Anonymous polls in Slack can fundamentally change how your team decides things. Want candid reactions to a new policy, a quiet vote on Friday’s activity, or sensitive feedback on workplace culture? Removing names from the ballots lets people speak up without worrying about judgment or backlash.

Does Slack do this out of the box?

No. Slack doesn't support anonymous polls natively. Slack recommends using 3rd-party apps for hosting polls.

In this post, we'll guide you how to use OpenCulture, a privacy-centric Slack app to create anonymous polls in Slack.

How It Works: Step-by-Step

Step 1: Install the app

Head over to OpenCulture in the Slack App Marketplace and click the "Add to Slack" button. If you don't have admin permissions, ask your Slack admin to install it for your workspace.

Step 2: Start a poll

Type /openculture poll in any channel to start setting up your poll.

Step 3: Configure your poll

The poll creation form lets you:

• Question (up to 500 characters)

• Choices (up to 100 characters each; 2–10 allowed)

• Enable Anonymous voting

• Hide results from participants until poll closes

• Set a poll close deadline

Step 4: Preview and post

You'll see a preview of how the poll will appear in the channel. If you like what you see, click Post Poll to confirm & post the poll to the channel.

Participants can vote by clicking the ✅ button against the option; creators manage everything from the same thread.

Advanced Features That Help

Anonymous Voting

When enabled, voter identities are completely hidden — no usernames appear in results, even for poll creators. This is critical for sensitive topics like compensation preferences, leadership feedback, or workplace culture assessments where fear of retaliation might otherwise silence honest opinions.

Results Visibility Control

Choose whether vote counts are visible immediately or hidden until the poll closes. Hiding results prevents the bandwagon effect — the psychological tendency to follow the majority rather than vote based on genuine preference. This is especially valuable for:

• Strategic decisions where you want independent thinking

• Controversial topics where early results might pressure conformity

• Creative choices where you need authentic preferences, not groupthink

By revealing results only after the poll closes, you ensure every vote reflects true opinion rather than social pressure.

Multiple Choice Polls

Enable multiple selections when participants can legitimately choose more than one option. Perfect for:

• Scheduling: "Which days work for you this week?" (select all that apply)

• Feature prioritization: "What should we build next?" (choose your top 3)

• Resource allocation: "Which training topics interest you?" (select all relevant)

• Event planning: "What dietary preferences do we need to accommodate?" (multiple selections expected)

Multiple choice polls give you richer data than forcing artificial single-option constraints.

Participant-Added Options

Allow participants to submit new options after the poll starts. This transforms polls from top-down dictates into collaborative conversations. Use this when:

• You might have missed options: Team brainstorming sessions where the creator can't anticipate every possibility

• You want bottom-up input: Gathering suggestions for team activities, process improvements, or celebration ideas

• The landscape is evolving: Fast-moving situations where new options emerge as discussion unfolds

This feature ensures the poll adapts to your team's collective wisdom rather than limiting choices to what one person imagined at creation time.

Auto-Close Deadline

Set polls to automatically close at specific times, ensuring decisions get made without manual follow-up. This feature solves a common problem: decision limbo.

Without deadlines, polls linger indefinitely. People forget to vote, wait to see which way others lean, or simply deprioritize. Decisions that should take hours stretch into days or weeks.

Auto-close deadlines create healthy urgency. When your team knows the poll closes Friday at 5 PM, they prioritize voting. No reminder messages needed, no manual closure required — the system handles it automatically.

This is especially valuable for:

• Time-sensitive decisions: Lunch orders need answers by 11 AM, not tomorrow

• Recurring rituals: Sprint planning votes that must close before the meeting starts

• Cross-timezone teams: Set a reasonable deadline and let automation handle closure while you sleep

• Preventing deadline drift: Without automatic closure, there's always temptation to extend "just one more day"

The automation removes you as a bottleneck and trains your team that deadlines mean something.

Poll Management

Creators can modify settings, close polls early, delete polls, or reopen closed polls as circumstances change. Real-world decision-making is messy — your polling tool should adapt.

Close polls early when consensus emerges faster than expected. If 95% have voted with a clear winner, why wait three more days?

Modify settings mid-poll when needed. Realize people are bandwagoning? Switch to hidden results. Should have enabled multiple choice? Update it.

Delete polls that become irrelevant or were posted by mistake. Keep your channels clean without confusing artifacts.

Reopen closed polls when circumstances change — new team members join, fresh information emerges, or the decision was never implemented.

Real-World Use Cases

Team Retrospectives: Anonymous voting on meeting effectiveness, work satisfaction, or process improvements — with hidden results until everyone votes to prevent groupthink.

Event Planning: Multiple choice voting on team outings, meeting times, or celebration preferences. Let participants suggest additional options and select all dates that work for them.

Policy Feedback: Gather honest opinions on company changes, benefits, or workplace policies using anonymous voting with results hidden until deadline.

Anonymous Surveys: Conduct sensitive research on team dynamics, leadership effectiveness, or workplace culture with complete privacy.

Brainstorming Sessions: Start with initial ideas, enable participant-added options, and use multiple choice to identify themes with broad support.

Availability Polls: Ask "Which time slots work for you?" with multiple selections and participant-added times.

Privacy and Security Features

When anonymous voting is on, no usernames are displayed—even to poll creators. Data is encrypted and follows Slack’s security standards, with no audit trail that could break anonymity.

Try It Yourself

OpenCulture offers a 14-day free trial with full poll functionality. Install it with one click using the "Add to Slack" button and start creating anonymous polls in any public or private channel.

Conclusion

Anonymous voting doesn’t have to be risky or complex. Give your team a safe way to speak up, and watch better, more inclusive decisions follow.

Whether you're a team leader looking for honest feedback, an HR professional conducting workplace surveys, or just someone who wants to make team decisions more democratic — anonymous polls give you the tools to do it safely and effectively.