Microsoft Teams now supports Instant Polls — here’s how to use them
What you need to know
- Microsoft Teams now supports Instant Polls within meetings.
- The feature allows meeting organizers to get instant feedback through three types of pre-defined polls.
- Teams already supported sharing polls, but this new feature is built to drive engagement for spontaneous questions.
Microsoft Teams now supports Instant Polls within meetings. The feature allows meeting organizers to ask for immediate feedback on a spontaneous question. For example, a presenter could ask if everyone understands a specific idea and then ask attendees to press thumbs up or thumbs down.
Microsoft discussed the ability to create Instant Polls when it rounded up everything new for Teams from November 2022, but the feature may have been missed by some. To help highlight it, Microsoft shared a blog post (opens in new tab) on the tool as well.
The three pre-defined poll types are:
- Yes/No
- Thumbs up/Thumbs down
- Like/Dislike
These types of polls are good for gauging if people have understood something that was explained or choosing an action as a group. More complex polls were already supported in the Polls section of Teams.
Microsoft outlines the steps to launch a poll:
- During a meeting for which you are the organizer, click the Polls button.
- Voice verbally the question you would like your audience to answer.
- In the Polls pane, in the Launch instant poll section, select the option set you want to use.
Instant Polls are available for Microsoft Business and Enterprise subscribers at this time. Microsoft did not mention support for other versions of Teams in its blog post, so it’s unclear if Instant Polls will become available for other users in the future.
