Slack Run Poll: How to Set One Up in Any Channel
A Slack run poll takes one of two shapes: an emoji-message poll built from a normal Slack message, or a question built by an app such as Simple Poll. Slack's help pages walk through the emoji route, and Simple Poll's help centre walks through the app route. Neither needs a paid plan, since Slack itself offers a Free plan. The emoji route suits a fast yes-or-no; the app route adds options, settings and anonymity.
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Two routes: emoji message or app
A Slack run poll starts with a choice Slack itself hands you. The help pages for conversations describe a quick and informal poll built inside a message, while the same pages point to installing a polling app from the Slack Marketplace for anything more structured. Both routes land the question in the channel where your teammates already work, and neither asks for a paid plan, because Slack's pricing page offers a Free tier and says you can upgrade at any time.
The emoji route costs nothing to learn. You write a message, put an emoji beside each option, send it, and teammates react with the emoji that matches their pick. The app route asks for one installation, then gives you a modal window with fields for the question and every option, plus settings the message route cannot offer.
- The emoji route suits a fast yes-or-no with two or three choices.
- The app route suits a question with many options and named settings.
- Both sit in the channel, so nobody has to open a separate tool.
- Only the app route adds anonymity; the message route shows every name.
The emoji route, step by step
Slack's help pages on conversations lay the message route out in four moves, and the whole thing takes less than a minute. Compose the message first, then dress it up so the choices read clearly at a glance.
Once the reactions are in place, the count builds in public. Every member who glances at the message sees which emoji carries how many, and each reaction carries the name of the account that made it. That visibility is the whole trail on this route; there is no separate screen and no export, just the message and its reactions.
Keep the option set short here. A message with a dozen emoji choices turns into a wall, and people skip walls.
- Click the compose button to start a message that sets up your poll.
- Choose emojis for each voting option and add them with blockquote formatting so they are easier to read.
- Send the message to the channel.
- Add one emoji reaction for each option, which Slack says makes it simpler for others to add their vote.
Simple Poll: the app route
Simple Poll is the app most Slack run poll questions land on, and its help centre describes a start that takes seconds. Click the Run shortcut button in Slack, or type /poll and press Enter; either move opens the modal window where the question gets built. Once the app is open, click the Create A Poll button and the same modal appears.
After the send, the question sits in the channel like any other message, and members click an option instead of fishing for the right emoji. The tally accumulates on the message itself, in the channel, in the open, where anyone scrolling past can read it without clicking anything.
- The Run shortcut button is the little / symbol in the bottom left of the message window.
- Typing /poll and pressing Enter opens the same modal window as the shortcut.
- The Create A Poll button inside the app opens that modal as well.
Settings worth a second look
The modal window holds more than question and options, and one setting changes how the whole channel experiences the thing.
An anonymous poll answers a different question than an open one. If an honest answer might embarrass the person giving it, anonymity earns honesty; if you need to follow up with individuals afterwards, keep the names on. Decide before you send, because the choice shapes what the tally can and cannot tell you later.
- Up to 45 response options fit one question, per the help centre.
- Tick Make anonymous under Settings, and the poll stops showing who picked what.
- Anonymity changes the trail: the count stays, the names go.
Polly and the integration question
Polly is another polling app in the Slack Marketplace, and its listing starts the same way: type /poll in Slack to get started. Polly earns its own write-up elsewhere, so here it is enough to say that the /poll start is shared ground between the two apps, and that picking between them is a matter of the settings each one puts in front of you.
Whatever app you pick, the pattern repeats: install from the marketplace, start with the /poll shortcut or the Run button, build in the modal, send to the channel. The differences live in the settings, and in nothing you have to learn twice.
- Both apps start from the same /poll move in the message box.
- Both land the finished question in the channel you sent it to.
- The settings each one exposes are where they separate.
Where a Slack run poll can live
A Slack run poll lives wherever you send the message that carries it. The help pages do not name one place as the home for polls, because mechanically there is no special home: the question is a message, and messages go where the work happens. Send it to the channel whose members should answer, and it reaches exactly those people.
For a workspace-wide question, send to the largest relevant channel rather than scattering direct messages; a question split across five chats produces five tallies and no single number anyone trusts.
- A public channel reaches everyone in it.
- A private channel reaches its members only.
- A group chat reaches just that group.
