presentation voting app

The 9 best presentation software platforms in 2023

You’re in the middle of a busy work week, and you‘re winding down after a particularly productive day. There’s still a lot more to accomplish, but you’ve got momentum and you’re making good progress. As you check your calendar for the following day, you see a two-hour morning time slot blocked out for a company-wide meeting. What’s your gut reaction?

Is it something like “I can’t wait—this is going to be so fun and interactive!” Or is it something more like “Ugh—I’ve got so much to do, and this is going to be such a long presentation. Maybe I can get some actual work done while it’s on in the background.”

If your inner monologue sounds more like the second example, you’re not alone. Research from Zippia shows 65% of employees believe meetings inhibit them from getting their work tasks done and that people are multitasking in at least 41% of meetings.

With so many potential distractions lurking in inboxes, Slack channels, and smartphones, meeting leaders must do everything they can to make their presentations interactive and engaging.

Fortunately, many presentation software platforms offer powerful tools to help presenters tell more captivating stories. Let’s take a look at a few of the factors that separate good apps from great ones.

What makes a great presentation app?

From pitch decks to progress updates, presentation apps have countless uses within the modern business environment. But regardless of the content being shared, there are a few things the best presentation software all has in common.

Intuitive, user-friendly interfaces

If an application is loaded with incredible features that are difficult to use, most users will prefer to take the path of least resistance rather than spending hours Googling how to accomplish their goal. Best-in-class presentation software makes it easy for users to learn the basics and get started, often with built-in tutorials.

Easy customization

Platforms that make it easy to plug in your logo, colors, fonts, and photos create polished presentations that wow internal and external audiences alike. Look for an app with a variety of tweakable templates that allow teams to share different types of information while sticking to your brand and identity standards.

Visual storytelling

If you’re squeezing several hundred words onto each presentation slide and then reading them all aloud, your audience’s attention is likely to wane. Research has long shown people absorb a combination of visual and verbal content much better than spoken lectures alone. All the best presentation software streamlines the use of visual aids to help your audience retain information more effectively.

Sharing and collaboration features

As asynchronous work becomes increasingly common, it’s important for your presentation software of choice to streamline collaboration between teams who may not be in the same location (or even the same hemisphere). When done well, sharing and collaboration features can save time and confusion regarding the latest versions or revisions.  

Integrations with other apps

Software that plays nicely with its binary counterparts can elevate a typical presentation into something compelling and visually stunning. Apps which enable embedding and presenting interactive features make outstanding add-ons that improve audience engagement while using your main slideware or communication tools.

1. Poll Everywhere

A versatile and customizable software platform for engaging your audience and encouraging participation, Poll Everywhere adds interactive elements to your presentation like polls, surveys, quizzes, word clouds, and much more. Made to turn dry lectures into two-way conversations, Poll Everywhere makes it easy to set up a variety of interactive activities for audience members. People can share their input via text, smartphone app, or web browser, which is then reflected on the screen in real time (don’t worry, there are moderation features for open-ended text responses).

Not only does Poll Everywhere enable more interactive presentations, it’s also a useful tool for things like employee surveys, group brainstorms, or submitting questions and agenda items ahead of meetings. It’s intuitive for new users to pick up and enables more open communication and team collaboration at every level of your organization.

For larger organizations, Poll Everywhere’s Enterprise plans let you customize the platform to reflect your company’s branding, logos, and colors (and remove the Poll Everywhere branding to give your presentations a more bespoke look). You also get additional features like Shared Activities for cross-team collaboration, upgraded security protocols, and robust reporting tools to translate audience responses into actionable insights.

• Easy integration with most industry-standard slideware and communication apps
• Encourages audience participation and engagement
• Wide variety of functions and activities
• Paid plans required for audiences larger than 25 people
• Audience members must have Internet or cellular access to participate

Poll Everywhere offers a free plan that allows polling limited audience sizes and paid plans starting at $120 per year. Higher-tier plans include additional users, greater audience sizes, and increased moderation and support tools. Custom enterprise solutions for large organizations are also available.

Powtoon takes your presentations to the next level by helping you create polished, professional-looking videos that are more captivating than your traditional text on a screen. Users edit “slides” similarly to how they would with most presentation software, except when you’re done, your deck becomes a seamless video complete with animations of your choosing. The software even figures out the correct timing based on how much content you add to each slide.

In addition to making your presentations sparkle, Powtoon is also useful for creating other marketing or social media assets. You can orient your videos to fit different dimensions and publish your finished creations directly to YouTube, Meta’s Ads Manager, and other platforms.

• Makes your presentations more captivating and memorable
• Useful for creating all types of videos
• Wide variety of templates, animations, and characters
• Limited templates on free version
• Paid plan required for MP4 downloads

Powtoon’s free offering is somewhat limited, though paid plans start at a reasonable $20 per month. Premium plans include more storage space, unlimited exports, and the ability to customize characters and add your own branding.

3. Genially

In the era of remote teams working across different time zones, not every presentation needs to have a presenter. Genially makes it easy to create interactive, self-led presentations that engage your audience much more than simply sending them a deck or a document to review. A huge variety of templates include predefined interactive elements, or users can customize their own.

A well-planned assortment of content blocks lets you showcase everything from image galleries to data visualizations. And while it takes a bit of work upfront, you can also create your own template using your organization’s branding and then have anyone on your team use it to create their own presentations.

• Anyone can create entertaining and interactive self-led presentations
• Solid variety of templates, even on free version
• Unlimited creations for all tiers, including free version
• Paid subscription required to view presentations offline
• Variety of options can be overwhelming at first

Premium plans range from $7.49 per month to $80 per month. As you go up the pricing tiers, you get access to more privacy and personalization features, plus integration with other platforms like PowerPoint and Google Analytics.

A software platform that’s shaking up the linear-presentation model, Prezi takes users out of the sometimes stifling flow of traditional slide deck design in favor of a more free-flowing approach. Prezi users list out ideas or topics they want to cover before threading them together into a compelling, visually striking presentation that’s more conducive to group conversations.

Prezi integrates particularly well with video conferencing tools, making it a great option for remote-first teams. You can even build your presentation as a Zoom overlay, which means your audience can see you and your slide content at the same time. It’s a nice way to maintain a human touch in video presentations, where audiences often miss out on seeing the presenter’s body language and facial expressions.

• Can inspire more creative thinking when developing content
• Robust library of templates and features
• Excellent integration with video conferencing platforms
• Can be a challenging transition for people used to the traditional slide deck model
• Free version limited to five projects

While you can create five projects for free, paid plans starting at $19 per month include much greater import and export options. The $59 per month Premium plan includes phone support, presentation analytics, and advanced training tools. Custom enterprise packages are also available for large teams.

5. Google Slides

Truly free presentation software—not just a free trial or a limited feature set—is increasingly difficult to come by. However, anyone with a Google account can use the full version of Google Slides, with no recurring subscriptions or trial periods to speak of. And because it’s fully cloud-based, teams can collaborate on the same presentation without having to keep track of multiple versions.

While its offerings of features and premade templates may not quite equal some of its subscription-based peers, Google Slides remains a viable solution due to its simple interface and easy integration with the rest of Google Workspace. You can also add powerful third-party add-ons to make your presentations more interactive and visually appealing.

• Cloud-based platform enables easy collaboration
• Shorter learning curve than some other platforms
• Can utilize add-ons to supplement the simple functionality
• LImited templates and transition effects
• No built-in asset library

The full version of Google Slides is free to use for anyone with a Google account.

If you need to create a beautiful presentation really fast, Canva is a fantastic software option. Its free plan offers some of the best-looking templates around, and because it’s a self-contained solution, you won’t need other apps like Photoshop to create eye-catching visuals. Drag-and-drop functionality makes it easy to add your own content and visual assets, or you can pick from an extensive library of free photos and graphics (even on the free version).

While it’s an excellent tool for creating polished presentations, Canva has other uses too. It’s incredibly helpful for creating marketing materials like videos, social posts, and even logos. While it’s not a replacement for your design team, it can free them up for other tasks while empowering anyone in your organization to embrace their creative side.

• Simplifies the creation of eye-popping presentations
• Massive variety of templates, even on free version
• Versatile platform for creating all types of materials
• Can be difficult to make complicated charts or graphs
• Cloud-based platform has limited offline functionality

Canva’s free version is excellent, though cloud storage space is limited. Paid plans start at $120 per year and include 24/7 support and an even bigger library of templates, photos, animations, and audio.

7. Beautiful.ai

If you’re the hawk-eyed type who spends just as much time fixing those annoying spacing issues as you do developing the actual content of your presentation, Beautiful.ai could be the software you’ve been looking for. As you might suspect from the name, it’s an AI-enhanced presentation platform that automates many aspects of layout to keep your slides looking professional and visually pleasing.

