Power Polls let you ask questions and collect real-time responses from your audience, creating an interactive way to gather opinions, make decisions, or spark discussions.
StreamAlive’s Power Polls automatically pulls your audiences’ answers from the chat, making participation effortless for your audience.
All you have to do is ask your audience to type 1, 2, 3 etc. in the chat to vote for their preferred option. The user can also type in the option if they prefer.
By default, Power Polls recognize and categorize responses as they come in, displaying live results in an easy-to-read format.
During your session, running a Power Poll is a great way to gauge audience sentiment, run quick knowledge checks, or make group decisions.
In this guide, we’ll explore how to create a Power Poll, customization options, how to run it, and frequently asked questions.
Frequently Asked Questions
How Do Power Polls Collect Responses?
You ask your audience to type 1, 2, 3, etc. corresponding with the option they want to vote for. Power Polls automatically detects and categorize responses from chat messages in platforms like Zoom, YouTube, Teams and so on.
How Does It Work in the Presentation Live Screen?
Once a Power Poll is active, it appears on the Presentation Live Screen, visible to both the presenter and the audience.
Responses are updated in real time as they are submitted in the chat.
The results are displayed as a bar chart/percentage breakdown, making it easy to see audience preferences.
Can You Pre-Set Answer Choices?
Yes! You can define answer choices in advance so the system categorizes responses accordingly. If you want to have a poll that recognizes open-ended responses, we also have another poll option called Open-ended Polls
Can You Customize the Poll Display?
Yes! You can change colors, fonts, and styles to match your presentation’s theme.
What are acceptable audience input options?
Single-choice responses: Participants can type a letter (A, B, C), a number (1, 2, 3), or the full answer text (e.g., "Blue" or "Apple").
Multiple-choice responses: If the poll allows multiple responses, participants can submit comma-separated answers (e.g., "1, 3, 5" or "A, C, D"). StreamAlive will detect and count each option separately, logging them as distinct votes.
Creating a Power Poll
To run a Power Poll during your session, you can choose to:
Create an ad-hoc interaction during the session
Using Quick Interaction Links
Adding Power Polls to your presentation
Go to My Presentations
Click on New Presentation
Click on New Slide
Add a Power Poll
To learn more about how to create a presentation, click here
Once the poll is added, customize the feature using the tabs on the right hand side.
Edit the heading, add the options, and configure its settings in the Content tab.
NOTE: You can also control how many responses each participant can submit. If you want each audience member to vote only once, you can enable the setting to limit responses to one per person. Even if they enter a comma-separated list (e.g., "1, 3, 5"), it will automatically take the first response (1).
On the other hand, if you allow multiple responses, participants can submit more than one answer. If they enter a comma-separated list (e.g., "1, 3, 5"), StreamAlive will recognize each response separately and update the poll results accordingly
You can also edit the design of the interactions like the visualization colors of the poll, background color, heading color/font, and so on.
For a more in-depth guide on how to edit your presentation, click here
Click on Preview to see what it will look like during a session
Now that your presentation is complete, you can present it immediately or schedule it with a future session
Follow the instructions on how to connect StreamAlive to your preferred meeting or streaming platform, or even use it for in-person events.
Creating an Ad-hoc Power Poll
What’s the Purpose of Creating an Ad-Hoc Power Poll?
An ad-hoc interaction in StreamAlive allows you to set up and run audience engagement features instantly, without pre-planning them. This is perfect for moments when you want to gather real-time feedback, make quick decisions, or adjust your session based on audience input. (If you’re new to ad-hoc interactions, check out this help article for more details.)
Why Use an Ad-Hoc Power Poll?
While you can add a Power Poll to your presentation in advance, running it as an ad-hoc interaction gives you the flexibility to ask spontaneous questions based on the flow of your session.
For example, if a discussion sparks an interesting debate, you can launch a Power Poll on the spot to gauge audience opinions and instantly display results.
By using an ad-hoc Power Poll, you can capture only the responses given at that moment, rather than pulling answers from the entire chat history. This keeps engagement focused, interactive, and directly relevant to your session’s current topic.
Connect StreamAlive to your session
To learn how to connect to your required platform, click here
Once you’re connected and on the Presentation Live screen, click on the + New Interaction button
Click on the Power Polls interaction
Customize your Poll
Here, you can edit the heading, add the options, and configure the settings of the poll.
Remember: Everyone can see your screen at this point so don’t spend too long on it. Alternatively, you can plan your poll question and options in advance using the presentation builder method discussed in the section above.
Choose a theme [Optional]
This step is optional but if you choose to continue without choosing, the interaction will use your default theme.
Remember: spending time customizing your poll design in the middle of your live session is likely to be an attention killer, so consider using the presentation builder to create your interactions in advance if you plan on customizing them.
Once ready click on Go
Share the StreamAlive window to your audience
Ask your audience to start typing in answers in the chat
StreamAlive picks up these answers and powers the interaction in real time
Using Quick Interaction links
What’s the Purpose of Using Quick Interaction Links?
Quick Interaction Links in StreamAlive allow you to instantly launch audience engagement features without needing to pre-set them in a presentation. These links provide an easy way to trigger interactions on the fly, making them ideal for spontaneous engagement moments. (If you’re new to quick interactions, check out this help article for more details.)
Why Use Quick Interaction Links?
While you can plan interactions in advance, Quick Interaction Links offer on-the-spot flexibility—allowing you to engage your audience with a single click.
For example, if you need a quick audience check-in, you can instantly launch a poll, word cloud, or Q&A without interrupting the flow of your session.
By using Quick Interaction Links, you can seamlessly trigger interactions at the right moment, ensuring real-time engagement while keeping your session dynamic and interactive.
Go to the Quick Interactions Links tab and click on "Show link" next to Power Polls.
Copy the link.
When ready to use, open the link in a new tab or you can paste it into your presentation file or Google Slides and so on.
A pop-up will appear where you can choose your required platform. Learn more about connecting to your preferred platform.
Enter your session details and click on Present when ready
A pop-up asking you to admit the bot will appear (In cases like Zoom with the waiting room disabled, or YouTube/Twitch and similar platforms, it will join automatically)
Go to your live session and admit the bot.
Customize your Power Poll
Here, you can edit the heading and configure the settings of the poll.
Remember: everyone can see your screen at this point so don’t spend too long on it. Alternatively, you can plan your word cloud in advance using the presentation builder method discussed in the section above.
Choose a theme [Optional]
This step is optional but if you choose to continue without choosing, the interaction will use your default theme.
Remember: spending time customizing your poll design in the middle of your live session is likely to be an attention killer, so consider using the presentation builder to create your interactions in advance if you plan on customizing them.
Once ready click on Go
Share the StreamAlive window to your audience (if you haven’t already done so)
Ask your audience to start typing in answers in the chat
StreamAlive picks up these answers and powers the interaction in real-time
Learn how to use the Presentation Live screen to manage your interactions during your live session.