Why Twitter is going to the polls

The new poll feature is already being rolled out to select users and it can be seen in multiple tweets.

As of now though, the feature is reportedly visible only on the mobile apps and website, not on desktop applications like TweetDeck. As Bloomberg said, “Twitter is by no means the first Web company to introduce online polls”.

The new polling feature comes as Twitter is struggling to re-ignite stagnant user growth, as investors pressure the company to appoint a permanent CEO and to find new ways to revamp its product. A company spokesperson confirmed the possibility in a statement to VentureBeat saying, “We’re experimenting with a new way to poll users on Twitter“.

It seems these polls, should they come about, would be destined for all users, not just businesses. You’re limited to two answer options, and there’s a 24-hour time limit before voting closes.

For those who have access to the feature, a poll can be created by clicking on a small piechart in the right hand corner when drafting a tweet. In a situation as with the last tweet embeddedabove, this can even render the tweet nonsensical.

The polling feature does not now appear to be broadly available.

The one major downside is that you cannot embed a tweet with the poll included and some Twitter clients are not yet showing the poll unit within the tweet.