Facebook’s GIF-Based Polling Feature Rolls Out To Web, iOS & Android

Facebook is bringing a new feature to its iOS and Android apps and its website. The feature basically presents a fancy way of surveying by letting users utilize GIFs and pictures as poll options.

On Friday, The Next Web reported about the GIF-based polling feature that Facebook is widely rolling out to its apps and website. According to the publication, this feature works just like how standard poll format does. However, the former allow users to vote with GIFs instead of the standard text responses of the latter.

Facebook’s GIF-based polling feature only has two GIF responses. It is up to the creators of the pool to select the GIF for the response options. They could also get creative with the caption for each response. Here is an example.

Engadget says it isn’t clear why Facebook is only giving users two response options, when Twitter has room for four. However, it’s highly likely that Facebook wants its surveys to be more image-oriented and it wants its polls to be well rendered on mobile platforms with just two responses.

Polling is not something new to Facebook. In fact, the social network previously supported polls in brand pages, as pointed out by MacRumors. What sets this new feature apart from the previous one (save for the GIF part) is it can actually be used by personal users to poll their friends and family.

Facebook’s new polling feature is rolling out to the website first. It will then be seeded to the iOS and Android apps in the following days. For users who already have access to this feature through the site, here’s a step-by-step guide on how to create a GIF poll.

1. First, one should go the Status update field and launch the extended menu.
2. Next, scroll through the different menu options and select Poll, which is located below the Sticker option.
3. Upon clicking Poll, one will find two fields for the two response options. Each field has an option to add either a photo or a GIF.
4. By hovering the cursor over the GIF icon in the response field, the user will be presented with a selection of GIFs.
5. After clicking on a GIF for the response field, one should then proceed to captioning it. The same steps should be done for the second response field.
6. The question for the poll should then be written on the Status update field.
7. Finally, one should select the duration period for the poll prior to publishing it.

The GIF-based polling feature is Facebook’s latest effort in revamping its Status update feature with various options. In the recent years, it introduced colorful Status updates to users.

“It’s no big surprise to see Facebook has opened up GIF polls to users as well as Pages,” The Next Web Social Director Matt Navarra said. “This adds yet another way for people to express themselves and engage with their friends and family, and could actually useful as much as it is fun. Although some users may start to tire of endless GIFs in their News Feed making it look even more Myspace-esque.”

Facebook reportedly started testing the GIF-based polling feature earlier this year with the help of some brand pages. Then, just a month ago, the company added polls to Instagram Stories. It appears Facebook is using polls to increase user-engagement, and it also finding ways to spice things up in this department.