On a long text question, your respondent can tap the record button and speak their answer instead of typing it. Their words appear in the answer box as text, they check it, and they send it like any typed answer. That means people who would have typed one short line on a phone keyboard can say what they actually think, which is what open questions are for.
David, a student writing his thesis, has a questionnaire that ends with three open questions about how his respondents study. Typing long answers on a phone is tiring, so many people skip them or write a few words. With voice answers, a respondent can explain their routine in their own words, and David gets text he can quote and code in his analysis (see how to create a thesis questionnaire).
How to turn on voice answers
There is nothing to switch on, because every long text question offers voice to respondents whose browser supports it.
- Open your form in the studio, click Add block and choose Long text under Questions.
- Write an open question, for example "Walk me through how you prepare for an exam."
- Click Question settings if you want a minimum or maximum number of characters, and set the Required switch.
- Set the form's language in the form settings, because it also picks the speech language (see Form languages).
- Click Preview and record an answer yourself.
Voice works only on long text questions. Short text, email, link and number questions show just the send button.
What your respondents see
While the answer box is empty, the button next to it is a record button labelled "Record answer". As soon as there is text in the box, the same button becomes Send. Browsers without speech recognition show only Send, so the question still works for everyone.
- The respondent taps the record button and allows microphone access when the browser asks.
- A waveform shows while they speak, and each phrase is added to the box, separated by a comma.
- If they pause or the browser ends the session, recording pauses and a Resume button appears. Tapping it carries on from where they stopped.
- They tap Send. PingPolls waits until the last phrase is recognized, turns the final comma into a full stop, capitalizes the first letter and sends the answer.
If they had already typed something, that text stays as the start of the answer, and Cancel puts the box back exactly as it was before recording. An empty recording is never sent, and leaving the page stops the recording.
If the microphone can't be used, for example because permission was denied, the respondent sees "Microphone access failed. Check browser permissions and try again." with Cancel and Retry, plus Skip when the question is not required.
Languages
The form's language picks the speech language, so a form in Indonesian listens for Indonesian. Voice answers follow all 12 form languages, which are German, English, Spanish, French, Hindi, Indonesian, Japanese, Korean, Brazilian Portuguese, Tagalog, Turkish and Vietnamese.
Where the audio goes
The speech recognition is done by the respondent's browser, using the browser's own speech service, which is often cloud-based and differs from browser to browser. PingPolls receives only the resulting text, and no audio is sent to or stored by PingPolls. The answer you see in the Results and Responses tabs is that text, the same as a typed answer.
Limits
- Voice is only on long text questions, and only in browsers that support speech recognition.
- There is no manual pause button. Recording pauses on its own when the respondent stops speaking.
- The microphone error message is shown in English in every form language for now.
- Voice answers work on every plan, including Free, with no limit on how many respondents use them.
Frequently asked questions
Does voice work when my form is embedded on my website?
Yes. Embedded forms are allowed to use the microphone, so respondents can speak their answers on your own site too (see Embed your form).
Can my form read questions out loud?
No. Voice is for answers only, and there are no spoken questions yet.
Can I analyze spoken answers with AI?
Yes, because they arrive as text. Turn on AI analysis for the long text question, and its answers are included when you ask questions about your responses in Ask AI.