To help you get inspired when first starting a new project, you can browse through a number of slide types to find a layout you like, which then automatically applies to the rest of your presentation-in-progress, even on slides with other types of content. While templates and themes are somewhat limited compared to other platforms, all the included options are clean, modern, and well-designed.

• Automated layout for polished and professional designs
• Clean and intuitive user interface
• Helpful tutorial videos to minimize the learning curve
• Template, theme, and color options are somewhat limited
• Bare-bones collaboration features on the free version

Individual subscriptions start at $12 per month and unlock most of the app’s best features. Monthly Team plans with added customization and collaboration tools start at $40 per user, and large–scale enterprise plans are also available.

8. PowerPoint

We’d be remiss if we didn’t include this category-founding behemoth in our list, as it’s still one of the most popular presentation softwares in use around the globe. (There’s a reason many other presentation apps feature PowerPoint integration as a selling point.)

With a wide variety of templates, effects, animations, and customization options, experienced PowerPoint users can create presentations every bit as compelling as you’ll get with any other platform. And with useful extension apps available for both Mac and Windows versions, you can integrate additional interactive elements to make your next meeting more memorable.

• Compatible with the world’s most popular software suite
• Solid selection of templates and effects
• Easy to get started creating simple presentations
• Steep learning curve for advanced features
• Can take longer to create visually stunning presentations

PowerPoint is included in the Microsoft 365 software suite with plans starting at $6.99 per month. Standalone licenses are also available at a flat rate of $159.99.

If your organization makes heavy use of Apple products, Keynote is an excellent free presentation software option that rivals PowerPoint in terms of rich functionality. The interface is mostly intuitive, though perhaps slightly more complicated than the ultra-stripped-down feel of Google Slides (which makes sense, given Keynote’s additional features).

Built-in templates and asset libraries are plentiful, and in keeping with Apple’s brand aesthetic, help you create contemporary-looking presentations that wow your audiences. And while PowerPoint may have a wider variety of add-ons, Keynote still works with numerous third-party apps to incorporate interactive elements like polls, quizzes, word clouds, and more.

• Excellent variety of templates and built-in assets
• Creates clean, modern, and polished presentations
• Mobile, desktop, and web-based platforms
• Requires some time to master
• Few truly unique features

Keynote is free to use for all Apple users.

When done well, presentations are still one of the best ways to inform and invigorate an audience and align everyone regarding goals, priorities, and progress toward achieving them. With so much user-friendly presentation software available in 2023, there’s no need to host boring, lecture-style meetings that test your attendees’ attention spans.

If you’re looking for more ideas about how to make your presentations more engaging and interactive, check out our free guide detailing best practices for prese nters .

Related articles

The 6 Best Live Polling Tools to Engage your Audience

The best way to engage your group in a live meeting or event (while not wasting valuable time) is to make it interactive — let your people participate. Live polling is one way to do this, and is proven to increase audience engagement. Here are the 6 best tools online to ask poll questions / run interactive polls, whether you're on a video call, in person in a meeting, or in front of an audience in a conference room.

See our video with reviews and screengrabs of each tool, or get to the written list below.

1. Slides with Friends

Slides With Friends is a great all-around interactive presentation solution, and is one of the frontrunners in our list of audience polling tools. It comes with pretty much everything you'd need to create and run live polls, then collect instant feedback. Players join on their mobile device with a QR code scan or custom URL (so, no downloads needed), and easily send in answers, emoji, sounds, and more, during your event or meetings real time.

Biggest Slides With Friends advantages: Accessibility, Thoughtful pre-made templates, Good design, Robust free account

This tool works wherever you can share your screen, so you can use it on Zoom, Google Meet, Microsoft Teams, Webex, or in a conference room.

It also comes with tons of free and ready-to-use game templates: think of them like Kahoot decks or Jackbox games that you can edit any way you like, and then play with your group. This takes away a lot of the work you’d have to do to create your own content from scratch. Just pick a template that meets your needs and play during your online meetings!

For instance, here's a "Poll the Audience" Template you can use (it's free with up to 10 players). You can edit the questions on each slide to ask your group exactly what you want.

Biggest Disadvantage: Downloadable CSV for event results only available on upgraded accounts

The ability to analyze complex data in relation to the polls taken during repeated training sessions or seminars can be enlightening and help you improve your presentation for future events.

Sli.do is one of the more basic slideshow presentation platforms with polling for your audience. It allows for brainstorming with a word cloud or Q&A as well, but little else. This platform offers a very basic free option, as well as three other annually billed subscription levels to meet the needs of small to medium-large companies or non-profits. The Enterprise package is particularly impressive (but comes with a hefty price tag).

Biggest advantage: Comprehensive analytics tools

Sli.do is particularly helpful for larger organizations with frequent training and team building due to unparalleled comprehensive analytics tools. You can review Q&As, which participants led the group in responding, see all of your polls at a glance, and easily create infographics from multiple choice questions.

‍ Biggest disadvantage: Limited interesting or connective uses

Sli.do can be a dry and survey-only forward tool. If you want to wow your audience, or seem like you put a ton of work (when you really didn’t) into an interactive presentation, this tool is a little lacking.

3. Poll Everywhere

Poll Everywhere is an interactive application that can be implemented almost anywhere, anytime. For instance this is the only platform here that integrates with Slack on this list.

This service is designed to scale up as you grow your audience. It offers the most subscription options starting at low fees for small meetings and reaching up to a $12,000 per year Enterprise plan. The Teams and Enterprise options are on the expensive side, although they are feature rich.

The biggest advantage: Best free and start-up packages for live polls

The free version gives you more features than others listed, starting with a 25-attendee roster (compared to 7 to 10 participants with other apps). It also lets you add polls and unlimited real time questions.

If you have a single meeting or seminar, a cheaper one-time live polling and presentation plan rich with more poll features is available.

The biggest disadvantage: Free and “Present” live polling options very limited in features

None of the free live polling tools include analytics or moderation capabilities, but Poll Everywhere's lower-level paid version doesn't offer them either. You must pay for the more expensive “Engage” option for these features, regardless of the size of your business and the frequency of your events.

4. Aha Slides

Aha Slides is one of the most affordable live polling services, and they offer a lot of perks that aren’t available with more expensive options.

The free version is the most limiting of the services listed here, but the features of the Essential and Plus plans are affordable options for freelancers and solo entrepreneurs running a small meeting. You can pay one-time, or you can subscribe for holding regular online or in-person events.

Even large companies can take advantage of this affordability when detailed analytics and sharing is not necessary, with the upper level service accepting up to 10,000 attendees.

The biggest advantage: Idea sharing and other interactive features

In addition to live polls and brainstorming word clouds, Aha also offers sliding scales, idea sharing, multiple choice, and even a spinner wheel for a variety of attendee participation that encompasses all types of learners.

The biggest disadvantage: Only basic analytics and presentation options

Aha Slides is one of the easier live polling platform to learn and use to create, but that simplicity means that you don’t have a lot of the same advanced features offered by other polling tools listed here.

5. Mentimeter

Mentimeter issuper-featured and filled with lots of options. This makes it powerful, but also kind of tough to figure out / get an immediate understanding of. It's also a bit pricier than others given all of its integrations and features.

The biggest advantage: Language accessibility for a global workplace

Mentimeter has a tool that allows for multiple translations within the same live presentation. This means that you can reach anyone in the world and still get the same audience participation that you receive in your hometown.

The biggest disadvantage: No automatically generated reports

While you can export data from your surveys, Q&As, and live polls, Mentimeter differs from other services in that you can export raw info, but the platform doesn’t generate reports for you. This makes the analytics information less helpful.

Vevox is one of the more expensive tools that includes live polling and other interactive features to keep your participants engaged. Unlike the other tools here, you can gather all types of anonymous feedback and surveys to help you improve future presentations.

Vevox is unique in that it doesn’t have different service levels. Although a free option is available to get you started, the paid version is the same for everyone. An individual plan is $50 per month, with the Enterprise plan giving you a $5 discount per user.

The biggest advantage: Most comprehensive free version

Vevox offers one of the best free versions, although it is only available for use with PowerPoint and Microsoft Teams. it allows an astounding 500 participants, and the only features excluded in the free subscription are analytics and reporting.

The biggest disadvantage: Works best with Microsoft products

While you can use Vevox’s polling applications in other environments, it was really designed for use with Microsoft products, including Windows, PowerPoint, and Ms Teams. Those integrations are seamless, but using the service with other platforms may be more complicated.

