
- Enter your question, configure options, and select Save as draft or Launch now.
4. Viewing and Managing Poll Results
Poll Results
After people vote:
- Results appear instantly on the poll card.
- As the poll creator, you can click the down arrow and select Response details on the poll card to access full results.
- You can then view:
- Total number of responses
- Individual responses (if name recording was enabled)
- Detailed breakdown of answers
- Completion time
- You can export results to Excel for further analysis.
5. Best Practice for Effective Polls
Best Practice
- Be concise – shorter questions gain clearer responses.
- Avoid overlapping answer choices.
- Use anonymous mode when collecting sensitive feedback.
- Use polls strategically during teaching sessions to check understanding.
Useful Links
Please click on the following links for further guidance; Creating a poll in Microsoft Teams and Poll attendees during a Teams meeting.