Engage your audience: chat, Q&A, polls, quizzes and reactions
How to use chat, Q&A, polls, quizzes, reactions and raised hands in a Webinar Liv room, from the host's side and the attendee's.
On this page
A webinar is more fun, and more useful, when the audience takes part. Webinar Liv rooms come with chat, Q&A, polls, quizzes, reactions and raised hands. This guide shows how each one works, what you can control as the host, and what your attendees see.
Where the tools are
Everything is on the bar at the bottom of the room: Chat, Q&A, Polls, Participants, React and Raise hand. On a phone only Chat and React stay on the bar, and the rest move under More.
Chat, Q&A, Polls and Participants open in a panel on the right of the video. You can pop the panel out into its own window (handy for a second screen), float it over the video, or close it with Esc.
Turning things on and off
You choose the starting point when you schedule the webinar, under In the room → How the session starts: Attendee chat, Q&A, Reactions and Raise hand. All of them are on by default.
During the session, open Host tools → More options. Under What attendees can do you can switch Chat, Q&A, Raise hand, Reactions and Polls and quizzes on or off at any moment. Turning something off never deletes what is already there; for example, existing questions stay visible when Q&A is closed.
Chat
Anyone can type in Chat, paste a screenshot or attach an image, and @mention someone. Messages can be up to 2,000 characters, and links are clickable.
Who can chat with whom
At the top of the chat panel, the host sees an Attendee chat control with three settings:
| Setting | What it means |
|---|---|
| Everyone | Attendees can message everyone in the webinar. |
| Panelists | Attendees can only message you and the panelists. |
| Off | Chat is off for attendees. You and panelists can still chat. |
When chat is off, attendees see Chat is off and can still read earlier messages.
As the host or a panelist, you can also choose who your own message goes to. Set To to Panelists for a backstage note that attendees will not see, or Everyone for the whole room.
Removing messages
Next to each attendee message, the host and panelists have a bin icon (Delete message). It is removed for everyone, including people who join later, and it cannot be undone.
Q&A
Q&A keeps questions separate from the chatter, so none get lost.
For attendees
Attendees type in Ask a question… and press Enter. They can tick Ask anonymously, in which case the question shows as Anonymous to everyone, including you. Everyone can upvote a question once, and the most-voted open questions rise to the top.
For the host
Questions are split into Open and Answered. For each one you can:
- Write an answer and press Send answer to reply in text,
- Mark answered if you answered it out loud,
- Pin it to keep it at the top,
- Hide it from attendees (you still see it, tagged Hidden).
Polls
A poll asks the room a question with a set of answers. It pops up in the middle of every attendee's screen, which makes it the quickest way to get everyone involved.
Prepare polls before the session
When you schedule or edit the webinar, the Live polls section lets you write polls ahead of time with Add poll or Add quiz. In the room you only press Launch, with no typing mid-session.
Create and launch one live
Open Polls and press New poll or quiz. Choose Poll, write the question, and add between 2 and 10 options. Then press Launch now, or Save as draft to launch later.
Only one question is live at a time; launching a new one closes the current one. The panel groups your polls into Live, Drafts and Closed. While a poll is live, you see the results update every few seconds.
When you have enough answers, press Close voting. You can Reopen a closed poll (earlier votes are kept) or Duplicate it.
What attendees see
Attendees get a pop-up with the question, choose one answer, and press Submit answer, or Answer later to deal with it from the Polls panel. Each person answers once and cannot change their answer.
Quizzes
A quiz is a poll with a right answer. In the composer choose Quiz, write the question and options, then tap a letter to mark the correct answer.
While voting is open, attendees see Your answer is in. The right answer is revealed when voting closes. When you press Close voting, each person sees whether they got it right, and you see what share of the room did ("N% got it right"). Quizzes have no scores or leaderboard; each one stands on its own.
Reactions
Press React and pick one of six emoji: 👏 👍 ❤️ 😂 🎉 😮. Reactions are anonymous and float up the right-hand side of the video, so you can feel the room without anyone being singled out. For people who prefer reduced motion, they fade in place instead.
To keep a big room calm, each tap shows a short burst rather than an endless stream, and there is a cap on how many can be on screen at once.
Raised hands
When Raise hand is on, attendees can press it to ask to speak. You get a notice ("wants to speak") with Allow to speak, Lower hand or View. The Raised hands list shows everyone waiting, with Invite to speak, Lower hand and Message for each person, and Lower all to clear the list.
Inviting someone sends them a request; they join the stage once they accept.
A simple plan for your first session
- Before the session, write two or three polls and one quiz under Live polls.
- In the first five minutes, launch a quick poll ("Where are you joining from?") to get everyone clicking.
- Keep Q&A open throughout, and spend the last ten minutes on the top-voted questions.
- Use a quiz near the end to check what stuck.
- Ask a co-host or panelist to keep an eye on chat, so you can focus on presenting.
Want to run the same session again without presenting it live? See Turn a recording into a Simulive.