How to Create a Poll in Slack: 3 Ways (2026)

To create a poll in Slack without installing anything, post the question with one emoji per option and let people vote with emoji reactions. That is the only built-in method Slack's own help describes. For anonymous, recurring or multi-question polls you need a polling app from the Slack Marketplace: Simple Poll uses the /poll command, Polly uses /polly.

This guide covers both routes step by step, what each app adds, and when a poll is the wrong tool for the job.

How to create a poll in Slack with emoji reactions

Slack has no native poll command. Its help centre describes an informal poll built from a normal message:

1. Click the compose button to start a message with your question.
2. List the options, putting an emoji next to each one. Blockquote formatting makes the options easier to read.
3. Send the message.
4. Add one reaction per option yourself, so voting is a single click for everyone else.

Teammates vote by clicking the reaction. The counts are the result.

What an emoji poll cannot do

Every reaction shows who clicked it, so there is no anonymity. Nothing closes the vote, schedules it or repeats it, and there is no way to collect a reason alongside the vote other than asking people to reply in the thread. If any of those matter, use an app. One common confusion: typing /poll only works if a polling app that registers that command, such as Simple Poll, is installed in your workspace. It is not a Slack feature.

Third-party Slack poll apps

Both apps below install from the Slack Marketplace and are free to start. They differ mainly in how far they go beyond a single question.

Simple Poll

The quickest way to a proper poll. Simple Poll registers the /poll command, so a poll is one line: /poll "Which day for the offsite?" "Monday" "Wednesday" "Friday". Its own site shows an anonymous modifier on the same line to hide who voted, and polls can be set to recur every day, week or month. Surveys of up to 20 questions with CSV export are also available.

1. Install Simple Poll from the Slack Marketplace.
2. In any channel, type /poll, then the question and each option in quotes.
3. Add anonymous if votes should be hidden.
4. Press Enter. The poll posts to the channel and updates as people vote.

Polly

Polly is closer to a survey platform that lives in Slack. Its help centre gives /polly followed by your question as the starting point; you can also create one from the Polly dashboard. Recurring schedules are supported, which is what makes it useful for regular pulse questions as well as one-off votes.

1. Install Polly from the Slack Marketplace.
2. Type /polly and your question, then press Enter.
3. Add the answer options.
4. Pick where it goes, set a recurring schedule if you want one, and send.

Slack poll vs Slack survey

A poll is one question with fixed options. A survey is several questions, often with free text, sent to the same group on a schedule. Simple Poll and Polly both do surveys inside Slack, which is enough for a team check-in. For engagement surveys with benchmarking and analysis, the dedicated employee survey software is a different purchase, and the questions matter more than the tool: employee survey questions has a set to start from.

Tips on how to do a poll in Slack

A few habits make the difference between a poll people answer and one they scroll past. For anything longer than a quick vote, a form tool is usually the better fit; see the Google Forms alternative comparison.

Use anonymous voting for anything sensitive

Emoji reactions show every voter. If the question touches workload, management or pay, use an app that hides votes, such as Simple Poll with the anonymous modifier, and check the setting before you send.

Say when the vote ends

An open poll collects late votes forever and nobody acts on it. Say in the question when the vote ends, and act on the result then.

Make recurring polls short

Both apps can repeat a poll every week. That works for a one-question pulse and fails for a ten-question survey, which people stop answering.

Ask for the reason in the thread

A vote tells you what, not why. Ask people to add a line in the thread, or move to a form; a structured employee feedback form is the better tool when the reason is the point.

When a poll is the wrong tool

Polls are for decisions and quick reads on the room. They are the wrong tool for anything about an individual's performance: there is no permissions model, no history beyond your Slack retention, and no way to combine a manager's view with a peer's. For a weekly rhythm of updates, weekly check-in software is built for it; for reviews themselves, see performance reviews in Slack.

The short version

Slack's only built-in poll is a message with emoji reactions. For anonymous, recurring or multi-question polls, install Simple Poll and use /poll, or Polly and use /polly. Use polls for decisions, not for feedback on people.