They weren’t gone for long, but their absence prompted a signficant enough backlash that Facebook has today announced that polls for Messenger are once again back in play within your chat streams.

Facebook first launched polls in Messenger back in 2016, but they were removed recently as part of Facebook’s ‘Lightspeed’ revamp of the Messenger app, which sought to streamline its operations and declutter presentation.

But now, Messenger polls have returned – and what’s more, they come with a fresh new look, and improved response.

As explained by Facebook:

“Power users of the previous version of Polls will note that we’ve refreshed the look and feel with new colors and an updated button to vote. We’ve also added Polls to the Messenger Desktop app, available for both Mac and Windows users.”

For comparison, this is the original Messenger poll format:

So, now polls look cooler, and are built into the new, updated Messenger framework, so they’re generally better overall. And they’re available ​across iOS, Android, web and desktop. Maybe it was worth their brief absence.

To create a Poll in Messenger:

• Tap on + and select Polls in a group chat
• From there you can add a question for your friends to vote by selecting Type in the Poll Question
• Select Options, then tap Create Poll to submit your topic to the group chat

​​​All Messenger group threads, with more than two chat participants, are able to add Polls.