Apple Just Made iMessage Way Better and More Fun

If your iPhone is running iOS 26 — which it should be, given that it’s been several weeks since Apple rolled the software update — then you have access to (most of) the new iMessage features. And there are quite a few of them.

With iOS 26, Apple updated its Messages app with several long-awaited features, including typing indicators for group chats, the ability to create custom backgrounds for individual chats, and a new “Unknown Senders” folder for better filtering out spam texts.

However, at least in my opinion, there’s been one new feature that stands out among the rest. Especially if you’re in numerous group chats. It’s called Polls.

iMessage gets Polls

Photo by Tucker Bowe for Gear Patrol

Polls is what you expect. It allows you to create polls that other people in the chat — can be individual or group chats — can vote on. It’s one of those features that makes so much sense, it’s a wonder that Apple hadn’t rolled it out earlier.

Taking advantage of it is incredibly easy.

1. Open the Messages app.
2. Select a conversation, either with an individual or a group.
3. Select the “+” button in the lower-left corner.
4. Select Polls.

From here, you can fill out the various “choices” for the people in the chat to vote on — you can create up to 12 different choices. After people vote on the poll, you can long-press on the poll and select “Poll Details” to see who voted for what. (Anybody can do this, it doesn’t have to be the person who created the poll.)

Apple

Additionally, if you have an iPhone that supports Apple Intelligence — which is any iPhone 15 Pro, iPhone 16 (any model), iPhone 17 (any model), and iPhone Air — it’ll ask you if you want to create a poll if it determines that you’re chat is debating something.

Polls is a new feature of iOS 26 or iPad 26. It is not currently available in the latest macOS.

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