Real Time Polling Can Increase Audience Enjoyment

Experts agree that active participation increases the enjoyment of your audience and retention of your information.

"Incorporating the right type of online real-time polling ... has overriding benefits." Journal of Research in Innovative Teaching & Learning, "Real-time polling to help corral university-learners' wandering minds"

Regardless of what platform you choose, there is no doubt that live polling is a useful tool to keep an audience engaged. Like several of these options, your remote participants often do not need to download an app to see your screen on their phone or tablet, which makes this a very easy way to collect information.

Collecting data about particular attendees, including their responses to particular questions, is especially useful for training programs in which you need to measure performance and knowledge. At the same time, anonymous feedback is vital and not offered by all packages. Consider carefully how you will use the live poll tools to help you determine which is best for you.

The Best Choice for Live Polling

Our choice for the best live polling tool is Slides With Friends . It's got great live polling options and is easy to get started with and use, you can even use it for free with up to 10 players.

Some things you can do using SlidesWith:

• Poll your audience with different options to display rating poll results like graphs, donut charts, per-responder (run multiple polls, add images, get real time results)
• Play trivia or quiz your audience
• Create a live word cloud together (your audience sends in words and then votes to make words bigger)
• Everyone votes on responses from other audience members (like Apples to Apples or Cards Against Humanity)
• Live Photo share (Add images and display to the group)

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Make your presentation interactive with audience polling

The #1 rated live voting app on Trustpilot

Increase participation with an audience polling app

Give your audience a voice by enabling them to share their views, thoughts, feedback and questions via an audience engagement app. Your audience will feel more empowered and invested in your presentation as they feel part of a dialogue rather than a one-way presentation.  Live polling also gives you the chance as a presenter to see how engaged your audience are in the moment and to see how much knowledge your audience has retained. What's more, all of this polling can be run in your PowerPoint slides through  Vevox's PowerPoint polling integration . It's as easy as clicking a button to poll your audience to get instant, valuable, live insights... read about it in our  customer reviews and why we're rated the highest independently solution for audience polling.

No need for clickers

Flexible, fast and fun.

Audiences can use their own mobile phone or tablet to respond to polls and submit questions anonymously. Vevox is audience response technology made easy for both face to face sessions and virtual meetings and classes .  

PowerPoint Polling Success

Watch the video.

Rated number 1 by our customers

We're top of the pile.

About Vevox

Award winning and adopted by 1000’s of global corporations and universities. Vevox has established itself as a much-loved, real-time audience engagement app for the workplace and classes. 

Audience polling FAQs

Common questions.

Vevox's audience polling app allows you to create and display live polls and questions during your presentation, enabling your audience to respond using their mobile devices. The results are displayed in real-time, allowing you to gather valuable insights and adjust your presentation accordingly.

No, Vevox's software does not require any special hardware or equipment. Your audience can respond using their own mobile or computer devices, making it easy and convenient for everyone.

Yes, Vevox is designed to be user-friendly and intuitive, with a simple and easy-to-use interface that allows you to create and manage your polls and questions directly within your presentation.

Yes, Vevox allows you to customize the appearance of your polls and questions, including the color scheme and images.

Yes, Vevox offers free support and resources for using the Audience Polling app, including step-by-step guides, video tutorials, and a dedicated support team to help you get the most out of the platform.

Vevox's polling app allows you to engage your audience by giving them a voice and enabling them to share their views, thoughts, feedback, and questions in real-time. This creates a dialogue rather than a one-way presentation, making your audience feel more invested and empowered.

Ready to dive in?

Sign up now and get instant access to your dashboard to start creating polls and you could be using Vevox with your audience in minutes!

How to use SlideLizard for remote meetings

Presentation Polling Software

Slidelizard is the software for live polling in your presentations meetings workshops & trainings, with over 1,500,000 interactions, slidelizard is one of the most used software applications for presentations.

Realtime presentation polling

Boost your engagement by conducting polls during your presentation. Create them in advance or make one spontaneously while presenting with our quick-poll feature. With one click, you can show the result to your audience.

Learn more →

Custom branding

Adapt the look of your presentation's polls to your own brand. Customize colors, fonts and texts for your event or company.

Crowdsource the best questions

Conduct interactive Q&A sessions with large audiences. No hassling with microphones or withheld questions.

Get honest audience feedback

Poll your audience for feedback. With SlideLizard it is as easy as it gets.

The complete software for audience analytics

Get insights who attended your presentation or event. Send messages to all participants. Analyze poll results in detail afterwards.

Seamless PowerPoint integration

SlideLizard neatly integrates into your existing PowerPoint presentations. There's no annoying switching between your slides and an external audience response software.

Private slide notes

Let your attendees take digital notes on each slide and mark their most important ones. After the presentation they get their notes and starred slides via E-Mail, including a direct link to the PDF of your slides (if you enable to share it).

For Presentations

Engage your audience and collect the E-Mail addresses of your participants.

For Trainings & Workshops

Foster learning and knowledge transfer and easily collect feedback.

For Company Meetings

Make and document decisions and involve remote participants.

How it works

Install PowerPoint-Plugin

Attendees join via Smartphone (No App required)

Engage and interact

Advantages of SlideLizard

All-in-one package.

• one tool for polls, Q&A, feedback, slides, file sharing and analytics
• use the presentation software you already know
• no switching between PPT & interaction tools during the presentation
• easy company rollout

Scientifically proven method

by an independent study at Keele University

Better learning experience

94% of study participants agreed that polling and quizzes significantly improved their learning experience - the number rose to even 100% in the second phase.

Higher success

Study participants who engaged in live polls and quizzes saw a 3.7% increase in exam grades while also reducing failure rates by 4.4% across the whole academic year compared to the previous period.

Participants love it

The results of the study clearly show that participants gained a lot of value from incorporating interactive elements . 96% say that they really want to continue using it in the future.

The more interaction, the better

In summary, it can be said that interactive surveys and quizzes have been shown to greatly increase learning success and memory during presentations and lessons. With SlideLizard you can easily implement this in your own lectures, trainings or lessons starting today!

Your Benefits

This is why presenters already love SlideLizard

Save time and money

Sending out slides, collecting feedback, all that usually costs a lot of time. With SlideLizard this is done within seconds!

Increase attention

Interactive polls keep your presentation interesting and your audience listening until the end!

Better communicate content

By automatically sharing your slides and additional content, your audience has all information in one place.

Make a lasting impression

Are you innovative? Then show it to your customers and impress them by using a modern tool like SlideLizard.

Improve yourself

Audience feedback via SlideLizard helps you to enhance your presentation skills to become better over time.

Generate leads

Get to know your audience. See who joined your presentation, they may be your new customers!

Already used by

And thousands of independent speakers worldwide!

Stefan Kurz

Site Manager & Part Owner Driving School Zebra

SlideLizard has become indispensable for us. The quizzes make the theory courses much more exciting for the students while we teachers can identify areas in which further leassons are required. As a result, our students have much more theory knowledge at their fingertips during the driving lessons. We can only recommend SlideLizard!

Stefan Lindlbauer

Head of Marketing/Communications @ DB Schenker Austria

With the help of SlideLizard, we conducted our management conference completely online for the first time. The SlideLizard team advised us in advance and then also supported us professionally during the event. The participants were excited!

Helmut Raml

Managing Director @ Reichl und Partner (Ad Agency)

The direct interaction with the audience and the seamless integration of the PowerPoint presentation convinced us to use SlideLizard.

Eric Postler

Managing Partner @ Substring

We used SlideLizard's live polls at our startup event. It allowed us to learn in real time which investors were interested in which startups and connect them afterwards. The event was a huge success!

Jan Weigert

SlideLizard is a very useful tool for teaching, and is well received by all participants!!!! Or as my students put it, SlideLizard makes teaching fun and never boring!

Astrid Reischl

Head of HR @ Felbermayr

I was looking for a live polling tool that was straightforward, quick to deploy and intuitive to use, and on the other hand, easy for our participants to understand. I found SlideLizard - the PowerPoint add-in is super easy to use and has taken our presentations to the next level. The support is fast, personal and professional - just great! I can recommend SlideLizard to everybody!

Michael Reiter

Speaker & Facebook Certified Professional

Live polls in my presentations are the perfect way to interact with my audience and to make real-time surveys or votings. Awesome!

Wolfgang Strasser

Microsoft MVP (Most Valuable Professional)

With large audiences I often saw people withholding their questions because they didn't want to speak out loud - since I use SlideLizard this is no problem anymore!

Hubert Preisinger

Business Consultant & University Lecturer

At the end of my lessons I use SlideLizard to make short quizzes to see how much my students remember. They really like it because it's entertaining and prepares them for the finals.

