No longer will Twitter users be forced to employ methods such as 'retweet for yes, favorite for no' when it comes to creating polls, as the company has just announced that it will soon make its polling feature available to all users.
The new polling option will mean that anyone on iOS, Android and Twitter.com will be able to create polls straight from the 'compose' box. Initially, the polls will only be open for 24 hours and users are limited to offering a choice of two answers.
"For poll creators, it's a new way to engage with Twitter's massive audience and understand exactly what people think," said Twitter product manager Todd Sherman in a blog post. "For those participating, it's a very easy way to make your voice heard."
Twitter confirmed last month that a limited number of users had been given the ability to embed polls into their tweets. These included certain verified and non-verified profiles, Twitter employees, and celebrities - mostly people with a large number of followers who could test the polls on a big audience.
Along with the aforementioned 'retweet=yes, favorite=no' method, previous ways of simulating polls on Twitter included tracking replies to questions and tallying hashtag votes. This new polling feature means a quick and easy way for users to vote on any poll, and their choice won't be publicly visible.
It's not clear if the service will be available straight away on Twitter clients such as TweetDeck and HootSuite. In the earlier testing phase of this polling feature it was reported that these non-Twitter apps weren't able to show the poll itself, viewers just saw the question.
Twitter is going through something of a transitional phase at the moment. It's been two weeks since founder Jack Dorsey was named permanent CEO of the company and the microblogging site has introduced several new features recently, such as its Moments news service, in an attempt to increase its 316 million active monthly users closer to the 1.5 billion Facebook boasts.