Run a Live Poll on Your Stream
Ask your audience one question with up to six options. Viewers vote on their phones or in chat, and the results show live on a Poll board.
What a poll does
A live poll on stream asks your audience one question with 2 to 6 options. Viewers vote on their phones by scanning a QR code, or by typing in the stream's chat on YouTube, Twitch or Facebook. While voting is open, the board can show the results as live bars with percentages. When voting closes, the board lights up the winner.
Polls are built in on every plan. They work well for anything the audience can decide or have an opinion on: the next game, the next song, which topic you take first, or a quick "what do you think?" before a guest answers.
Before you start
Set up the Live Studio with your destinations. A poll runs on every platform you stream to at once (see Multistreaming to Multiple Platforms at Once), but chat votes only count on YouTube, Twitch and Facebook.
Check that you have an interactive stream left this month. See Interactive Streams and Player Limits by Plan.
Only one game runs on a stream at a time. If a quiz is running, starting the poll asks you to end it.
Set up the poll
In the studio, add a board graphic. The built-in Poll board sample shows the question, live vote bars, a countdown, the vote count, the winner and the join QR code. You can also use your own graphic.
Select the board, either on the canvas (the scene needs a Custom layout for that) or from the Graphics panel.
Open its inspector and, under Content, choose Poll.
Type your question.
Add 2 to 6 options. Each can be up to 80 characters.
Set the Voting time: anything from 10 to 600 seconds. The default is 60.
Decide whether to show Results while voting (more on this below).
Press Use this poll.
The Poll board adapts to 16:9, 9:16 (vertical) and 1:1 and takes the scene's brand color and font.
Run it from the Control panel
Go live with the studio on, then open the Control panel in the studio's right rail.
Press Open voting. Voting opens and the board starts its countdown.
Voting closes when the timer runs out. To close it early, press Close voting.
To ask the same question again, press Vote again: the poll starts fresh, and Open voting opens the new round.
How people vote
By phone. Viewers scan the QR code on the board, type a display name and tap an option. The Control panel also shows the phone page link and QR code, so you can paste the link in chat or in your stream description.
In chat. On YouTube, Twitch and Facebook, viewers type the letter (A, B, C) or the option's text. Chat on Kick, TikTok and LinkedIn is not read, so viewers there vote by phone.
Everyone gets one vote, whether they use a phone or chat. A viewer can change their vote until voting closes, and only their latest choice counts.
For the full viewer side, see How Viewers Play Along on Their Phones or in Chat.
Live results or hidden results
Results while voting decides what the board shows during the vote.
Setting | The board shows | Good for |
|---|---|---|
On | Bars with percentages that move as votes come in | Energy and a race between options. People like watching their pick pull ahead. |
Off | Only the number of votes, until voting closes | Honest answers and a reveal moment. Early leaders do not sway later voters. |
If the poll is a real decision (which charity you support this month, which guest you book), hiding the results keeps the vote fair. If it is for fun, live bars are more fun to watch.
When voting closes
The board lights up the winning option. If there is a tie, it lights every tied option. On phones, voters see the result bars and "Winner:" followed by the winning option.
If the poll has a host, the host announces the result. An AI voice reads a short line with the winner, or you read it from the prompter. See Use an AI Host Voice in Your Live Games.
Tips for better polls
Make options short and clearly different. "Yes", "No" and "Maybe" are easy. Four long sentences that half overlap are not.
Say the letters out loud. Chat voters type A, B or C, so reading "A for the red team, B for the blue team" helps.
Give chat voters time. Chat viewers only see the question when their video shows it. If your stream runs with a long delay and many people vote in chat, give the poll a longer voting time.
Act on the result. If the audience picks the next game, play it. A poll that changes nothing teaches people not to vote.
Looking for questions to ask? Live Poll Ideas for Streamers has more than 30.