The Snapchat poll: where it goes, how long votes last and who can see them
A Snapchat poll is a question with answer options, posted as a poll sticker on a Snap or from the poll icon in a Topic Chat. In a Topic Chat, any member can create a short poll with multiple answer options, and other members can vote and see live results. The creator and everyone who voted get a notification when the poll ends.
Written by BuyPollVotes editorial desk | Last checked
A Snap with a poll sticker: what the feature is
Snapchat has a poll feature that lets users pose a question and gather opinions from friends and followers by posting it for responses. The snapchat poll feature lives in two places in the pages checked: as a sticker added to a Snap, and as an icon in the composer of a Topic Chat.
A Snap is the photo the sticker sits on, taken with the capture button or uploaded from the gallery. The full walk-through of setting one up has its own page on this site, so the steps here stay short.
- Poll sticker: added to a Snap, posted to a Story.
- Poll icon: in the composer of a Topic Chat.
- Question: typed by the poster, with answer options attached.
Story polls: where the sticker shows up and who answers it
A snapchat poll story starts as a Snap and ends up on a Story: the how-to pages checked say you type in a question and post it to your story. Friends and followers respond there, and they are the audience the pages describe for the sticker.
Only the poster gets the full picture. Other people who view the story do not know who voted for what, so to them the answers are anonymous, while as the creator you can see exactly which friend selected which answer.
- Made on: a Snap, from a photo taken or uploaded.
- Posted to: a Story.
- Answered by: friends and followers who view it.
Are they anonymous? Who sees the answers on each side
Snapchat polls are not anonymous to the person who posted them. The pages checked come at it from several angles: the native poll is not anonymous to the creator, the poll poster can see who voted on which emoji, and the creator can see exactly which friend selected which answer.
Viewers get the opposite. Other people who view a story poll do not know who voted for what, so to them it is anonymous. That split is the privacy picture: names on the poster's side, none on the viewers' side.
A snapchat poll vote is therefore tied to a name for the poster and to nothing for everyone else watching the Story. What the pages checked do not say is how a Topic Chat poll treats names: they describe live results for members and a notification at the end, and nothing about who sees who voted.
- Poster: sees who voted on which answer.
- Viewers of a story poll: do not know who voted for what.
- Topic Chat poll: names not described in the pages checked.
Topic Chats and group chats: where a poll sits and who votes
A snapchat poll in chat lives in a Topic Chat: any member can create a short poll with a question and multiple answer options, starting from the poll icon in the composer. Polls appear inline, and other members can vote and see live results.
Only members can vote in a Topic Chat poll, so the audience is that chat's own membership. Nothing checked covers a snapchat poll group chat, meaning an ordinary chat among friends rather than a Topic Chat, so this page makes no claim about it.
To poll Snapchat group members who are not in a Topic Chat, the one documented route is the story sticker: post it to a Story, where friends and followers can respond.
- Where: inline in the conversation, from the poll icon in the composer.
- Who can create: any Topic Chat member.
- Who can vote: only members, who also see live results.
Two hours, a few at a time and a notification at the end
Voting on a poll that is visible in a Topic Chat stays open for two hours. That is a fixed clock: the pages checked describe a two-hour window and say nothing about extending it or reopening the poll afterwards.
Only a few polls can be active at a time. The pages checked do not give the number or say what happens when a member tries to add one more.
When a poll ends, the creator and everyone who voted get a notification, and tapping it shows the final results. Members can also react to, reply to or share a poll outside the Topic Chat, so a poll can travel beyond the people who can vote on it.
A story poll has no such clock in the pages checked, so its length is left unstated here.
- Voting window: two hours in a Topic Chat.
- Active at once: only a few polls.
- At the end: a notification to the creator and every voter.
Snap polls in the news sense: same words, different subject
In the survey sense, a snap poll is a short survey used to gather opinions quickly in real time, and the word snap there means done or taken suddenly, without prior warning. A phrase like snap poll japan reads in that sense, since the pages checked tie no Snapchat feature to a country, and it has no connection to Snapchat's poll sticker or to a Topic Chat.
The same letters turn up elsewhere. A phrase such as snap benefits poll is not covered by anything checked for this page, and nothing links it to Snapchat's polls.
- Snap poll, survey sense: a short survey gathering opinions quickly in real time.
- Snapchat poll: a sticker on a Snap, or an icon in a Topic Chat.
What a poster can check, and what only the organiser can decide
For a contest that uses a Snapchat poll, the poster holds one thing the audience does not: the record of who voted on which answer. The pages checked say the poster can see exactly which friend selected which answer, and that Snapchat polls cannot be answered anonymously. A run of unfamiliar names or a lopsided count would be visible on that record.
How Snapchat treats a vote it considers fake is not described in the pages checked, so this page cannot say how one gets flagged and will not guess. One rule about who can vote is documented, for Topic Chats: only members can vote.
Everything else falls to the organiser. A contest's own rules decide what counts as a valid vote, whether a screenshot of results is enough, and what leads to disqualification; the pages checked describe no Snapchat setting for any of that.