Margarete Durstberger

Hotel Manager

SlideLizard's slide share feature already saved me hours of tedious work!

Graham Jones (@grahamjones)

Psychologist, professional speaker and author

About to speak at a conference where I will be using @SlideLizard. It is by far the best audience interaction tool I have used. pic.twitter.com/suD3f20L2E ( via Twitter )

Manfred Durstberger

Managing Director

I often recommend videos and books in my presentations. With SlideLizard this is as convenient as it gets for me, but also for the people watching!

Rebecca Hofbauer

Since I get regular feedback from my students on SlideLizard, I'm finally able to adjust my lessons to the better each week!

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Create and conduct polls in a minute. Use it in your flipped classroom, in your lecture or just to amaze your audience.

It’s time to interact with your audience during your presentation. DirectPoll offers you a real-time responsive element on stage. Ask questions, feel the pulse of your audience and visualize the answers as they come in, right here, right now.

Preparation, presentation, just take these easy steps, directpoll lets you create live polls in an instant. as a presenter you just need an online-connection and your browser. if you include your poll in your presentation, you do not even need your browser at presentation time., please check out our faq for the most common questions. if that doesn’t help don’t hesitate to contact us at [email protected] ., release notes, checkout the latest directpoll release notes to find out about new features, about directpoll, directpoll was originally developed by netcetera and is now brought to you by directpoll.

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Presentation Guru

How to get instant feedback from your audience.

Getting your audience engaged is the most important thing you can do when presenting. We previously published an article on Zeetings , a program that lets the audience become part of the story by using an interactive program directly from their smartphones. Here, Farshad has reviewed ten other programs that you can use to make sure your audience becomes part of the story, instead of just listening to it. 

Sometimes the biggest enemy of a presenter is doubt. One can get a bit jittery by looking at uncertain faces in the crowd. You might want to know what your audience is thinking so that you may be able to refine your presentation in case you’re going off track. One of the best ways to find out what your audience is thinking is to use polls. Conducting live polls during a presentation session can help you gather instant feedback and fine tune your presentation on the fly to ensure you can be on top of your game.

There are a number of polling apps, devices and plugins that you can use for conducting live polls during presentations. Different polling tools provide different options, including some which even enable presenters to continuously gather audience feedback and view brief statistics as they present their slides. If you want to use polls in your presentations like a  pro, then here are 10 best polling tools to gather instant audience feedback.

1)  Presentain

Presentain is a presentation web app where you can either upload and present a PDF, PPT or PPTX file or fetch a file using your Google Drive account to present your presentation right from an internet browser. Presentain provides presenters with a URL that can be shared with the audience so they can follow your slides live as you present them, using any internet connected device.

Your audience can also take part in Live polls using the same URL, allowing you to not only present your slides by broadcasting them via the internet but also to instantly gather audience feedback by offering them polls. In fact, your audience can even ask you questions using their internet connected devices.

Here is a brief introductory video which shows all the basic features of Presentain.

2)  PollEverywhere

PollEverywhere is an audience response system which enables creating polls in PowerPoint and Google Slides. The PollEverywhere add-in for PowerPoint or the Chrome extension for Google Slides can be used to create polls and gather audience feedback by allowing people to participate in polls via internet connected devices such as smartphones tablets or laptops. Furthermore, your audience can also respond to polls via Twitter.

PollEverywhere has a comprehensive set of features for conducting polls and quizzes using open ended questions, multiple choice questions, true or false quizzes, as well as clickable image and Q&A polls.

Here is a short video which explains the main features of PollEverywhere.

3)  Mentimeter

Mentimeter is an audience response system which allows presenters to create polls using multiple choice or open ended questions, polls based on a point-based system, or use dual axis or scales to gather audience feedback. Your audience will be able to cast their votes via a designated URL. This means your audience can instantly cast their votes by using their mobile phones, tablets or laptops during a Live presentation session.

Here is an introductory video which explains how Mentimeter works.

Swipe is a comprehensive presentation web app which can not only allow you to conduct polls but you can also use it as a PowerPoint alternative. You can get started with Swipe by uploading a PDF or image file, and even embed videos from YouTube and Vimeo.

With Swipe you can design your slide decks and add polls to your presentations. Like most polling systems, Swipe provides a polling URL for the audience to respond to polls.

5)  ParticiPoll

ParticiPoll is a PowerPoint add-in which can help you add polls to your PowerPoint slides. You can start using Participoll by signing-up for a free account, picking a polling URL and downloading the add-in to start adding polls to your PowerPoint slides. Your audience will be able to respond to polls using your custom polling URL.

The data gathered via Participoll is logged to your account, which means you can login anytime to your Participoll account to view audience feedback.

6) Ask The Room

If you’re looking for a free and easy way of conducting a Live poll during a presentation, you can also use Ask The Room . With Ask The Room you can instantly set up a poll by using options like ‘Yes’, ‘No’ and ‘Don’t Know’. Ask the Room requires no sign-up and you can begin your poll by going to the home page, and clicking on Start Poll. You will be provided with a custom URL to share with your audience where they can poll, and you will be able to see the result in real-time via your browser.

7) ActiVote

If you are looking for a voting system for educational purposes that comes with associated hardware clickers that your audience can use, then Activote can be a good option. ActiVote is a comprehensive polling system by which you can create polls on your computer and allow your audience to respond using ActiVote clickers.

The primary use of ActiVote is for educational purposes and it can be a good option for conducting quizzes or assessing your students using various voting based activities. ActiVote works with Windows, Mac and Linux.

OMBEA is an audience response system which can be used to insert interactive slides in PowerPoint to conduct polls during presentations. OMBEA not only works with laptops, smartphones and tablets but is also compatible with remote clickers.

You can conduct polls using open ended or multiple choice questions and enable your audience to respond using remote clickers or internet connected devices. This makes OMBEA easy to use and expands the number of devices that can be instantly turned into remote clickers.

9) iClicker

If you are looking for a clicker based polling system, which also supports clicker devices, then iClicker is an audience response system that you should look into. This clicker based polling system enables you to gather audience feedback by allowing them to poll using smartphones, tablets, or clicker remotes.

To find out all about how iClicker works, see the developer’s introductory video given below.

10) ClickAPad

ClickAPad is another comprehensive audience response system which not only provides a polling add-in for PowerPoint but also offers clicker remotes for purchase or rent. ClickAPad has a number of products that you can look into for conducting polls during your events to quickly gather audience opinion regarding a specific topic.

The tools mentioned above include both free and paid tools, with basic to advanced polling options. Whether you are a teacher, business professional, or just someone looking to conduct a survey during a live presentation, the aforementioned polling tools can help you conduct polls and fine tune your presentation in view of live audience feedback.

If you liked this, then you might also like

A conference calling platform which allows you to conduct instant polls: How to Deliver Online Presentations During Remote Meetings

Using audience polls in a webinar :  Why Webinars are Great and How to Design Them Effectively

Using audience polls to keep your audience engaged: 7 Surprisingly Simple Ways to Keep Your Audience Hooked

5 More Ways to Get Instant Feedback from your Audience

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35 Comments

Jack Vincent

10th January 2017 at 2:53 pm

These are really good recommendations. I’ve also used a tool called HappyScore http://about.happyscore.io , which is a bit different.

Good stuff, Farshad. Thanks!

27th September 2017 at 3:35 pm

Let me add Meeting Pulse to the list. It works well and looks really nice. https://meet.ps

People use it for classes and lectures because the free version allows to poll up to 50 people. It’s also good for business meetings and webcasts. Features include – 15 second to set up a poll – all popular questions types – works for every device – no need to install anything – very simple

You can also run Q&A and create surveys.

jeremy pokers

22nd November 2017 at 11:02 am

These are really good recommendations. I’ve also used a tool called BugRem , http://www.BugRem.com which is a bit different.

Lesley Barringer

23rd November 2017 at 1:55 pm

Hi Jeremy Thank you for your comment! I’ve just visited BugRem’s site to investigate, and it looks interesting and has a free trial too… Thanks again Lesley

Ben Bradbury

19th December 2017 at 2:08 pm

Great article Farshad! Glisser is also a simple way to collect instant feedback from your audience. All web-based, nothing to download, and their polls are pushed instantly meaning you collect the maximum level of feedback from your audience. You can also share your slides and ask questions through it too.

