WhatsApp iOS beta app gets polls feature for channels

It’s a new day, and we find yet another new update making its way to WhatsApp. This time around, to iPhones. For now, at least. Testers on WhatsApp beta for iOS 24.1.10.76 have spotted a new feature on the app that allows channel owners to create polls.

All you need to know about polls for channels

Channels, as you probably already know, are a one-way means of communication that can be used for anything from dissemination of news, promotion of brands and products, or even just sharing content in different forms with a large group of people.

However, until now, the only way to understand just how audiences were interacting with this content, owners of channels had to depend only on their reactions. This as you may imagine, could become tedious after a point. To help with just that, WhatsApp has begun rolling out a new ‘polls’ feature for channels to beta testers, currently on iOS devices.

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If you happen to have a channel on WhatsApp, to check whether this feature is enabled for you, head to the attachment menu on the message box within your channel. If you have this feature, you can create both multiple-choice as well as single-choice polls.

In addition to this, participants of any given poll can view only the total number of votes, without specifically knowing who opted for which option, and how many opted for the same individually. This helps ensure that confidentiality is maintained, and also helps ensure users’ safety. Moreover, even a channel’s owner cannot see who participated or didn’t participate in the poll, further ensuring user safety.

The feature, in addition to making it easier for channel owners to understand how users are interacting with their content, also makes channels more interactive for the latter as well. As mentioned earlier, the feature is currently available to beta testers of the app on iOS devices and is expected to be gradually rolled out to all users in the coming days. Exactly when, however, remains unknown as of now.