- Poster: can see who voted on which answer.
- Topic Chat: only members can vote.
- Organiser: decides what counts as valid and what leads to disqualification.
Left open: sending a Snap, voting on your own poll, friend groups
The pages checked describe a story poll as posted and a Topic Chat poll as created in the composer. Whether a poll can also be sent to individual friends is not covered, so this page does not describe that route.
Voting on your own poll is not covered either. The pages say a Topic Chat member can create or vote in a poll and that a story poll's creator can see who voted, but not whether a creator's own pick is allowed.
Story poll length is the third gap, since two hours is documented for Topic Chats only. The number of answers on a story poll rests on one guide, which puts it at two at most, while the Topic Chat description says multiple answer options and gives no count.
- Sending a poll to individual friends: not described.
- Voting on your own poll: not described.
- Story poll duration and exact answer count: not stated in the pages checked.
| Point | Story poll | Topic Chat poll |
|---|---|---|
| Where it starts | Poll sticker on a Snap, posted to a Story | Poll icon in the chat composer |
| Who can answer | Friends and followers who see the Story | Members of that Topic Chat |
| Answer options | Two at most, according to one guide | A question with multiple answer options |
| How long voting runs | Not stated in the pages checked | Two hours to vote |
| Who sees results | The poster sees who voted for which answer | Members see live results |
| Anonymous? | To viewers yes, to the poster no | Not stated in the pages checked |
How to do it
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Open Snapchat and take a picture
Open Snapchat and take a picture with the capture button. A story poll sits on a Snap, so it needs a photo underneath before anything else happens.
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Or upload an image from your gallery
The other way to start is an image uploaded from your gallery. Those are the two starting points the how-to pages checked give for a Snapchat poll on a Story.
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Tap the poll sticker
Create the poll by tapping the poll sticker. Snapchat has this poll feature so that users can pose a question and gather opinions from friends and followers.
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Type in the question
Type in the question you want answered. One guide describes the native poll as allowing two answers at most, so write a question that two answers can settle.
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Pinch and zoom to place the sticker
After setting up the poll, pinch and zoom to adjust its size and location on the Snap.
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Post it to your Story
Post the Snap to your Story so that friends and followers can respond. Viewers of the Story do not know who voted for what, while the poster can see who voted on which answer.
Common questions
How to do a poll on snapchat?
Open Snapchat, take or upload a picture, tap the poll sticker, type the question and post the Snap to your Story. In a Topic Chat the start is the poll icon in the composer instead.
Are snapchat polls anonymous?
Snapchat polls are not anonymous to the person who posted them: the poster can see who voted on which answer. Other people who view a story poll do not know who voted for what, so to them it is anonymous.
Can you put a poll on snapchat?
Snapchat has a poll sticker that can be added to a Snap and posted to a Story, and Topic Chats have a poll icon in the composer. Both are described in the pages checked; each has its own audience and rules.
Does snapchat have polls in chat?
Snapchat has polls inside Topic Chats, where any member can create a short poll with a question and multiple answer options. Polls appear inline, and other members can vote and see live results.
How long do snapchat polls last?
Voting on a poll visible in a Topic Chat stays open for two hours. The pages checked give no length for a story poll, so none is stated here.
Can you vote on your own poll on snapchat?
The pages checked do not say whether a creator can vote on their own poll. They say a Topic Chat member can create or vote in a poll, and that a story poll's creator can see who voted on which answer.
Can you do a snapchat poll in a group chat?
A Topic Chat supports a poll from the poll icon in the composer, and only its members can vote. The pages checked say nothing about an ordinary group chat among friends, so this page makes no claim about one.
Is a snap poll the same as a snapchat poll?
A snap poll in the survey sense is a short survey used to gather opinions quickly in real time, and it is a different thing from a Snapchat poll. A Snapchat poll is a poll sticker on a Snap or a poll in a Topic Chat.
Where these facts come from
- Snapchat. help.snapchat.com/hc/en-gb/articles/41839956323860-What-is-a-Topic-Chat-on-Snapchat-and-how-do-I-join.
- Snapchat. help.snapchat.com/hc/en-us/articles/41839956323860-What-is-a-Topic-Chat-on-Snapchat-and-how-do-I-join.
- Snapchat. help.snapchat.com/hc/en-us/articles/41839956323860-What-is-a-Topic-Chat-on-Snapchat-and-how-do-I-join.
- Snapchat. help.snapchat.com/hc/en-us/articles/41839956323860-What-is-a-Topic-Chat-on-Snapchat-and-how-do-I-join.
- wikihow.com. wikihow.com/Do-a-Poll-on-Snapchat.
This page does not sell or promise votes for any Snapchat contest, and a purchase of votes changes nothing about what Snapchat's rules or an organiser's rules allow. It cannot say how Snapchat flags fake votes, how long a story poll runs, or whether a creator can vote on their own poll. The organiser decides what counts in a contest; Snapchat decides what its polls can do.
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.