Check it out here: http://www.glisser.com

Rosie Hoyland

19th December 2017 at 3:17 pm

Thanks for bringing this to our attention, Ben. I’ve just looked at your website – interesting (and useful)…

John Dineen

4th January 2018 at 2:44 pm

Great post. I stumbled across the post while I was searching for embedded polls. To add another tool to the mix – Pubble Live Q&A: https://www.pubble.io/live-qa

Pubble’s live Q&A is deigned to be incorporated into the conference / event website. It enables the participants to ask questions and follow the thread live. It includes a presenter mode for the presenter to display selected questions on the main stage.

Moderation is supported. You can also push in questions from Twitter. Lots of other cool features, detailed on the product page above.

5th January 2018 at 11:48 am

Thanks for sharing this John. It looks like your tool would be useful for hosting live audience Q&As. Have you seen our article on this: https://www.presentation-guru.com/5-easy-to-use-solutions-to-boost-your-audience-engagement/ which gives tips on how best to incorporate Q&A sessions into your presentation?

Ronnie Overgoor

11th March 2018 at 7:29 pm

Maybe a good idea to add NorthPolls to the list: http://www.northpolls.com . NorthPolls is extremely easy to operate by the chairman of the day on the stage via his or her own smartphone.

12th March 2018 at 11:33 am

We’ll check it out Ronnie – thanks

Heera Malik

4th April 2018 at 6:14 pm

I suggestion to try BugRem tool. #www.BugRem.com

Leo Budrinca

13th April 2018 at 10:02 am

You can also try for free https://hypersay.com/ Hypersay is a platform for interactive presentations that massively increase engagement. Keep your audience engaged with polls, questions, private notes and live slide sharing. Store, enrich & deliver presentations from your cloud.

17th April 2018 at 3:58 pm

Here’s another free tool for Polling, Quizzing, Audience Questions (and voting), slides follow-through, after-session audience feedback, and instant slide-deck handout. http://www.beamkast.com

Frank Zielen

18th April 2018 at 3:58 pm

Here’s another one: “Poll At Once”.

This is a free native app for iOS and Android. It’s just one touch to start a poll and designed for live audiences. Attendees can just answer A,B,C or D. No sign up and total anonymous.

Check out here: https://itunes.apple.com/de/app/poll-at-once/id1366256403?mt=8 or https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=de.zmb.poll

Maybe you like it.

Nidhi Bambalkar

12th May 2018 at 4:17 am

Nice but one more to add i.e. Customer feedback tool.

15th May 2018 at 9:58 am

That’s a great post. And it really helps. It gets more and more difficult to keep the audience engaged while presenting. We stick to directpoll.com. It is a very simple solution for real time feedback on your live stream poll.

15th May 2018 at 11:09 am

Thanks Kate – you’re absolutely right and it’s great to find out what people are using day-to-day.

Llarry Watson

19th June 2018 at 12:11 pm

Hi! Great blog! To get instant feedback from audience and customers, you can use feedback apps. Feedback apps are cost efficient and provide accurate results. Soft Intelligence Data Centre has engagement apps for organizations and businesses which help in the overall growth. You must check out them once.

19th June 2018 at 12:14 pm

We will do! Thanks for the tip.

12th July 2018 at 1:00 pm

Nice article! I just wanted to introduce you to a polling based mobile app that I developed recently, called Pollpop (pollpopapp.app.link). It’s about organizing polls and discussions within your groups or the public at large. Let me know your thoughts. Cheers!

13th July 2018 at 10:02 am

Thanks Dev – we’ll take a look.

Melissa R Halvorsen

10th September 2018 at 6:21 pm

I tried to use Presentain, and it’s essentially useless in America. It’s based in Ukraine, and their app isn’t available to the US market. It’s a paid platform, so buyer beware.

18th September 2018 at 1:06 pm

Hi Melissa,

I have previously used Presentain without any issues, however I recently tried it again after seeing your comment and it seems there might be a bug preventing users to log into the app. You can try other options in the post to gather audience feedback as an alternative.

Recently, I used Mentimeter for feedback after a presentation at my organization. I used emoticons representing satisfied and unsatisfied audience and conducted a Live poll and it worked out perfectly.

Dave Horchak

6th October 2018 at 8:42 pm

The whole idea is assinine. Real science shows once you are part of the group tour measurements are worthless. The audience knowing they are being viewed and measured will give answers they think you want instead of true opinions. Waste of time and money more harm then good as it will support your preconceived notions and give failed erroneous data.

23rd January 2019 at 4:36 am

I have a new engagement tool for free has a lot of features to engage and attract your audience http://www.enablerplus.com

19th July 2019 at 11:05 am

These are really amazing tools. You can also add 2Shoes App in your list. Thanks for sharing.

Shahani Markus

7th September 2019 at 3:20 pm

Check out http://www.emojot.com – it is a full-fledged voice-of-audience solution (as well as a voice-of-customer and voice-of-employee solution). Its capabilities are best suited for enterprises. It has been used for TV, radio and large conferences as well as in small group meetings.

brian schott

20th December 2019 at 10:58 pm

Please consider Pollaborator.appspot.com

Pollaborator http://pollaborator.appspot.com/ is a unique, free web app which enables anyone with a google account to create a PARTICIPATIVE poll: in addition to indicating preferences in Pollaborator, respondents can add their own questions/comments for future respondents to indicate their preferences, too. To experiment with Pollaborator go to this link http://pollaborator.appspot.com/table?ID=codeBSchott (anyone, no account is needed).

Elizabeth Keshishyan

23rd December 2019 at 3:22 pm

These are some great tools. I would also add to the list the Swift Polling by ExciteM ( https://swift.excitem.com ) which allows for PowerPoint integration and SMS voting. This is a life-saving solution for cases when people do not own smartphones.

19th April 2020 at 5:21 pm

I can recommend to have a look at Poll For All ( https://pollforall.com ) The poll result view in the app gets real time updates and can be used in presentations. There is a web app, which can be opened directly in a desktop browser.

21st April 2020 at 4:07 pm

I will take a look – thanks for bringing it to our attention.

20th June 2020 at 1:51 pm

Hi, farshad! These are a really awesome tool in today’s world to take instant feedback from the audience and most of them I never heard about. I will definitely go to use them and share it as much as possible because it creates a lot of disturbance during a session to ask audience review over a certain topic. Thanks a lot for sharing them!

Prakriti Sarvouy

21st August 2020 at 11:18 am

Try Pollpop for voting and discussions within your group. It’s pretty slick. You can ask a question to your group (along with images, videos, maps, even other widgets, and options). Ask as a private or semi-private option. Your group gets a chance to vote and discuss the topic. You also get a cool analysis of the voting results, so you clearly know who stands where. You can also add your group members as connections for future discussions.

• App Store: https://itunes.apple.com/ph/app/pollpop/id993397343?mt=8 • Play Store: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.amaze.pollpop&hl=en • Website: http://pollpopapp.com

17th September 2020 at 11:19 am

This sounds fantastically useful! Thanks for sharing.

Muhammad Lodhi

18th February 2021 at 4:23 pm

Excellent information and comments by everyone. I am looking for free software to run polls from my PowerPoint presentation for my students without adding any cost to them – they are already paying a hefty price for books and online resources. Poll Everywhere looks good but charges students. Has anyone else a product to share with me. Please send information to me at [email protected] . Thank you for the belp.

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

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6 Best Polling Apps for Android and iOS Smartphones

Polling apps are great for collecting feedback from customers, employees, and anyone whose opinion matters to you. You can use polling apps at the time of delivery, while giving a presentation in a corporate meeting, from your blog readers, and other places.

All major social network sites, be it Twitter, Instagram, Facebook or even YouTube lets you make a Poll . Heck, you can even embed polls on your website using free sites like Easypolls . But since there is an app for pretty much everything these days, there are some really productive and cools apps for polling too.

After much user testing, we have shortlisted some of the best polling apps for Android and iOS smartphones that we think can help you collect feedback.

Quick Tip: Check out Polls for iMessage to create polls and view results in iMessage.

Free Polling Apps for Smartphones

1. poll everywhere.

The first app is Poll Everywhere which is available on both Android and iOS. Poll Everywhere was developed with live audience polling in mind. For example, you can create an attendance poll with all the students in the class. Students will then use the widget or app to mark attendance instead of raising hands.

Similarly, it can be used in office or board meetings to collect opinions on the presentation before making a decision. The audience can view results in real time. Poll Everywhere is free for up to 25 responses. Plans begin at $120 yearly for up to 700 responses.

• Cross-platform
• Live polling and feedback
• Comments on polls, presentation,
• Real-time results
• Integrates with Google Slides, PowerPoint, Keynote.
• No social media integration

Download Poll Everywhere: Android | iOS

Also Read: 10 Best Project Management Tools for Small Business

VoxVote is a professional voting and polling app. No fooling around with the social crowd. There are quite a few good features here. You can create quizzes or polls and let users vote on multiple options if required. Then there is the question-answer mode where users can comment instead of choosing an alternative. Finally, the votes will be ranked for making quick decisions.

