Live, reveal, or survey: when should people see your results?

One small setting changes how a poll feels more than almost anything else: when people get to see the results. PollsLive gives you a clear choice in the editor, plus a third mode for multi-question surveys. Here is how to pick.

Where to set it

In the editor's right-hand panel there is a question: When should people see results? with two options - Show as answers come in and Hide until I reveal. You can change it any time before you share.

Show as answers come in (live)

The chart updates in real time as votes land. This is the one people picture when they think of live polling - great for meetings, classrooms, and events where the reveal is part of the energy. The room sees the bars move, and that is the point.

Hide until I reveal

Everyone answers first, and the chart stays hidden until you press Reveal. Reach for this when early answers would bias the rest - a prediction before the answer, an anonymous opinion where you do not want people to just follow the crowd, or a quiz where the whole point is the reveal.

Same question, two very different moments. Here is the kind of split you might want to hold back until everyone has committed:

Survey: the whole thing on one page

There is a third experience for multi-question polls. When your deck has more than one question, PollsLive can present it as a survey - every question on one shareable page, submitted together, with combined results at the end. This is the mode for feedback forms, NPS with a follow-up, and employee surveys people fill in on their own time. It turns on automatically for multi-question decks built in the questionnaire builder, and it always shows results after submitting.

Live for the energy of a room, reveal to stop the crowd swaying the vote, survey for answers people give on their own time.

Not sure which format your poll should be? Start by building it from scratch and try both - the setting is one click to change.