Last August, Instagram Stories was born, and over the last year what may have at first seemed like a cheesy Snapchat clone has grown up to become an incredibly popular feature with its own weird quirks. The app’s latest update brings Instagram Stories even further away from the Snapchat mold by introducing polls, a new feature that allows you to ask a question and receive responses from your friends and followers.
It works like this: Take a photo or video through Instagram Stories and swipe up to reveal the sticker drawer, then select the “poll” sticker and place it wherever you want. From there, you’re able to write out whatever question best suits you, and choose the answers you want voters to be able to pick from. Once you publish, anyone who views your story will be able to vote and see the real-time results. If voters want to follow the competition, they can just click on your story a second time (or third, or fourth), and the tallies will update with the latest results. Participants can’t see the names of other voters, but you can. And, of course, everything disappears after 24 hours. Take that, Snapchat.
