Easily gather feedback and opinions from friends and family using the new polls feature in iMessage, available on iPhone, iPad, and Mac running iOS 26, iPadOS 26, and macOS 26.
Whether you’re asking your family what to order for dinner or trying to find the best date for a meetup with friends, the polls feature in the Messages app makes it easy to see which option is suitable for everyone.
Even though chat apps like WhatsApp and Telegram have had the polls feature for a while, Apple’s Messages app lacked this, and you had to use third-party iMessage apps like Polls for iMessage.
But now, this feature is baked right into the app, and here’s how you can use it. Just make sure both you and your friends have updated to iOS 26, iPadOS 26, and macOS Tahoe 26.
Create a poll
1) Go to an individual or group conversation on your iPhone, iPad, or Mac, hit the plus button (+), and select Polls.
2) Enter your first choice or poll option. As you type, you’ll notice that a new choice field shows up automatically underneath it. You can repeat this to add up to 12 choices in a single poll.
3) With choices done, use the comment box to add a question, which will appear under the poll options. If you like, you can also send the question first and then create a poll so that the choices appear under the question.
4) Lastly, tap the arrow button to send your poll. The recipient or group members can now vote to share their opinions.
Voting in a poll
Tap the desired option in a poll to cast your vote. If you change your mind, tap the marked choice to unvote. You can also pick more than one choice, as iOS doesn’t provide the poll creator the option to restrict voting to just one answer.
Note that you can’t create a poll in the watchOS 26 Messages app on Apple Watch, but you can vote in one by tapping the choices on the screen.
Add choices to your poll later
You can tap Add Choice under a poll and type in additional options. If the options shown in a poll aren’t sufficient for the receiver, they, too, can tap Add Choice and add their own.
The choice they add becomes a part of the original poll, nearly indistinguishable from the choices you (i.e., the original poll creator) added during poll creation. After someone adds choices to your poll, the poll shifts from the right side of your device screen to the left side, and you’ll see a tiny label with that person’s name, but it isn’t very helpful. There is no way for other participants to know who added a new option to the poll. Overall, it’s a messy and idiotic implementation that makes a mockery of the polls feature. Apps like WhatsApp don’t have such drawbacks.
Note that Add Choice is only visible if the poll currently has fewer than 12 choices.
View poll results
Both the poll creator and recipients can view the results. Touch and hold the poll and select Poll Details from the menu to see who all voted, their choices, and even members of the group chat who haven’t yet voted.
Delete your poll
There is no way to delete the poll for everyone unless you act within 2 minutes of sending it and use the Undo Send option.
However, if you want to delete the poll from your devices, simply delete it like any other message: touch and hold the poll, tap More, then tap the trash icon and confirm.
iMessage polls lack basic features!
- You can’t add a question to the poll. You must send a separate message either before creating the poll or add a comment that appears as a separate text under the poll. This is lousy!
- Recipients can add choices, and you, the poll creator, have no option to block this. On top of that, the Poll Details page doesn’t clearly show who added the extra choices, creating confusion.
- The poll creator can’t restrict people to choosing just one option or block them from changing their vote.
- After you create a poll, the conversation screen seems to lag, auto-scroll unnecessarily, and the poll even disappears briefly. Deleting the poll resolves these unusual issues.
- Finally, the design, or lack thereof, could be confusing. There is no border around the poll to separate it from other texts. All the options appear as horizontal bars on their own, without grouping. As votes come in, the size of the choices changes, and some with no votes get truncated, appearing strange. Compare this to WhatsApp (pictured below), and you’ll see the difference.
Hopefully, Apple will address at least some of these concerns in future iOS 26 updates.
Also, check out: 18 settings to change and new features to try in iOS 26