Frequently asked questions
Clear answers about voting, privacy, links, and creator controls.
This FAQ describes the current PickTogether product behavior. For storage details, read Privacy. For examples of when a poll is useful, browse the decision guides. For boundaries around unsafe or high-stakes use, read Safety.
Do I need an account to create or vote?
No. PickTogether is designed to work without voter accounts or public profiles. A creator makes a decision and receives a share link plus a private owner key for creator controls. Voters open the link and choose from the available options without signing up.
Is voting anonymous?
PickTogether does not require names, email addresses, phone numbers, public profiles, advertising identifiers, device fingerprints, or IP addresses in its application database. It does create a random browser identifier so the same browser can update its existing vote instead of adding duplicates. That is product anonymity for casual choices, not a guarantee of legal or election-grade anonymity.
Can someone vote more than once?
The application is designed around one active vote per browser identifier for each decision. If that browser changes its choice while voting is open, the existing vote is updated rather than a second active vote being added. This is useful for casual group choices but is not identity verification: another browser or cleared local storage is a different technical context.
Can I change my vote?
Yes, while the decision is still open. The poll experience lets a voter return to choice mode and submit a different option. Once the decision is closed or expired, new and changed votes are rejected by the server.
Why can't I see the current results before voting?
For an active decision, PickTogether hides real totals from a viewer who has not voted yet. After that browser votes, current results are available. When the decision is closed or expired, final results can be shown without a prior vote. The goal is to reduce the chance that visible totals influence an initial casual preference.
What can the creator control?
For new decisions, the creator can use the private owner key stored in their browser to close voting, reopen voting, set a future deadline, or remove a deadline. These actions are authenticated with the owner key; simply knowing the public poll link does not grant creator controls.
What happens if I lose my owner key?
The raw owner key is not stored in the application database; only a one-way SHA-256 hash is stored there. PickTogether lets a creator explicitly copy the raw key as a private backup and restore it in another browser. If the browser copy and every backup are lost, the current product cannot reconstruct the original raw key from the stored hash.
Is a shared poll private?
A real decision is available to anyone who obtains its public link, so the link should be treated as shareable access rather than a password. Real poll pages are marked noindex and nofollow for search engines, but that is not an access-control system. Do not put secrets, personal records, medical details, passwords, or other sensitive information in the question or choices.
How many choices can a poll have?
The current creation flow supports a short list with a maximum of eight choices. In practice, many everyday decisions work better with three to five realistic options because the group can compare them quickly without recreating the same overload that caused the original discussion.
Can I set a deadline?
Yes. A creator with the correct owner key can set or remove a future deadline within the limits enforced by the service. When the deadline passes, the decision is treated as expired and further voting is rejected while the final result remains readable.
Does PickTogether track voters with IP addresses or device fingerprints?
The application database does not store IP addresses or device fingerprints for voter identity. Abuse controls use Cloudflare platform-level rate limiting and bounded application scopes instead. Cloudflare may process standard network and request metadata as part of delivering and protecting the service, as described on the Privacy page.
Can I use PickTogether for an official election or high-stakes vote?
No. PickTogether is for casual group decisions. It does not provide verified voter identity, election administration, legal audit guarantees, formal authorization, or the controls required for official elections, financial approvals, medical decisions, discipline, legal votes, or other high-stakes processes.
Does PickTogether work in Arabic?
Yes. English is the default language and the interface can be switched to Arabic. The language preference is saved in the browser, and Arabic uses a right-to-left layout across the product and the public guidance pages.