Polls

Send a Poll

Create a Poll with a question and an array of option strings, then send it like any other message:

const { Poll } = require('whatsapp-web.js')

client.on('message_received', async msg => {
  if (msg.body === '!poll') {
    const poll = new Poll('What is your favorite color?', ['Red', 'Green', 'Blue'])
    const chat = await msg.getChat()
    await chat.sendMessage(poll)
  }
})

Allow Multiple Answers

By default, participants can only choose one option. Set allowMultipleAnswers to true to change this:

const poll = new Poll('Pick your favorites', ['Pizza', 'Sushi', 'Tacos'], {
  allowMultipleAnswers: true,
})

Listen for Votes

The vote_update event fires whenever a participant votes or changes their vote:

client.on('vote_update', vote => {
  console.log('Poll ID:', vote.parentMessage.id._serialized)
  console.log('Voter:', vote.voter)
  console.log(
    'Selected options:',
    vote.selectedOptions.map(o => o.name)
  )
})

Full Example: Vote Counter

const { Poll } = require('whatsapp-web.js')
const votes = new Map()

client.on('message_received', async msg => {
  if (msg.body === '!vote') {
    const poll = new Poll('Favorite fruit?', ['Apple', 'Banana', 'Cherry'])
    const sent = await msg.reply(poll)
    votes.set(sent.id._serialized, {})
  }
})

client.on('vote_update', vote => {
  const pollId = vote.parentMessage.id._serialized
  if (!votes.has(pollId)) return

  const tally = votes.get(pollId)
  tally[vote.voter] = vote.selectedOptions.map(o => o.name)

  const counts = {}
  for (const selections of Object.values(tally)) {
    for (const option of selections) {
      counts[option] = (counts[option] || 0) + 1
    }
  }
  console.log('Current tally:', counts)
})

Vote processing recommendations

Store vote state by poll message ID.
Recompute tallies from tracked voter selections.
Treat updates as mutable, users can change votes.
Keep poll processing isolated from command parsing.

Lightweight persistence shape

For production, persist poll state with this minimum structure:

poll message ID,
chat ID,
voter ID,
selected option IDs,
last update timestamp.