Use the Matching Poll slide

Which project gets top priority? Who suits which role? A show of hands can only take one question at a time. Matching Poll is an unscored slide where everyone pairs each item with a match on their phone, and your screen shows the pairing the room agrees on most, with a percentage for each pair. To add one, click New slide and search for Matching Poll.

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Matching Poll at a glance

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Create a Matching Poll slide

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Present a Matching Poll slide

Click Preview to try it, or Present and share the access code. On each phone, participants see every item with a Match with… list. Each match can go to only one item, so picking a match that another item already has moves it across and marks it as taken. Once every item has a match, they tap Submit. Answers can’t be changed after that. On your screen, the two columns appear with “Waiting for answers…” until the first answers come in. Then each item is linked to a match, with a percentage showing how many of the people who answered made that pair. The pairing shown is the one with the most votes combined, and each match is used once. If two pairings get the same number of votes, the pair is marked Tie and the one first in letter order is shown. After submitting, participants see the same pairing on their phone, with “You picked this too” or the match they chose instead.

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Matching Poll settings

Once answers have come in, the items and matches are locked. Reset the slide’s results to change them.

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Ideas for using Matching Poll

• Team planning: pair projects with priorities, or tasks with the team member who should own them.
• Workshops: match challenges with the fix the group thinks works best.
• Classes: ask students to pair characters with traits, or terms with examples, then talk through the pairs the class split on.
• Events and socials: match team members with a superpower, or colleagues with their desk snack.

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Matching Poll vs. Match Pairs

Match Pairs is a quiz: each item has one correct match and participants score points for getting it right. Matching Poll has no right answers. It shows how your audience pairs things up, so it suits opinions and priorities rather than testing knowledge. For a single choice from a list, use a Poll.

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Frequently asked questions

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Is Matching Poll scored?

No. There are no correct answers, points or leaderboard.

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Can two items get the same match?

No. Each participant gives every item a different match, so the result is a complete set of pairs rather than a vote for each item on its own.

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What does the percentage on each pair mean?

The percentage on a Matching Poll pair shows how many of the people who answered made that exact pair. The percentages don’t add up to 100, because each one is counted separately.

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Why can’t I edit my items?

Items and matches are locked once answers come in, so the results stay consistent. Reset the slide’s results to edit them.

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What happens if submissions close before someone finishes?

Their pairing is not sent, and their phone says answers closed before they submitted. Have a question? Contact our support team: if you’re logged in, use the chat bubble in the bottom-right of your dashboard; otherwise contact us here or email hi@ahaslides.com. Want to connect with other users? Join the AhaSlides community to share tips, request features, and see how others engage their audiences.