The holidays can be a good time to catch up with friends and family, and you might do so over dinner. However, it might be hard to figure out what to eat or where to go. Fortunately, the Polls feature in Messages on your iPhone can help your crew vote on where to go.
Apple introduced Polls alongside iOS 26 in September. With Polls, you can create a poll in a group chat where everyone can vote on a given action or decision, like where to go for dinner. That way, all the members of the chat can have a say, rather than just the loudest voices.
Here's how to create a poll in Messages and what you should know about the feature.
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How to create a poll in Messages
1. Open Messages and tap into a chat.
2. Tap the plus (+) button to the left of the text box.
3. Tap Polls.
A box with Choice 1, Choice 2 and Choice 3 will appear over your text box. Tap into Choice 1, and you can enter what that option is for your poll. Once you have that filled out, hit the return button on your keyboard, and you will automatically be taken to the line for Choice 2. You can have between two and 12 choices per poll.
Once you've filled out your choices, you can type a message to send with your poll to provide additional information about sending the poll to the group, and people will be able to vote on their choice.
What else you should know about polls in Messages
If someone creates a poll in Messages and you don't see an option you want considered, you can add it to the poll. Tap Add Choice beneath the poll, and you can add another option or two, as long as there is space for them. Remember, you can only have 12 options in a poll.
Voting in a poll is easy. Just tap your choice, and that option will be illuminated. However, you can vote for as many choices as you want, but you can only cast one vote per option. So it's kind of like a survey that says, "Check all that apply." That means it's possible that a poll can have more votes cast than there are people in the chat. There doesn't appear to be a way to limit the number of votes a person can cast otherwise.
When an option receives a vote, that option will grow relative to the other options like a bar graph. That way, you can easily tell at a glance which choice is winning.
Who votes for what choice isn't hidden, either. When you vote for an option, your Apple ID image will appear next to that option. Anyone in the chat can also long-press on a poll and tap the option Poll Details to see who voted for what option and who hasn't voted yet. This could give you a chance to remind someone to vote in case they forgot or got distracted. Or it could be a fun way to poke fun at your friend Josh, who voted to grab pizza five nights in a row -- one cannot live on pizza alone, dude.
For more iOS news, here's everything you should know about iOS 26.2, the new features that were included in iOS 26.1 and my review of iOS 26. You can also check out our iOS 26 cheat sheet.
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