Twitter Users Now Have Ability To Share Public Tweets Via DM

Twitter announce today via a blog post that starting immediately, on almost all platforms (web and mobile included) users can share tweets privately with any of their followers. The person they share a tweet with will get a push notification, and the tweet will display directly in the conversation­–in other words, people can share what’s interesting directly with who they want, in an A-B conversation, without necessarily having to notify others about the content of said conversation.

The feature is Twitter’s way of getting into the private messaging sphere in the mobile field, where a large number of apps now offer users ways to communicate outside of the public web or public social media, perhaps in the wake of now searchable information from potential employers and co-workers in looking at individual social media profiles. In recent months, Twitter has been gradually expanding its direct messaging feature (known among Twitter users as a DM), adding support for sharing links, and photos.

Not to mention the fact that Twitter is noticing the activities of its competition; Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, and Line all have direct messaging features that are proving popular with their users, and as such, are attempting to get a piece of the messaging pie. In addition to the DM feature, Twitter is creating the A-B-C conversations–that is, group messaging–in 2015, allowing for more than two people to engage in a private conversation. Twitter’s intention to engage its current and new users is clear in that they would like for you to keep your conversations where the big conversation, where ideas and content constantly abound, on their turf, rather than using multiple apps.
The potential for engagement with audiences is vast, especially when addressing various issues that may come up during consumer discussions about their product/service–direct messaging that allows for direct feedback is always valuable when striving to make the consumer marketing experience more efficient and enjoyable.

The only exceptions in terms of platforms for the new DM feature are Tweetdeck for Mac, and the Twitter desktop app, as rollout on these platforms seem to be delayed at the moment.

The A-B conversation in the mobile world just might be the most interesting way for people to interact in real time about the things they find interesting. Twitter’s entry in to the arena is yet another indication that mobile messaging is a must-have feature.