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Choose the anonymity setting on the Configure participant settings step when you launch a pulse. This setting controls if each response shows the name of the person who wrote it.

Choose named or anonymous

  • Named (recommended): Each response includes the author’s name. You know who said what and can follow up with that person.
  • Anonymous: Responses are fully de-identified. Use this for sensitive topics where honest answers are more important than names.
An anonymous pulse needs at least 3 participants. If you select fewer than 3 people, Anonymous is not available. Go back to Choose participants and add more people.

Anonymity is fixed after launch

You can change the anonymity setting any time before you launch. You cannot change it after you launch the pulse. To use a different setting, create a new pulse and choose the setting that you need. Duplicate pulse keeps the same anonymity setting as the original pulse. So a duplicate does not change a named pulse to anonymous. To check the setting, open the pulse’s Settings tab and find Response anonymity. It shows Responses are named or Responses are anonymous.

What changes for anonymous pulses

  • Nudges: Owners cannot nudge specific people. They can remind everyone who hasn’t responded at once. Windy still sends automatic reminders.
  • Live response streaming: This option is not available. See Live response streaming.
  • Results: Windmill hides a result until it has at least 3 responses. This also applies to each group when you compare results.
  • Participation: Owners see how many people responded, but not who. They cannot see which answers belong to which person.
Before people start, the survey tells them who can see the results and that their individual responses stay anonymous. See Anonymity and privacy for the full rules.

Choose a completion location

On the same step, you can also choose where people can respond:
  • Anywhere: People can respond in Windmill or in their chat with Windy.
  • Platform only: People can respond only in Windmill.
You can change the completion location later in the pulse’s Settings tab. The change applies to the next run.

FAQs

No. Create a new pulse and choose Anonymous. Then pause the first pulse so that it does not send more runs. See Send again, pause, and resume.
You need at least 3 participants to launch an anonymous pulse. Windmill shows a result, or a group in a comparison, only when it has at least 3 responses.
Not one person at a time. Select Remind everyone who hasn’t responded on the run, or ask Windy to remind them. Windy tells you how many people it reminded, not who. Automatic reminders still go out.