What the channel sees about fake or padded votes
On the emoji route the record is the reaction row: one name beside each emoji, visible to the whole channel, counted by Slack itself. If the question feeds a contest or a prize, the organiser reads that row before trusting the total, because a padded total with four names behind it tells its own story.
The anonymous setting changes this. With Make anonymous ticked, Simple Poll shows the tally without names, so the channel sees the count and the creator alone decides whether that is enough assurance for the purpose at hand. Neither route claims that padded votes are impossible; what both offer is a visible or a hidden trail, and the choice belongs to whoever sets the poll up.
- Each reaction on the message route carries the name of the account that made it.
- The anonymous setting hides those names from the channel.
- The count itself stays visible either way.
Limits, stated plainly
Slack's help pages describe mechanics, not turnouts, and no page here will tell you how to manufacture answers; that door stays shut. If a count matters, the reaction row or the app tally is the evidence, and the evidence is only as honest as the people in the channel.
- The creator decides the question, the options, the anonymity setting and the channel.
- The mechanics decide the count: one reaction per account per emoji on the message route.
- No setting decides whether teammates bother answering at all.
| Route | How it starts | Options per question | Names shown |
|---|---|---|---|
| Emoji message | Compose a message with blockquote formatting | Three emoji choices stay readable; no cap is published | Yes, every reaction shows its name |
| Simple Poll | Run shortcut or the /poll shortcut, then Create A Poll | Up to 45 | Only when Make anonymous is not ticked |
| Polly | Type /poll, per its marketplace listing | Not published on this page | Not published |
How to do it
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Add the polling app
Install a polling app from the Slack Marketplace, as Slack's own help pages suggest for anything beyond a quick, informal question.
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Open the channel
Go to the channel whose members should answer, because the finished question will land exactly there.
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Open the shortcut
Click the Run shortcut button, the little / symbol in the bottom left of the message window, or type /poll and press Enter. Either move opens the modal window.
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Click Create A Poll
Once the app is open, click the Create A Poll button and the same modal window appears, ready for the question.
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Fill in the details
Write the question, add up to 45 response options, and select any settings you want, such as making the whole thing anonymous.
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Send the poll
Send it to the channel; members click their choices on the message, and the tally builds on the message itself in the open.
Common questions
How do you use a poll in Slack?
You use an emoji-message poll by reacting with the emoji that matches your choice, and you use an app poll by clicking an option. Both take a second. On the message route the tally is the reaction row on the message itself; on the app route the tally sits on the question. Either way the action happens inside the channel, and the count updates as people click.
How do you create a poll in Slack?
A Slack run poll is created one of two ways. Write a message, add an emoji beside each option and send it, and the reactions become the tally; that is the route Slack's own help pages describe. Or install a polling app from the Slack Marketplace and build the question in its modal window, which adds settings such as anonymity. No paid plan is needed for either route.
How do you use Simple Poll in Slack?
Simple Poll starts from the Run shortcut button in Slack, the little / symbol at the bottom left of the message window, or from typing /poll and pressing Enter. Both moves open the modal window. Click Create A Poll, fill in the question and up to 45 options, choose your settings and send. The channel then clicks its choices on the message.
How do you use Polly in Slack?
Polly starts from the same keyboard move: its Slack Marketplace listing says to type /poll in Slack to get started. After that the app builds the question in its own flow, and the differences from Simple Poll live in the settings each one exposes rather than in the first step, which the two apps share. Pick on settings, not on the opening move.
Do you need a paid Slack plan to make a poll?
No. Slack offers a Free plan, and both poll routes work on it: the emoji message needs nothing but a message box, and the marketplace apps install on the free tier. Upgrade only when the workspace itself outgrows the free plan, not because of the poll.
Where these facts come from
- help.simplepoll.rocks. help.simplepoll.rocks/article/122-how-to-create-a-poll-in-slack.
- help.simplepoll.rocks. help.simplepoll.rocks/article/122-how-to-create-a-poll-in-slack.
- help.simplepoll.rocks. help.simplepoll.rocks/article/123-how-to-create-an-anonymous-poll-in-slack.
- slack.com. slack.com/help/articles/229002507-Conversations--Create-a-poll-in-Slack.
- slack.com. slack.com/help/articles/229002507-Conversations--Create-a-poll-in-Slack.
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