The desktop Telegram messaging app has just made its first major feature release of the year.

A crop of interesting new options have been added to the interactive ‘polls’ feature

Telegram 1.9.7 for Windows, macOS and Linux builds on the changes introduced in the previous stable release by adding a crop of interesting new options to its interactive ‘polls’ feature.

Didn’t know you could create polls in Telegram? Well, yup, you can — but only in groups and channels (which makes sense: a poll with only recipient isn’t really a poll).

With the latest Telegram desktop release three new kinds of polls are available:

Visible votes (as the name might tell you) now lets users see who voted for which option in a given poll. Previously, all Telegram polls were anonymous (and that option is, apparently, still available).

Multiple Answers (as the name might tell you) allows users to vote for more than one option in a poll. This can’t (currently) be limited meaning users can vote for up-to every option in a poll.

Quiz Mode lets you pose a question with a series of potential answers. You can pick which answer is “correct”, and users can then guess — with the correct answer being displayed only after they vote.

I can’t actually find the option for visible votes in the client myself, so I assume it may be a checkbox elsewhere in the UI.

Over all, some nice feature additions, particularly if you use or run group chats or broadcast channels (there’s an omg! ubuntu! Telegram channel you’re welcome to join for post updates and the odd poll or two).

I do hope the ability to view and vote in polls comes to the Telegram web app soon. As of writing this it still shows up as a “not supported on Telegram Web”.

Rounding out this Telegram update is a change to message scheduling. You can now write a message to another user and set it to send only when the recipient comes online (rather than at a specific time only).

Want to try all this out?

We’ve shown you how to install Telegram on Ubuntu, Linux Mint et al before, so if you don’t already yet have the app, do go grab it — just remember: you need a valid phone number to sign up.