An async video interview question is a survey question that asks the respondent to record and submit a short video instead of typing an answer. No scheduling, no separate call tool — the respondent hits record, answers in their own time, and the video becomes part of their response like any other answer.
It's the same idea behind one-way video interview tools used in hiring, but built as a normal survey question type rather than a separate product: you can drop one video question into an otherwise ordinary form, right next to multiple choice and rating scales.
Why teams use async video instead of a live call
A live interview or call gets you a real-time conversation, but it costs both sides a calendar slot. Async video trades that for something else: the respondent answers whenever it's convenient, and you review the recording whenever it's convenient — no overlap required. That trade is worth making in a specific set of situations:
- Early-stage candidate screening. One or two questions ("walk us through a project you're proud of") filter a large applicant pool before anyone books time for a live interview.
- User research and usability feedback. Watching and hearing someone react to a product, a design, or a pricing page tells you things a text answer won't — tone, hesitation, what they point at.
- Customer testimonials. A short recorded answer to "what changed after you started using [product]?" is usable as social proof with far less back-and-forth than coordinating a call.
- Support or bug reports. Sometimes a person can show a problem faster than they can describe it in a text box.
None of this replaces a live interview for a final-round hire or a deep qualitative session — it's a filter and a feedback channel, not a conversation.
Designing a good video prompt
A video question lives or dies on the prompt. A few things that consistently work better:
- Ask one thing. "Tell us about yourself" produces a rambling two minutes with no usable signal. "What's the biggest problem you're trying to solve right now?" produces an answer you can actually compare across respondents.
- Set a time expectation up front. People pace themselves differently when they know they have 60 seconds versus 3 minutes. Say the limit in the question text, not just in the recording UI.
- Keep it optional where you can. A camera is a bigger ask than a text field — some respondents will always prefer to type. Reserve required video questions for contexts where the video is the point (candidate screening, testimonials), and make it optional everywhere else.
- Follow it with a text field, not another video. One recorded answer plus a short follow-up question gets you both the qualitative color and something easy to scan and search later.
How it works in Surveyee
Video and audio response are question types like any other — add one from the block picker, write your prompt, and the respondent sees a Record button in place of a text field. Recording is capped at 3 minutes, shows a live preview and timer while it's running, and lets the respondent re-record before submitting if they're not happy with the first take. Once they stop, the recording uploads automatically in the background.
On your side, responses show up in the results tab with the video or audio playable inline — no separate download step to review one answer. The underlying file link is only ever generated for the survey owner: nothing is public by default, matching how file upload answers already work here.
The same release adds a few other direct-capture question types, for cases where typing isn't the natural way to answer:
- Drawing — a blank canvas for a freehand sketch, useful for "circle the part of the page that confused you" type prompts in usability feedback.
- Color picker — a native color swatch, for brand/design preference questions.
- Location — captures coordinates via the browser's location prompt, with manual latitude/longitude entry as a fallback for anyone who'd rather not share it.
All of them work the same way as every other question type in Surveyee: optional or required, reorderable, and readable in the results tab without any extra setup.
Where this fits
If you're screening candidates, the job application template is a natural place to add one video question near the top, before the rest of the form. For product or UX feedback, the user research template pairs well with a video question followed by a couple of targeted follow-ups — see our guide to writing questions that get honest answers for how to phrase those. Either way, treat video as one tool in the survey, not the whole survey — a single well-placed video question usually beats a form made entirely of them.