Live polls

Ask the room, and see the answer in seconds.

A live poll is the fastest way to turn a silent audience into a visible one. Everyone answers at the same time from their own phone, and the result is on the big screen before the conversation moves on.

How a live poll runs

01

Write the question before the room arrives

Add a poll to your event from the dashboard, or ask Claude Code to build the whole session for you. You can queue eight activities and run them back to back without touching the setup again.

02

Put the join code on the screen

The big screen shows one address and one code. People type it into whatever browser they already have open. No install, no account, no waiting for a download on venue wifi.

03

Open the poll and watch it fill

Every phone gets the options at the same moment. Bars grow as answers arrive, the leading bar takes the brand colour, and the percentages update live for everyone in the room at once.

Built to be read from the back of the room.

A poll that only works on the presenter's laptop is not a poll. The big screen view is the one that had to be right first.

  • The leading answer is obvious

    Length carries the result, the percentage is printed beside every bar, and the winner takes the brand colour with a soft glow. Nothing depends on telling two similar colours apart.

  • The join code stays legible

    Codes are set in a wide monospace face chosen for exactly this: being readable from the back row of a lit room, in a photo, on a phone camera.

  • It survives venue wifi

    The realtime layer reconnects quietly rather than assuming a good connection. A phone that drops off rejoins without the person holding it noticing.

Questions people ask about live polls

Do participants need an account?
No. They open a browser, go to the join address, and type the code. Oratora never asks the audience to sign up, install anything, or hand over an email.
How many people can vote in one poll?
The free tier covers up to 25 participants. A Day Pass covers 500, a Pro monthly plan 1,000, and Pro yearly 2,000. See the pricing page for the current figures.
Are the answers anonymous?
Poll answers are not attributed to a person on screen. That is the point of asking this way: you hear from the quiet majority as well as the people who would have raised a hand.
Can I run more than one poll in a session?
Yes. Queue as many activities as you like in one event and move between them from the host console. The room joins once with one code and the screen changes under them.
Can I get the results afterwards?
Every response exports to CSV, and sessions roll up into a report you can hand to a sponsor or a department head.

Keep reading

Quizzes and leaderboards

Add points and a timer when you want the room competing rather than just answering.

Word clouds

When the answer should not be one of four options you wrote in advance.

Polls at conferences

How a keynote poll is usually put together, and what to ask.

Bring your next room in.

Start free, no card, no subscription. Buy a single Day Pass when you run an event.

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