Earlier this month, Twitter gave the community a preview of upcoming features during its Analyst’s Day event where it discussed changes to the platform and revenue streams. One of those touted features – the ability to privately share (aka “direct message”) a tweet – has now gone live. Says Twitter, “with today’s update you’ll be able to share a Tweet privately with any of your followers.”
On the desktop web and in the TweetDeck application, the option will be available by tapping the “…More” icon then choosing “Share via Direct Message.” On mobile, including both the iOS and Android application, a long press on the tweet in a user’s timeline will offer the option to “Share via Direct Message,” as well.
The person who receives your shared tweet will then get a push notification, and the tweet itself will display directly in the conversation.
The new option is not exactly a hugely demanded feature among Twitter users, but it will be a nice addition for those who have private conversation on the network, as it will allow a way for users to transition from public content and open discussions to more private conversations.
On mobile, private messaging is a growing trend where a large number of apps now offer users ways to communicate outside of the public web or public social media. Some even go a step further, erasing messages or photos when the conversation wraps. Twitter has been slowly venturing into this area itself, expanding its DM (private messaging) feature which more recently has added support for sharing links and, as of last winter, support for photos. The company has for a long time been incrementally improving DMs via other minor features like the addition of a “recents” list and redesigned icons, too.
“Twitter is already a great place for public conversation; now it’s also easier to privately discuss things you care about,” a company blog post proclaims, referencing the new Tweet-to-DM feature.
The changes will be arriving today on nearly all platforms, web and mobile included, and on desktop through TweetDeck. TweetDeck for Mac, and apparently – as no mention was made – the Twitter desktop app are delayed in receiving the update, however.