The Teams poll: what the Polls app does in chats and meetings, and where it stops
A Teams poll is a question with at least two answer choices, posted in a Teams chat, group chat, community or meeting chat through the Polls app. The poster can allow multiple selections, record respondents' names and share aggregated results with them. In Teams Free, the group receives a real-time summary of poll responses.
Written by BuyPollVotes editorial desk | Last checked
Chat, group chat, community or meeting chat: where a poll is posted
A poll belongs to the conversation it is posted in. Microsoft names a community, a group chat and a meeting chat as the places to create one in Teams Free, and the Polls app is the tool behind all of them. A teams poll in chat reaches everyone in that conversation, which is the point of it. Send publishes the poll to the message or post.
The use is spelled out on Microsoft's pages: create a poll to get the group's help with a decision or to get feedback on ideas. A teams poll group chat is the natural home for that, since the whole group receives a real-time summary of poll responses in Teams Free.
Setting one up starts from Actions and apps on the right side of the Compose box.
Meeting polls: what changes when the poll lives in the meeting
A teams poll during meeting is described on its own Microsoft page, and it carries a control the Polls app pages do not mention: the drop-down list next to View results, which holds Close poll, Export results and Delete poll.
Microsoft's Polls app pages say something different. Polls created with the app cannot be directly closed or deleted from within Teams after posting. The pages cited do not say how the two relate, so this page does not either.
For scheduling, a teams poll for meeting time is a question whose answer choices are time slots. The Polls app asks for a question and at least two choices, so candidate times fit that shape; the pages cited say nothing about matching answers to calendars.
Responses: how people answer and what the group receives
Answering is two taps. Recipients tap their choice or choices and then tap Submit vote, and the same flow covers one answer or several. Several are possible when the poster has turned on Multiple selections, which lets users choose more than one answer.
What comes back is a summary. In Teams Free the group receives a real-time summary of poll responses. In a meeting poll, the drop-down next to View results also carries Export results. The teams poll view responses question therefore has a short answer: open View results in a meeting poll, or read the summary the group receives.
Nothing cited covers a teams poll logo or a teams poll with images, and free text answers are not described either, so none of the three is claimed here.
Preview, edit, send: what can change before a poll goes out
Everything editable happens before sending. Preview lets you review the poll, Edit makes updates, and Send publishes it to the message or post. The pages cited describe no change to a poll after that point, apart from the close and delete routes.
Two settings belong to the same setup. Multiple selections lets users choose more than one answer, and Record names of respondents is optional; Share aggregated results with respondents is offered as a choice for the poster. The pages cited place these settings in the setup and describe no way to change them once the poll is out, so none is claimed.
Preparing ahead is documented only in the sense that Preview and Edit exist before Send. Whether a half-built poll survives closing the chat, and whether one can be scheduled, are not described, so this page does not say.
Close and delete: who can, from where, and what stays behind
Deleting a poll is four different actions, depending on where the poll lives, and each leaves something different behind.
In a meeting poll, Close poll, Export results and Delete poll sit in the drop-down next to View results. A poll made with the Polls app is different: Microsoft's page says it cannot be directly closed or deleted from within Teams after posting.
The message itself has an owner-level route. If you own the team and the Owners can delete all messages setting is on, the three dots appear and the poll can be deleted; if you are not the team owner, you will not be able to delete the poll.
Then there is the form behind the poll. Deleting it in Microsoft Forms, through All my forms for Teams personal use, does not remove the poll message from the Teams conversation. It does make the poll inactive, so a response submitted afterwards is not recorded, and it permanently deletes the poll and all collected responses.
So a deleted form can leave a poll message on screen that no longer accepts answers.
Doodle, availability and other scheduling polls: what is and is not covered
Nothing cited connects Doodle to Teams, or describes an availability poll in which each person marks the times that suit them.
What is documented is narrower and still useful for scheduling: a question with at least two answer choices, multiple selections when turned on, and names recorded when that option is selected. Time slots written as choices, with multiple selections on, let people mark every slot that suits them.
The limits are plain. A choice-based poll has no calendar link in anything cited, and no view of who is free when. For a meeting time the result is a tally, not a booking.
Record names or stay anonymous: the setting behind accountability
Whether a Teams poll shows who answered is a setting, and it is optional. When the poster selects Record names of respondents, names are recorded; the pages cited describe nothing further about what the group sees when the option is left off.
That is the whole of the accountability described. The pages cited name no check that flags a fake response, no rule about how responses are gathered and no penalty for breaking one, so none is claimed. Where a Teams poll settles a contest, the organiser's own rules decide which responses count.
