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Ask guests custom questions

Add your own questions to the RSVP — pick one, pick several, or a written answer — and read every reply in the Ask tab.

Last reviewed 6 min read

On this page9 sections
  1. Turn it on and add a question
  2. Required, hidden and closed
  3. What your guests will see
  4. One answer per party, for now
  5. Reading the answers
  6. Exporting the answers
  7. Limits and important details
  8. Common questions
  9. Related articles

The Ask tab lets you add your own questions to the RSVP — a song request, a shuttle seat, a plus-one's name, a quick either/or — and guests answer them right as they reply. Every answer collects in the Ask tab as it comes in. This is different from an event FAQ, which is read-only answers you write for guests; here, guests answer questions you ask.

Turn it on and add a question

  1. Open your event and go to the Ask tab (it holds your polls too). Until it's on you'll see one card, Ask your guests anything.
  2. Tap Ask a question to turn the module on. It opens on Questions.
  3. Type your question (up to 120 characters) and choose how guests answer:
    • Write an answer — a box where guests type a reply in their own words (up to 1,000 characters).
    • Pick one — guests choose a single answer. Add at least two.
    • Pick several — guests can tick more than one answer.
  4. For the two choice types, fill in the answers (up to 12, each up to 60 characters). If you type the same answer twice, the second one is dropped.
  5. Tap Add question.

Write each question however you'd say it out loud — emoji are welcome. If you'd rather not start from a blank box, InviteBird AI can suggest a pick-one question for your event. Nothing is added until you tap Add this.

You can have up to twenty questions in all. Once you have three live, adding another asks "Add another question?" once — an RSVP with a dozen questions starts to feel like a survey — and you can go ahead anyway.

Required, hidden and closed

Use the question settings to choose how each question works:

  • Required or Optional — a required question stops a guest from continuing until they answer, with a short This one's required. hint. Use it sparingly.
  • Shown to guests or Hidden — Hidden takes the question off the RSVP without losing any answers already collected. You can also use Hide and Show on the question's row.
  • Names shown to you or Anonymous — Anonymous collects answers without names attached, and guests are told so on the question. Hosts don't see names either.
  • Guests see results or Results just for you — choice questions only. Written answers are never shown to other guests.
  • Close answers and Reopen (on the question's row) — a closed question stops taking answers but stays in your list.

For a question that already exists, each option saves the moment you tap it. For a new question, the options you choose apply to every question you add after it.

Edit reopens a question to fix its wording or answers. Fixing a typo keeps the votes already cast on answers you didn't change. Remove deletes the question and every answer to it — it asks first, and tells you how many answers go with it. If you only want to take a question away for a while, hide it instead.

What your guests will see

Once you have at least one question that's switched on, guests reach one step of your RSVP, after the song step. Questions appear one at a time — Question 1 of 3, Question 2 of 3 — with a box for a written answer or tappable choices. A required question is marked with an asterisk. After a guest answers a choice question whose results are on, they get a brief look at how everyone is answering, then move on.

Guests can change an answer later from Manage your RSVP: the Ask row there has a Change link that reopens the questions with their own answers filled in. Taking an answer back works too — clearing a written answer, or un-ticking every box on a pick-several question, removes it from your results. See Changing an RSVP.

One answer per party, for now

Answers are collected per party in this version: the person filling in the RSVP answers on behalf of everyone in their party, exactly like the meal step. There isn't a separate answer for each named plus-one yet.

Reading the answers

Open the Answers pane in the Ask tab. It refreshes by itself every few seconds while you watch.

  • Each pick-one question shows a chart and a count for every answer.
  • Each pick-several question shows, for every answer, how many guests picked it, out of the guests who answered.
  • Each written question lists every reply with the guest's name — or Anonymous. Long lists show the first 25 and a Show more button.
  • Each written reply has a small Remove. It asks first — Remove this answer? The guest won't be told. — and the counts update. Use it for a reply that shouldn't be there; the guest can answer again from Manage your RSVP unless you close or hide the question.
  • The Overview pane shows how many questions and polls you have, how many are live, how many answers are in, and the three most recent written replies.

Exporting the answers

The guest list downloads from the Guests tab, as a CSV or an Excel file, include your questions. You'll find one extra column per question that's switched on, headed Q: followed by the question, in the same order as your Questions list. A pick-several answer lists the guest's picks together in one cell. A question you've closed keeps its column; one you've hidden doesn't. A question set to Anonymous still gets a column, marked (anonymous — answers not listed), but its cells stay blank — a row is a named guest, and the point of Anonymous is that nobody can match an answer to a name.

Limits and important details

  • Up to twenty questions per event; question text up to 120 characters; up to 12 answers per pick-one or pick-several question.
  • A question only shows to guests when it has a title, is switched on and not closed, and — for choice questions — has at least two answers.
  • Turning Ask off hides everything from guests and deletes nothing; your questions and every answer are saved for when you turn it back on.
  • Written answers and Pick-one and pick-several are two separate switches under Ask → Settings. Each hides only its own kind of question from guests.
  • Once your event has wrapped, Ask is read-only: you can read every answer, but questions can no longer be added, changed or removed.
  • Renaming a choice after replies are in is fine; guests who picked the old wording keep their recorded answer.

Common questions

How is this different from Polls? They're the same module now — polls and your own questions both live in the Ask tab, in one list, and guests answer them in one step. A pick-one question you'd like the room to weigh in on is a poll; a written question comes back to you and stays between you and the guest.

Do guests have to answer? Only the questions you mark Required. Optional questions can be skipped, and a skipped question simply records no answer for that party.

Can each guest in a party answer separately? Not yet. For now there's one set of answers per party, like the meal step.

Can guests change their answer after submitting? Yes. They reopen Manage your RSVP, tap Change on the Ask row, and update it. Your Answers pane follows.

What happens to answers if I remove a question? Removing deletes the question and every answer to it. If you only want to take it off the RSVP, hide it instead — that keeps every answer.

Why can't I see a written answer I expected? Check that the guest finished their RSVP — an answer is saved when they tap Continue on that question. A guest who typed a reply but closed the page before tapping Continue hasn't sent it.

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