Twitter releases new free-for-all DM settings (if you want to)

While it is fun to have public conversations on social media, there are some discussions that need to be taken to a more private setting. And if that convo you’re having is on Twitter, your best recourse is Direct Messaging. But what if the person/entity is not following you or you’re not following them? An awkward “Please follow me” is not great to see on your timeline. Good thing Twitter has now changed the way we can use DMs for a (hopefully) better interaction.

You can now adjust your settings to allow people who you don’t follow or don’t follow you to send you direct messages. You are also free to reply to those DMs, whether or not you’re following that person. But lest you think that you will suddenly be flooded with spam DMs or people you don’t really want to talk to, turning on this setting is optional. It will not be turned on by default and you would have to go to your settings to enable the “Receive Direct Messages from anyone” button, if you want to. Of course when you do, there are always risks when you do turn it on, like the aforementioned spam and unwanted people, but if you really want to, then you’d have to wade through the annoying ones to get to the conversations you really want to have. Or you can just block them so they can stop sending you messages.

Another new feature is that there is now a direct message button on the profile pages of people whom you can DM. Either the two of you follow each other or the account has also turned on the “Receive Direct Messages from anyone” feature. You also need to know that regardless of your privacy setting, if you turn on the feature, then you’ll still be able to receive direct messages, even if you have a protected account.

The changes have rolled out in both the web version and the Android mobile version as well. They promised that they will be bringing more improvements to the DM feature. Who knows, they might even get to the level of messaging apps someday, if they really wanted to.

SOURCE: Twitter