It is an audience or student response system using which, you can create live polls during events to collect valuable feedback from the attendees. VoxVote is free for educational institutes which is awesome. Audience can interact with the event host with comments. Presentation slides can be added directly to avoid cloud integration. Anonymous voting is also supported which is a cool feature. VoxVote is an advanced voting app for users who need a scalable solution for their business, or those who conduct events on a regular basis.

The free plan comes with 5 events with up to 10 attendees each. Plans begin at $99 for 3 extra events and if you buy in bulk, there’s a discount.

• Live polls, comments
• Presentation mode
• Interact with attendees
• No app integration

Download VoxVote: Android | iOS

Also Read: 7 Best Accounting Software for Small Business (Free and Paid)

Pollpop is another polling app for Android and iOS which harnesses the power of social media to collect options and votes on queries that you are comfortable sharing with the world. You can also vote or share own opinions on others’ polls.

What I like is the ability to view results and sort them by gender, location, and age groups. This makes Pollpop stand out from other social polling apps that we saw above. If you rather work in a group, you can create one and add friends to it for private polls.

Pollpop is a free app with no ads whatsoever.

• Social polling
• Group polling
• Comments system
• WhatsApp integration

Download Pollpop: Android | iOS

4. Mentimeter

Know what a word cloud is? It is a cloud of words where each word is given a color and font size to represent importance. Mentimeter can create word clouds based on the feedback received from polls. There is no limit to the number of participants in the free account.

You can create public or private events and invite others to watch your presentation and give feedback. If you are a visual person, Mentimeter is for you. There are 15 different ways to visualize and interact with the data collected. Another neat feature is segmentation using which, you can create groups to see how the answer changes between them. It’s like A/B testing.

Mentimeter will cost you $9/month for asking unlimited questions and export data from the app.

• Advanced data visualization
• A/B testing

Download Mentimeter: Android | iOS

Also Read: 8 Best Free Instant Messaging Apps for Business

5. SurveyMonkey

If you want to conduct not just polls but also do some surveys, look no further than SurveyMonkey. One of the most popular surveys and poll apps on Android and iOS platforms. Do note that SurveyMonkey is first a survey app and then a poll app. However, these two often go hand in hand.

There are a lot of ways to design your polls and surveys. They have ready made templates to choose from or you can create your own. Adding questions, reordering them, collecting feedback, and sharing polls and surveys is so much easy with their functional and beautiful UI.

SurveyMonkey is free but if you to scale, plans begin at $37 per month.

• Polls and surveys
• Easy sharing with direct links
• Flexible layout
• Visual reports
• Answer validation
• Real-time polling, surveys
• Social media integration

Download SurveyMonkey: Android | iOS

6. Crowdsignal

Crowdsignal is another app that was built to scale and adjust for businesses who are looking for a server-side solution. You can create both polls and surveys using templates designed for a number of industries. Like SurveyMonkey, Crowdsignal is a feature-rich polling app. The only drawback is that it is not available on the Play Store.

There are a lot of formatting options available to design text in surveys and polls. However, not all features we saw above are available here. Crowsignal misses answer validation, A/B testing, and Android app.

Crowdsignal lacks some features of SurveyMonkey but it is also less costly. Plans begin at $17/month. The free account comes with unlimited surveys but limited polling and rating features.

• No Android app

Download Crowdsignal: iOS

Also Read: 9 Best Apps to Send and Receive Money from Abroad

Polling Apps for Android and iOS

If you want something simple, less expensive, and be done with your polling as soon as possible, I would recommend you to go for Poll Everywhere. VoxVote is also a pretty solid polling app you should look into. These two are fairly advanced apps for meetings, events, and presentations. Finally, if you need something more sophisticated, powerful, and need to conduct both surveys and polls, then there is no other app that matches SurveyMonkey. Period.

Gaurav Bidasaria

Gaurav is an editor here at TechWiser but also contributes as a writer. He has more than 10 years of experience as a writer and has written how-to guides, comparisons, listicles, and in-depth explainers on Windows, Android, web, and cloud apps, and the Apple ecosystem. He loves tinkering with new gadgets and learning about new happenings in the tech world. He has previously worked on Guiding Tech, Make Tech Easier, and other prominent tech blogs and has over 1000+ articles that have been read over 50 million times.

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House passes potential TikTok ban that could speed through Senate

By tying the renewed crackdown to a bipartisan foreign aid deal, the bill could move quickly through congress.

House lawmakers escalated efforts to restrict video-sharing platform TikTok, renewing pressure on the Senate by advancing a bill Saturday that would force the company to be sold or face a national ban as part of a broader package sending aid to Israel and Ukraine.

The unorthodox maneuver could expedite the crackdown’s path through Congress , where negotiations had slowed after an earlier attempt hurtled through the House last month. With growing support in the Senate, the legislation appears more likely than ever to become law.

Podcast episode

The move represents one of the most significant threats to the U.S. operations of the wildly popular app, which is used by roughly 170 million Americans, but whose China-based parent company ByteDance has long sparked national security fears in Washington.

TikTok is “a spy balloon in Americans’ phones” used to “surveil and exploit America’s personal information,” Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Tex.), chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee, said Saturday as he introduced the measure for debate.

The House voted 360-58 to approve legislation authorizing new penalties against Russia and Iran and requiring that TikTok divest from ByteDance or face a prohibition, one of several measures considered alongside the $95 billion foreign aid bills.

House lawmakers overwhelmingly advanced an earlier version of the legislation targeting TikTok last month, but tying the issue to the aid package, which has broad bipartisan support in both chambers, could expedite its passage through the Senate.

The Senate plans to take the matter up Tuesday, Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) said in a statement emailed to The Post. “The Senate now stands ready to take the next step,” Schumer said.

President Biden said last month he would sign the TikTok bill if passed by Congress, and on Wednesday he endorsed the House foreign aid package, saying , “The House must pass the package this week, and the Senate should quickly follow.”

Under the bill, ByteDance would have up to 360 days to divest TikTok. If it declined or failed to do so during that time, mobile app stores and web-hosting providers would be prohibited from offering the app to users in the United States, effectively banning it nationwide. The bill explicitly targets TikTok and ByteDance, but would give the president the power to impose a similar ultimatum against other apps deemed to be “controlled” by “foreign adversaries.”

The TikTok measure has broad bipartisan support in the House.

“Companies and bad actors are collecting troves of our data unchecked and using it to exploit, monetize, and manipulate Americans of all ages,” Reps. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-Wash.) and Frank Pallone Jr. (D-N.J.) said Saturday in a statement lauding the bill’s passage. “This cannot be allowed to continue.”

TikTok has blasted lawmakers’ efforts to potentially ban the app as an affront on free speech and disputes lawmakers’ suggestions that it is beholden to China or any government.

Since lawmakers introduced their latest proposal targeting the app last month, the company has launched a major counteroffensive against the effort , enlisting scores of users through pop-up notifications to bombard lawmakers with calls voicing opposition to the legislation.

“It is unfortunate that the House of Representatives is using the cover of important foreign and humanitarian assistance to once again jam through a ban bill that would trample the free speech rights of 170 million Americans, devastate 7 million businesses, and shutter a platform that contributes $24 billion to the U.S. economy, annually,” TikTok said Saturday in a statement to The Washington Post.

After House lawmakers passed the earlier TikTok legislation in just over a week, many senators called for slowing down deliberations in the upper chamber. Senate Commerce Committee Chairwoman Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), whose committee has jurisdiction over the bill, initially expressed concerns about whether the proposal could withstand legal scrutiny and called for hearings.

But since then, a number of senators have come out in favor of the proposal and plans to tuck it into the foreign aid package. Cantwell announced Wednesday that she now supports the legislation after lawmakers agreed to give ByteDance more time to sell off TikTok.

Sens. Mark R. Warner (D-Va.) and Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), the leaders of the Senate Intelligence Committee, are supportive of the bill’s inclusion in the aid package, their offices confirmed. The two lawmakers had previously led separate legislative efforts to tackle concerns over the app.

“I’m glad to see the House help push this important bill forward to force Beijing-based ByteDance to divest its ownership of TikTok,” Warner said in a statement to The Post.

Daniel Castro, vice president of the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, dismissed the idea that TikTok is a national security threat, noting that even if the Chinese government is demanding access to user data, “the app is not collecting particularly sensitive data.”

