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Listen Pulse runs one study again and again on a schedule. Each period of the schedule is a wave. Listen groups responses by wave, writes a report for each wave, and shows how answers change from one wave to the next. Use Listen Pulse for tracking work, for example brand health, customer satisfaction, or feedback after each release.

Turn on Listen Pulse

  1. Open your study guide.
  2. Find the Listen Pulse section. It is under Interview type.
  3. Turn on Enable Listen Pulse.
  4. Set the cadence. See Set the wave cadence.
  5. Click Publish.
The first wave starts when you publish the study. Recruitment works the same as for any other study. See Recruiting participants.
After you publish a study with Listen Pulse on, you cannot turn it off. A published Pulse study cannot be turned back into a one-off study. To make a one-off study from it, duplicate the study and turn off Listen Pulse in the copy.
Before you publish, you can turn the switch on and off as many times as you like.

Set the wave cadence

Use Reporting period to set how long each wave is: The default is Monthly, starting on day 1. Weekly cadences start on the most recent Monday. Quarterly, 6-month, and yearly cadences start on January 1, so quarterly waves follow calendar quarters.
For a monthly cadence, pick a start day from 1 to 28. Some months do not have days 29 to 31.
You can change the cadence after launch. Publish the change. Closed waves keep their dates.

How waves work

  • Wave dates use UTC.
  • A response belongs to the wave in which the participant finished the interview. A participant who starts on the last day of a wave and finishes the next day counts in the next wave.
  • One wave is open at a time. The open wave collects new responses.
  • A wave closes at the end of its period. The next wave opens at the same time.
  • Waves are named by their dates. A monthly wave shows its month, for example “Oct 2026”. Other waves show their dates, for example “Since Nov 14” for an open wave.
  • Listen writes a report for each closed wave. The report usually starts within an hour after the wave closes. It compares the wave with the waves before it. In the study sidebar, reports are grouped by wave under Report.
  • Waves are also segments. They are in the Always On Cohorts segment group, so you can compare waves in any chart. Listen manages these segments. You cannot edit or delete them. See Building segments.

See changes between waves

When your study has two or more waves, Question Analysis shows a wave picker at the top of the page.
  1. Open your study.
  2. Click Question Analysis in the study sidebar.
  3. Open the wave picker. Waves are listed newest first. The open wave shows (in progress).
  4. Select a wave.
Each question then compares the selected wave with the wave before it. The picker shows both, for example “Nov 2026 vs Oct 2026”. By default, the picker selects the newest closed wave. If that wave has no responses, it selects All waves.

The change view

For multiple choice, scale, ranking, and matrix questions, the chart shows the change between the two waves:
  • Change: how many percentage points each answer moved since the previous wave.
  • Total: the share of each answer in the selected wave.
  • Sampling noise: a small move can come from chance. Listen marks a move as Beyond sampling noise when it is larger than the 95% margin of error. Moves within sampling noise are not shaded.
Click an answer to see its history across all waves as a line chart. Open-ended questions show the change in their themes when the saved chart can split by wave. Click Show snapshot to see only the selected wave’s results. Click Show change to go back.

All waves

Select All waves to see the analysis of every response in the study, from all waves together.
MaxDiff, file upload, Gabor-Granger, and conjoint questions do not show a change view. They show the selected wave’s results.

FAQ

No. Once a study with Listen Pulse on is published, the switch stays on. To stop collecting responses, pause or close the study.
Yes. Edit the study guide and click Publish. The change applies to new interviews. To compare a question across waves, keep its wording and answer options the same. See Version history.
The picker shows only when the study has two or more waves. Wait for the first wave to close.
Yes. Turn on Enable Listen Pulse and click Publish. The first wave starts when you publish.
Anything missing? Let us know at support@listenlabs.ai and we’ll help you out.