WhatsApp Tests a New Poll Privacy and Expiration Feature on Android

Meta is reportedly working on a feature that will change how polls work on WhatsApp in the future. Currently in development, a new more customisable poll settings panel was spotted on the Android beta version of WhatsApp, offering a glimpse of the feature in action.

WhatsApp Polls can soon limit voter visibility and voting duration

Spotted by WABetaInfo, the new work-in-progress feature was discovered in the codebase of the Android beta 2.26.6.7 build, which is being rolled out via the Google Play Beta Program. The feature tracker also gave us a good look at how the Poll setting options will actually work.

As it is evident from the image below, a new Poll settings option is now visible under the Poll options section inside the Poll creation page. The new menu houses three different options: Allow multiple answers, Hide voters and End time.

While the Allow multiple answers options was previously present as well, it has now been shifted under the unified poll management menu. The remaining two options are new, which are also pretty self-explanatory in function. Using the Hide voters option, poll creators will now be able to mask the visibility of the votes from everyone. The voter's name and choice will only be visible to the creator when toggled on. However, the total vote count will remain visible for all.

As for the End time option, this will let users set a specific time in the future when the polling closes and self-expires. This ensures that voters are given a limited time to cast their vote before the poll's expiration. 

Both of these new options are designed keeping privacy and security in mind. While hiding the voter's name will encourage more people to cast their votes freely, the set duration also increases interaction and visibility in group chats.

That said, at the time of writing, the new poll privacy and expiration feature is still under development and should roll out to select beta testers with future builds. We can expect a TestFlight version shortly afterwards, before entering a public release.