“Policymakers have legitimate concerns about Chinese-made apps and reciprocal access to China’s digital market, but they should address those issues through policies that are specific, scalable, and sound,” Castro said in an email to The Post.

A potential TikTok ban would hurt American businesses and content creators who use the platform to market their products and services, Castro said.

The effort is likely to face significant legal hurdles , as have previous attempts by the Trump administration and states to force a sale or ban of the app.

Nadine Farid Johnson, policy director of the Knight First Amendment Institute, a group that advocates for free speech rights, said in a statement Friday that the TikTok bill would “infringe” on “Americans’ First Amendment right to access information, ideas, and media from abroad.”

“Legislators who are genuinely concerned about social media platforms’ practices have better options at their disposal, and we continue to urge lawmakers to lean in to those rather than undermining the First Amendment rights of millions of Americans,” Johnson said.

VOTE: Shore high school sports Team of the Week No. 3

It's time for APP readers to cast their vote for the Shore's high school team of the week for the third time of the spring season!

In many sports, we're now entering the heart of the season with county and conference tournaments taking shape and the top contenders emerging. Some of those top contenders were the choices below.

The week three poll will remain open until 10 p.m. on Thursday, May 2. There is no limit on voting. So read the capsules below and please cast your vote in the poll at the bottom of the article.

Week 2 Winner: Rumson-Fair Haven boys lacrosse had an incredible late push in the polls, winning 50.56% percent of the vote to take team of the week honors. The Bulldogs are certainly deserving given their 10-0 start.

Week 1 Winner:   Howell boys volleyball took an impressive 76% of the vote after an impressive start that featured a win over a reigning state champ, St. John Vianney. The Rebels weren't able to topple another powerhouse in Southern, but bounced back from that defeat with victories over serious Shore contenders CBA and Colts Neck.

Softball - Point Pleasant Borough

The Panthers have been hot to start the season, posting a 10-1 record with the lone loss coming to reigning Shore champion and division rival Donovan Catholic. They bounced right back from that loss with four straight wins, highlighted by their victory over Southern to advance to the final of the Ocean County Tournament.

Baseball - Matawan

The Huskies are one of three Shore teams that remain undefeated and they currently hold the top spot in the B-North Division. Next week's matchups against Ranney will be statement opportunities for Matawan but their 9-0 start is already impressive.

Boys Lacrosse - Manasquan

The Warriors remain undefeated and haven't really been challenged since the season opener, winning each of their past five games by ten goals or more. They have huge tests against CBA and Rumson-Fair Haven coming next week, but 'Squan is clearly a force to be reckoned with.

Girls Lacrosse - Trinity Hall

Trinity Hall stumbled out of the gate to an 0-2 start, but they're now neck-and-neck with Manasquan at the top of the division thanks to major victories over Shore Regional and Rumson-Fair Haven. The big test against 'Squan comes on Friday, but the Monarchs could take firm control of the American Division with a win.

Boys Golf - Christian Brothers

CBA edged out Middletown South to get the victory on Monday and remain undefeated at 6-0. That comes after a very strong showing at the Monmouth County Tournament, when the Colts took second-place as team and senior Jack Puma tied for second-place individually.

Girls Golf - Southern

The Rams performed well this week beginning with a solid showing at the Swing Against Cancer Golf Invitational and continuing with match victories against Donovan and the three Toms River high schools.

Boys Volleyball - Barnegat

The Bengals hold a pivotal early season victory over Jackson Liberty and will try to sweep their division rival on Thursday. At 8-2, they're riding a five-game win streak.

Boys Tennis - Pinelands

Pinelands will be tested this weekend, but they've been great through an undefeated start and defeated Donovan Catholic on Tuesday.

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Supreme Court rejects challenge to vote-by-mail restrictions in Texas

Documented cases of voter fraud, including those related to voting by mail, are rare. but while uncommon, fraud seems to occur more often with mailed-in votes than with in-person voting..

WASHINGTON – The Supreme Court on Monday rejected a challenge to voting rules in Texas that automatically let senior citizens − but not younger people − vote by mail.

Mail-in balloting has become a partisan debate as Democrats champion it as a way to increase turnout and Republicans argue it increases the risk of voter fraud.

Documented cases of voter fraud, including those related to voting by mail, are rare. But while uncommon, fraud seems to occur more often with mailed-in votes than with in-person voting, according to the MIT Election Data & Science Lab.

Seven states – Texas, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina and Tennessee – allow older voters to request an absentee ballot for any reason but let others do so only under certain circumstances.  

The court on Monday declined to hear an appeal brought by three voters in Texas, just as it rejected a similar challenge in 2021 to Indiana’s voting rules. It also twice declined to hear earlier versions of the Texas suit brought by the Texas Democratic Party during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Prep for the polls: See who is running for president and compare where they stand on key issues in our Voter Guide

The challengers argued that the unequal treatment of voters is age-based discrimination prohibited by the 26 th Amendment.

Ratified in 1971 to lower the voting age to 18, the amendment says the right to vote “shall not be denied or abridged … on account of age.”

“Whatever voting rights a state grants to people aged 65-and-over, it must also grant to people under 65,” the Texas voters told the Supreme Court in their unsuccessful appeal .

They wanted the court to overturn an appeals court’s ruling that Texas’ rules are allowed because making it easier for some people to vote doesn’t make it harder for others to do so. The New Orleans-based 5 th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals also said that the right to vote when the 26 th Amendment was ratified did not include the right to vote by mail.

Most states now either mail ballots to all voters or allow all residents to request an absentee ballot for any reason.

But Texas said it has taken a different route to protect voting integrity while recognizing that older voters may have limited mobility or other reasons that make it harder for them to vote in person.

The state said allowing anyone to request a mail-in ballot would increase the risk of voter fraud.

Related Voter ID and absentee-ballot limits: the South tightens key voting laws ahead of election

About one-third of voters cast ballots by mail in the 2022 midterm elections, according to the MIT data lab.

The lab looked at whether expanding mailed voting options increases voter turnout. The research suggests it can modestly bump up participation in midterm and presidential elections and could have a greater effect on primaries, local elections and special elections.

The voters who challenged Texas’ rules said the barriers younger voters can face to voting in person include lack of transportation, long lines, inability to find or access their polling place, and limited time off from work.

Senate passes bill that could ban TikTok in the US

• The Senate just passed a TikTok "ban"  as part of a larger foreign-aid bill.
• Once President Joe Biden signs it into law, ByteDance will have 270 days to sell TikTok.
• Donald Trump tried to institute a similar ban via executive order, but it was struck down in court.

The Senate passed a multifaceted bill on Tuesday evening that will effectively ban TikTok from the US app store once President Joe Biden signs it, as he has signaled he will. The final vote was 79 in favor and 18 opposed.

The House of Representatives passed a series of bills over the weekend to provide foreign aid to Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan and humanitarian funding for the Gaza Strip. Tucked into the foreign-aid bills was text forcing TikTok's parent company, ByteDance, to sell the social-media service to an American company or face a ban.

The House passed a similar bill in March, pressuring ByteDance to divest within 180 days . The newer version gives ByteDance 270 days to divest, a decision that appears to have been enough to sway the chair of the Senate Commerce Committee, Sen. Maria Cantwell.

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Cantwell didn't support the previous TikTok bill, saying she was unsure it could pass legal scrutiny. This is a problem other senators have pointed out, given the legislation specifically identifies ByteDance by name.

Biden has said for months that he'll pass the legislation once it reaches his desk. In his last year in office, former President Donald Trump tried to force ByteDance to sell to an American company via executive order, but a federal district court struck down the order.

The bill's passage in the Senate has come after months of TikTok lobbying against it. The app prompted its users to reach out to their representatives, and its CEO personally traveled to Washington, DC, to try to stop it. China itself has apparently lobbied against the bill, too. Politico reported earlier in April that officials from the Chinese Embassy met with congressional staffers to voice their displeasure with the legislation.

TikTok has vowed to challenge the bill in court once Biden signs it.

Enacting the TikTok "ban" could hurt Biden's chances at reelection in November, given the app's popularity among younger demographics and the likelihood of a close final vote. Trump may have picked up on that, too — earlier in the year, he spoke against banning TikTok despite his actions while president.

Watch: TikTok could be banned in US after House vote

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The House votes for possible TikTok ban in the US, but don’t expect the app to go away anytime soon

Legislation that could ban TikTok if its China-based owner doesn’t sell its stake has won a major boost as House Republicans included it in a package of bills that would send U.S. aid to Ukraine and Israel.

