Twitter implements a number of improvements to its direct message system – TechCrunch

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Have you ever tried to share a funny tweet with some friends via Twitter DM, only to accidentally start a group chat? You are not alone. Today, Twitter announced that it will be introducing some quality-of-life improvements to its direct messaging system in the coming weeks, including the ability to send a tweet to multiple people at once in one-on-one conversations. Researcher Jane Manchun Wong noted that Twitter was working on this feature last month.

No more (inconvenient) accidental group chats when you Tweet multiple people. You can now share the same Tweet in up to 20 different DM convoes, separately.

Launch on iOS and web, and soon on Android. (2/5) pic.twitter.com/oHYseF3EJE

– Twitter support (@TwitterSupport) August 19, 2021

A potential downside to this update is that it may invite more spam – you can’t send a message to more than 20 people at the same time, but that’s still a lot of people. And users receiving these messages now may not realize they were part of the group spam, as individual DMs will look like 1: 1 private messages.

Twitter says Android users will have to wait a little longer than iOS and web tweeters to access this feature, and it’s unclear how long it will take, because in the past it took years for iOS DM updates to reach Android. But as a consolation prize, on both Android and iOS, if you swipe up in a DM conversation, you’ll be able to go back to the last message by pressing a down arrow button to scroll quickly.

The other two Twitter DM improvements have only been implemented on iOS so far – instead of marking individual messages with the date and time, the messages will be grouped by day. Individual direct messages will still have a timestamp, but Twitter says this change will produce “less timestamp clutter”.

Finally, in DMs, iOS users will be able to access the “add reaction” menu by either double-tapping or long-pressing on a message. By long-pressing a friend’s message, you can also delete the message on your account only, report the message or copy the text.

Image Credits: Twitter, TechCrunch screenshot

Twitter also announced today that it is testing a feature that places users’ Revue newsletters on their profile (Twitter acquired the newsletter platform earlier this year). But last week it unveiled more noticeable UI updates that experts believe made the platform less accessible. Within two days of the update, Twitter made contrast changes on its buttons and identified issues with its proprietary Chirp font on Windows.

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