The Instagram Android app was recently updated with a polling feature delivered within the platform’s popular Stories format, the Facebook-owned social media company announced earlier this week. As is usually the case with new additions to Stories, online polls are coming as part of a special sticker which provides users with a simple way to ask questions from their followers and receive real-time feedback. The polling mechanism itself is as simple as stickers usually are and only allows you to present your audience with two possible answers, i.e. options. To use it, find the “Poll” sticker after recording a photo or video for your Story, write your custom question if you deem one is necessary, and modify the two answers. Alternatively, you can simply share an image with just the answers and no question if you believe your creation is self-explanatory enough to prompt users to vote on its own.
The votes you receive will be updated in real time, allowing you to start tracking the performance of your poll from the very moment you publish it as a Story post. As is often the case with online polling systems, other people will also be able to see their overall results but not until they cast their own vote. The system itself was designed to be simple and entertaining, with Instagram presumably hoping to boost user engagement rates with the new service. The latest addition to Instagram comes in the form of a client-side update that you must download from the Google Play Store. Refer to the banner below to see if your app was already upgraded automatically or if you must trigger a manual installation.
After you post a poll, you’ll be able to see its detailed performance by swiping up on it from the Stories interface. While your audience won’t be able to see who voted for what option, you will, and the same goes for the exact number of votes each item received. As online polls are presently only available in the form of Story stickers, you aren’t able to host permanent ones. Instead, the ephemeral nature of the format will see the polls disappear exactly 24 hours after being posted.