FILE - The TikTok Inc. building is seen in Culver City, Calif., March 17, 2023. The House has passed legislation Saturday, April 20, 2024, to ban TikTok in the U.S. if its China-based owner doesn’t sell its stake, sending it to the Senate as part of a larger package of bills that would send aid to Ukraine and Israel. House Republicans’ decision to add the TikTok bill to the foreign aid package fast-tracked the legislation after it had stalled in the Senate. The aid bill is a priority for President Joe Biden that has broad congressional support. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes, File)

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FILE - A man carries a Free TikTok sign in front of the courthouse where the hush-money trial of Donald Trump got underway April 15, 2024, in New York. The House has passed legislation Saturday, April 20, to ban TikTok in the U.S. if its China-based owner doesn’t sell its stake, sending it to the Senate as part of a larger package of bills that would send aid to Ukraine and Israel. House Republicans’ decision to add the TikTok bill to the foreign aid package fast-tracked the legislation after it had stalled in the Senate. The aid bill is a priority for President Joe Biden that has broad congressional support. (AP Photo/Ted Shaffrey, File)

WASHINGTON (AP) — The House passed legislation Saturday that would ban TikTok in the United States if the popular social media platform’s China-based owner doesn’t sell its stake within a year, but don’t expect the app to go away anytime soon.

The decision by House Republicans to include TikTok as part of a larger foreign aid package, a priority for President Joe Biden with broad congressional support for Ukraine and Israel, fast-tracked the ban after an earlier version had stalled in the Senate. A standalone bill with a shorter, six-month selling deadline passed the House in March by an overwhelming bipartisan vote as both Democrats and Republicans voiced national security concerns about the app’s owner, the Chinese technology firm ByteDance Ltd .

The modified measure, passed by a 360-58 vote, now goes to the Senate after negotiations that lengthened the timeline for the company to sell to nine months, with a possible additional three months if a sale is in progress.

Legal challenges could extend that timeline even further. The company has indicated that it would likely go to court to try and block the law if it passes, arguing it would deprive the app’s millions of users of their First Amendment rights.

TikTok has lobbied hard against the legislation, pushing the app’s 170 million U.S. users — many of whom are young — to call Congress and voice opposition . But the ferocity of the pushback angered lawmakers on Capitol Hill, where there is broad concern about Chinese threats to the U.S. and where few members use the platform themselves.

“We will not stop fighting and advocating for you,” TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew said in a video that was posted on the platform last month and directed toward the app’s users. “We will continue to do all we can, including exercising our legal rights, to protect this amazing platform that we have built with you.”

The bill’s quick path through Congress is extraordinary because it targets one company and because Congress has taken a hands-off approach to tech regulation for decades. Lawmakers had failed to act despite efforts to protect children online, safeguard users’ privacy and make companies more liable for content posted on their platforms, among other measures. But the TikTok ban reflects widespread concerns from lawmakers about China.

Members of both parties, along with intelligence officials, have worried that Chinese authorities could force ByteDance to hand over American user data or direct the company to suppress or boost TikTok content favorable to its interests. TikTok has denied assertions that it could be used as a tool of the Chinese government and has said it has not shared U.S. user data with Chinese authorities.

The U.S. government has not publicly provided evidence that shows TikTok shared U.S. user data with the Chinese government or tinkered with the company’s popular algorithm, which influences what Americans see.

The company has good reason to think a legal challenge could be successful, having seen some success in previous legal fights over its operations in the U.S.. In November, a federal judge blocked a Montana law that would ban TikTok use across the state after the company and five content creators who use the platform sued.

In 2020, federal courts blocked an executive order issued by then-President Donald Trump to ban TikTok after the company sued on the grounds that the order violated free speech and due process rights. His administration brokered a deal that would have had U.S. corporations Oracle and Walmart take a large stake in TikTok. The sale never went through for a number of reasons; one was China, which imposed stricter export controls on its technology providers.

Dozens of states and the federal government have put in place TikTok bans on government devices. Texas’ ban was challenged last year by The Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University, which argued in a lawsuit that the policy was impeding academic freedom because it extended to public universities. In December, a federal judge ruled in favor of the state.

Organizations such as the American Civil Liberties Union have backed the app. “Congress cannot take away the rights of over 170 million Americans who use TikTok to express themselves, engage in political advocacy, and access information from around the world,” said Jenna Leventoff, a lawyer for the group.

Since mid-March, TikTok has spent $5 million on TV ads opposing the legislation, according to AdImpact, an advertising tracking firm. The ads have included a range of content creators, including a nun, extolling the positive impacts of the platform on their lives and arguing a ban would trample on the First Amendment. The company has also encouraged its users to contact Congress, and some lawmakers have received profanity-laced calls .

“It is unfortunate that the House of Representatives is using the cover of important foreign and humanitarian assistance to once again jam through a ban bill that would trample the free speech rights of 170 million Americans, devastate 7 million businesses, and shutter a platform that contributes $24 billion to the U.S. economy, annually,” said Alex Haurek, a spokesman for the company.

California Rep. Ro Khanna, a Democrat, voted against the legislation. He said he thinks there could have been less restrictive ways to go after the company that wouldn’t result in a total ban or threaten free speech.

“I think it’s not going to be well received,” Khanna said. “It’s a sign of the Beltway being out of touch with where voters are.”

Nadya Okamoto, a content creator who has roughly 4 million followers on TikTok, said she has been having conversations with other creators who are experiencing “so much anger and anxiety” about the bill and how it’s going to impact their lives. The 26-year-old, whose company “August” sells menstrual products and is known for her advocacy around destigmatizing menstrual periods, makes most of her income from TikTok.

“This is going to have real repercussions,” she said.

Hadero reported from New York.

New poll shows Biden’s 2024 lead vanishing with Trump on trial

A new Quinnipiac University poll released Wednesday shows President Biden's slight lead over former President Trump vanishing despite Trump's ongoing criminal trial in New York City.

Trump's trial, related to the 34 counts of falsifying business records he's charged with, began last week with jury selection and moved into opening arguments this week. Trump has pleaded not guilty to all charges. 

The poll also found the presidential race to be in a dead heat with Biden and Trump tied at 46% support. 

The two remain tied at 37% with the inclusion of independent presidential candidates Robert F. Kennedy Jr. (16%) and Dr. Cornel West (3%) and the Green Party's Jill Stein (3%).

‘SQUAD’ MEMBER SURVIVES CHALLENGE FROM CENTRIST DEMOCRAT AFTER ANTI-ISRAEL RHETORIC THREATENED RE-ELECTION

Those numbers mark a significant closing of the gap for Trump, who trailed Biden 48%-45% in Quinnipiac's March poll. However, with the inclusion of Kennedy, West and Stein, Trump held a one-point lead over Biden 39%-38%. 

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Biden's job approval remained dismally low at 35% support, down from 37% in March, while 61% said they disapprove of his job performance, up from 59%.

Regarding the charges Trump faces in his ongoing New York trial , a plurality of 46% said they believe the former president did something illegal, while 45% said he didn't. However, 27% believe he did something unethical but not illegal, and 18% believe he did nothing wrong.

COLUMBIA ALUM OBAMA SILENT AS JEWISH FACULTY, STUDENTS FACE ANTISEMITIC HARASSMENT ON CAMPUS

If Trump were to be convicted on the charges, 21% said they would be less likely to vote for him, 62% said it would not affect their vote and 15% said they would be more likely to vote for him.

Trump has argued the trial is pure politics, a "political persecution," and he maintains his innocence. The former president, the first ever to be a defendant in a criminal trial , vowed to "tell the truth" if he takes the stand.

He has also argued the trial is unfairly keeping him from the campaign trail, giving Biden an advantage. 

Fox News' Brooke Singman contributed to this report.

Get the latest updates from the 2024 campaign trail, exclusive interviews and more at our Fox News Digital election hub .

Original article source: New poll shows Biden’s 2024 lead vanishing with Trump on trial

US House passes $95 billion Ukraine, Israel aid package, sends to Senate

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Reporting by Patricia Zengerle and Richard Cowan; Additional reporting by Moira Warburton and Andrea Shalal in Wilmington; Editing by Scott Malone, Jonathan Oatis, Daniel Wallis and Michael Perry

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Patricia Zengerle has reported from more than 20 countries, including Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and China. An award-winning Washington-based national security and foreign policy reporter who also has worked as an editor, Patricia has appeared on NPR, C-Span and other programs, spoken at the National Press Club and attended the Hoover Institution Media Roundtable. She is a recipient of the Edwin M. Hood Award for Diplomatic Correspondence.

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Egypt in renewed mediation push for Gaza truce, sources say

Egypt has asked for a follow-up meeting with Israel in renewed efforts to mediate a deal for a ceasefire and the release of hostages in the Gaza Strip, two Egyptian security sources said on Thursday.