Apple brings polling into iMessage
Apple is making it simpler to arrange plans in iMessage with a brand new polling characteristic in iOS 26, giving group chat members a method to share opinions and vote on choices. This is the way it works.
Group chat indecision simply obtained simpler to resolve. Apple is including built-in polls to the Messages app in iOS 26, giving customers a local method to vote on choices with out leaving their dialog.
Unveiled throughout Apple’s Worldwide Builders Convention on June 9, 2025, the brand new characteristic lets customers create polls instantly inside group chats. You possibly can suggest choices, solid votes, and immediately see what everybody prefers.
It is a long-requested software that helps eradicate the chaos of texting backwards and forwards to settle easy group choices. Polls in Messages work very like these in different chat apps.
You possibly can add a number of choices, and everybody within the group can vote. Apple says the system is designed to be fast and intuitive. Outcomes replace in actual time as members reply.
Apple Intelligence provides context-aware ideas
Apple can also be giving polls a lift with its on-device AI system Apple Intelligence. When the system detects planning-related questions, it will probably recommend making a ballot.
Polls are discovered by tapping on the “plus” button in a chat
For instance, if somebody writes “What film ought to we see tonight?” the Messages app will immediate the person to arrange a ballot with instructed titles.
The AI processing occurs domestically on supported gadgets. Apple says this preserves person privateness whereas nonetheless providing useful, real-time ideas.
Apple has steadily added options to iMessage that transcend texting. Inline replies, message modifying, scheduling, and now polling all replicate a shift in how the app is used.
Not like third-party iMessage apps, the brand new polling software is totally built-in and would not require set up or further permissions. Polls will be created instantly in any iMessage group, though they aren’t out there in SMS or cross-platform chats.
iMessage grows right into a planning software
Different chat apps have supplied polls for years. WhatsApp launched polls in 2022, with options like single or a number of alternative choices, nameless voting, and vote updates. Telegram has lengthy supported superior polling, together with quiz modes and public outcomes.
The polling characteristic is obtainable now within the iOS 26 developer beta. Apple plans to launch a public beta in July, with a basic launch anticipated Fall 2025 alongside the iPhone 17 lineup.
