'Inline' realtime polls

[tmattei]

I’d like to have polls implemented in-chat, without the need of using an external app.
This would allow users to vote and follow the changes of other people’s votes more quickly.
Polls are very widely used in work chats to take decisions and many people find it too slow if they have to load the app each time they want to have an update about how it’s going.
This is a feature not only WhatsApp, but also Telegram and other apps (like ElementX) have.
Also, it would be handy if one could have more options (e.g., multi-choice vs. single choice, anonymous vote, hide results or even ‘quiz’ mode).

[link2xt]

Just for reference, polls is one of the use cases listed for Structured Email:

Structured Email: Use cases

Don’t think it actually addresses it in the current form.

[adbenitez]

@tmattei

many people find it too slow if they have to load the app each time

I agree overall that native built-in polls are better than a webxdc, but I think the “it is too slow” problem comes from the “FILL500” hack we added to block WebRTC which makes it a really annoying experience if every time you want to see the poll status you waste several seconds seeing a progress bar, if it would be instantaneous it wouldn’t be so stressful

but even if it is true that native polls are better, the problem is the development and maintenance cost of such features, we don’t have a billion-dollar company or person backing Delta Chat unlike WhatsApp and Telegram, with a lot of resources and developers to send to care about just that feature, so the in-chat mini-app is the best we have right now because it means we can outsource it and any developer can create their custom better poll app with nicer UI or extra features without it exploding on our shoulders like people asking for multi-voting or nicer polls in dark theme or different colors per bar, ways to export/share the poll, etc.

[tmattei]

Hi adbenitez and thank you for answering.

Fair enough, I totally understand the problem.

Yes, too bad you had to introduce that progress bar, I honestly thought it was the time needed to load the app (even if it’s so small it wasn’t realistic tbh), I guess there was a good reason to do so.

Now, in fact many things could be improven directly in the mini-app (at least one of them, since there are two). It would be very handy if it could show something more in the short text it outputs in the chat bubble–maybe a resume of the options with the votes for each option would be already enough. But I guess this is not the place to ask for it, I’ll look for a place to address the actual developers of the app.

EDIT: I guess the proper place is the “webxdc” category of this forum

Thanks again

[DavidSM100]

@tmattei

It would be very handy if it could show something more in the short text it outputs in the chat bubble–maybe a resume of the options with the votes for each option would be already enough.

The thing is that text is very limited, only one line and it will be truncated when it gets long.
Besides you can only put there your local state of the poll which is not always the real state, like when you vote while offline or vote before you finish loading messages from others.

[DavidSM100]

@tmattei

Also, it would be handy if one could have more options (e.g., multi-choice vs. single choice, anonymous vote, hide results or even ‘quiz’ mode).

I will probably will add the multi/single choice option as soon as I have some time to work on it. And probably later other features.

[tmattei]

Oh I see…

Thank you if you can find some time to add more options, that would be great.

Here are some suggestions, but please consider this as a brainstorming.

Besides single/multi choice, It would be good to have non-anonymous polls (i.e. users can see who voted what) as a choice.

“Hide results” would mean that only the creator of the poll can see the results (less useful but may be handy for some cases).

Also, the possibility to declare a poll closed (or to set a deadline, as in Mastodon) would be useful.

“Quiz” polls are more of a game thing, less useful for work teams (which is what I’m mainly thinking of).

[ebert]

@DavidSM100

I will probably will add the multi/single choice option as soon as I have some time to work on it. And probably later other features.

Maybe it would be sufficient to be able to display more text and BARs as info text in a Webxdc. That way still Webxdc developers can realize…

@tmattei

Besides single/multi choice, It would be good to have non-anonymous polls (i.e. users can see who voted what) as a choice.

“Hide results” would mean that only the creator of the poll can see the results (less useful but may be handy for some cases).

Also, the possibility to declare a poll closed (or to set a deadline, as in Mastodon) would be useful.

“Quiz” polls are more of a game thing, less useful for work teams (which is what I’m mainly thinking of).

…

Then you don’t have to OPEN the Webxdc just for VIEWing the results. And still, there can be complex and creative ways to handle polls with responsibility on the Webxdc developers.

[peppa]

@adbenitez

I agree overall that native built-in polls are better than a webxdc, but I think the “it is too slow” problem comes from the “FILL500” hack we added to block WebRTC which makes it a really annoying experience if every time you want to see the poll status you waste several seconds seeing a progress bar, if it would be instantaneous it wouldn’t be so stressful

@tmattei

Yes, too bad you had to introduce that progress bar, I honestly thought it was the time needed to load the app (even if it’s so small it wasn’t realistic tbh), I guess there was a good reason to do so.

I recall that @Simon said DC once tried using Gecko web view which doesn’t need FILL500, but gave up because it was too much work for a small team, and DC also tried to get other browser developers to implement WebRTC CSP but didn’t pursue this once you got the FILL500 workaround. But if the slowness is making it often an annoying experience to open webxdc apps, maybe its worth contacting the browser developers again about WebRTC CSP?