Deletion changes what counts, too: a poll deleted from Microsoft Forms is inactive, so a later response is not recorded, and deleting it permanently removes the responses already collected.
| Route | Where it applies | What the pages say |
|---|---|---|
| Meeting poll drop-down | Polls in a Teams meeting | Next to View results: Close poll, Export results, Delete poll |
| Polls app post | Polls created with the Polls app | Cannot be directly closed or deleted from within Teams after posting |
| Team owner setting | Teams with the Owners can delete all messages setting | The owner sees the three dots and can delete the poll; anyone else cannot |
| Microsoft Forms delete | The form behind the poll | Makes the poll inactive and deletes responses for good; the Teams message stays |
How to do it
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Find the poll in its chat or meeting chat
Open the chat, group chat, community or meeting chat where the poll was posted. Microsoft names those places for Teams Free, and the poll goes out as a message or post.
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Tap your choice or choices
Tap the answer you want. When the poster has turned on Multiple selections, you can tap more than one answer.
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Tap Submit vote
After choosing, tap Submit vote to send the response. The same button covers one choice and several.
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Read the real-time summary
In Teams Free the group receives a real-time summary of poll responses. Whether respondents see aggregated results is a separate setting the poster selects.
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Open the drop-down next to View results
In a meeting poll, the drop-down list next to View results holds Close poll, Export results and Delete poll.
Common questions
Can I make a poll in Microsoft Teams?
Teams has the Polls app for exactly that, and it works in a chat, group chat, community or meeting chat. Select Actions and apps on the right side of the Compose box where you type your message, enter the question with at least two answer choices, then use Preview, Edit or Send.
How do you poll a Teams chat?
A poll goes into a chat from the Polls app, reached through Actions and apps on the right side of the Compose box. The people in the chat answer by tapping their choice or choices and then Submit vote, and in Teams Free the group receives a real-time summary of responses.
Can you prepare a Teams poll before a meeting?
Microsoft's pages describe preparing a poll only as far as the sending step: you can select Preview to review the poll and Edit to make updates before you select Send to publish it. Nothing cited describes scheduling a poll to go out later, so no scheduling feature is claimed.
Can you edit a Teams poll?
A Teams poll can be edited before it goes out: select Edit to make updates, or select Send to publish it to the message or post. After posting, the pages cited describe no edit, and polls made with the Polls app cannot be directly closed or deleted from within Teams.
Can you do a Doodle poll in Teams?
The pages cited describe no doodle poll in microsoft teams, so none is claimed. What they do describe is the Polls app, which asks one question with at least two answer choices; a poll about meeting times can be written as those choices, though nothing cited covers availability grids.
Can you delete a Teams poll?
Deleting depends on the kind of poll and on who is asking. In a meeting poll, the drop-down next to View results holds Delete poll; a poll made with the Polls app cannot be directly deleted from within Teams, and only a team owner with the Owners can delete all messages setting can remove the message.
Can a Teams poll show who answered?
A Teams poll shows who answered when the poster selects Record names of respondents, an optional setting. Share aggregated results with respondents is a separate option that lets respondents see the combined results.
Where these facts come from
- support.microsoft.com. support.microsoft.com/en-us/teams/apps-service/create-a-poll-in-microsoft-teams.
- support.microsoft.com. support.microsoft.com/en-us/forms/poll-attendees-during-a-teams-meeting.
- learn.microsoft.com. learn.microsoft.com/en-us/answers/questions/2337517/how-can-i-delete-a-poll-that-was-posted-using-the.
- learn.microsoft.com. learn.microsoft.com/en-us/answers/questions/2337517/how-can-i-delete-a-poll-that-was-posted-using-the.
- support.microsoft.com. support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/create-a-poll-in-microsoft-teams-free-3162720d-dfee-4ce2-ae65-4dbbbb6a7827.
This site cannot change how Microsoft Teams polls behave, restore a deleted poll or speak for Microsoft. It never promises a result of any kind. The pages cited here do not cover scheduling, Doodle, logos, images, free text answers, enforcement or fake responses, so nothing is claimed about them, and a contest's organiser, not this site, decides which responses count.
X prohibits coordinating with or compensating others to inflate engagement metrics, and it names Polls among the features covered. The Pet Industry Business Awards name the consequence in their own contest: a business may be investigated, lose votes or be disqualified on reasonable evidence of purchased votes. No seller can stop an organiser from doing that.
Slido says it is alerted when an event gets an unusually high number of votes in a very short time, and Crowdsignal says its built-in measures detect patterns of potentially abusive voting. Ordinary participation arrives spread across the voting window, from different people at different moments. Nothing on this site is a method for getting a vote past a check, and a vote that a tool blocks does not count.
Organiser rules differ: the RSPCA Pet of the Year Awards allow extra votes through donations on their official mechanism, while OpenTable Australia treats a vote cast in exchange for money or a reward as null and void. Both are contest rules, not statutes, and whether payment is lawful where you live is a question for a lawyer. Orders are refused for any contest whose rules ban paid votes, and for political ballots.
Votes ordered for a poll that never appear on its count are refunded after the poll closes. A refund never covers an organiser's decision: Localsearch may void all votes for a disqualified nominee, and Mentimeter says a user whose access it cancels under its Acceptable Use Policy is owed no refund or compensation. No result is promised.