You’ll soon be able to record the opinion of people in a group chat with a WhatsApp poll, a new feature currently under development and testing.
- The beta version of WhatsApp 22.8.0.72 gained a polling feature for group chats
- You can add up to 12 options when creating a poll, and emoji are supported
- Relatedly, link previews on WhatsApp for Desktop are working now
Creating a WhatsApp poll
The ability to create WhatsApp polls in group chats was first spotted last month, but now new details have come to light. This feature is currently available in the WhatsApp Beta version 22.8.0.72, available through Apple’s TestFlight app. You can enter a custom poll question, then add up to twelve possible responses. To perfect the poll, you can reorder these options. After you send your poll in a group chat, people can vote the answer. Only group chat participants can see your poll and its results. Of course, polls are only available in group chats. And yes, all polls in group chats are end-to-end encrypted. Read: How to change your WhatsApp user name
The feature  is a bit rough around the edges as development continues. It’s unclear from the screenshots in the WABetaInfo post whether WhatsApp might limit the number of responses or, say, polls per group chat. If testing concludes that the feature didn’t meet WhatsApp’s internal expectations, the company could remove it altogether. Read: How to fix WhatsApp not working on iPhone
When’s this feature coming?
This feature was first spotted by WABetaInfo, a blog dedicated to unearthing work unreleased features from the WhatsApp beta for iOS and Android. Since this is a feature under development, it’s not possible to create polls with the current WhatsApp app. As to when Meta-owned WhatsApp might bring polls in group chats to all users, it could take anywhere from a few weeks to a couple months. Meanwhile, WhatsApp continues testing many unreleased features such as sharing media files up to 2GB in size, Tapback-style reactions and wallpapers for calls.
Link previews have been fixed in WhatsApp for Desktop
WABetaInfo separately reported that broken link previews that wouldn’t render in the WhatsApp for Desktop beta have been fixed now. It’s currently not possible to generate rich link previews on WhatsApp Web for the time being.
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