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Doodle Polls – the fairest, easiest way to make plans

You may have heard of a Doodle poll before – you may have even have received an invite to participate in one. And you may have been thoroughly confused as to what a Doodle poll is.

Here’s the quick answer: Doodle is a great app that makes it easy to organize plans and events with friends and family.

It does this by providing a platform where users can vote simultaneously on their availability and timing preferences, so it’s easy to set the best date for all concerned.

How to start a Doodle poll

Have an event but want to choose a date that’s suitable for everyone? (Or, at least, the highest majority possible?) Sign up to the app – for free – and tap the big blue + icon.

Now, choose the poll type. For this instance select Time Poll. This will mean the people you invite can select the dates they are available from the options you provide.

First, on the new poll screen fill in a title for your event – we chose to organize a curry night. Next, tap select dates and use the calendar to line up all the potential dates that could be used to host the event. Tap done.

Next, fill in the location of the event and any other information you’d like the recipient to know.

You can also set parameters to your poll by tapping on Settings. Here, you can decide whether to make users’ responses anonymous, allow them to only make a single choice rather than multiple, and more. By default, respondents can tick as many options as work for them.

Once you’ve inputted this data, tap create in the top right corner. It will then pop up a menu of ways to invite participants. You can invite people WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, Messages, Mail, or simply copy a link to send people manually.

Participants will receive a link where they can either fill in the poll online on Doodle’s website – so they don’t need the app to participate – or if they have the app, it will open on their device. You can choose to receive notifications when people respond or check back later and make a decision based on people’ responses.

How to create a non-date related poll

Doodle also allows you to make polls for non-date related activities. A good example is if we wanted to get an idea on preferences for different types of curry for our night of Indian delights.

To set up this type of vote, go back to the home screen and tap the plus icon and select Text Poll. Here, you can add various options, allowing users to vote for their preferences. This would also work for things like activities.

There we go – welcome to a new and easy world of organizing events among friends and family!