Twitter Direct Messaging Becoming More Open With New Option

Direct messages have always been a prohibitively confusing aspect of Twitter for many new users or those who are not tech savvy.

How do you access it? Is this for sure not public? How come I can't message this dude?

And some of Twitter's relatively esoteric functions like DM'ing are actually going to be a problem for the company once it goes public (which should be very soon), because in order to reach a wider audience, you've got to have easy-to-pick-up features for everyone.

Twitter's moving in that direction, especially with a new update to its direct message rulebook, which is now rolling out gradually to all Twitter users.

Usually, in order to send a direct message - besides finding the unmarked black envelope on Twitter.com (good luck on third-party apps) - both parties had to first be following each other.

Even if you wanted to direct message someone who followed you, you'd have to follow them first. Even if celebrities wanted to respond privately to trolls, they'd have to follow the troll first in order to strike back - much to the delight of the troll ("I've got Kanye following me!"). For journalism on Twitter, having to ask an interview subject to "follow back" before being able to talk privately is an extra step and an annoyance to both parties.

The New Option

Now, there's an option in Twitter's setting that allows you to allow direct messages from anyone who follows you, regardless of whether you decide to follow them back.

This option basically gives you the power to allow unsolicited conversations from strangers, which should open the conversation without taking away the option of privacy from those who want or need it.

To enable the open inbox feature (that's what I think it should be called), look for the first settings tab, according to Pocket-Lint, and there should be a checkbox that looks like this:

If you can't find it, don't worry. Twitter should be gradually rolling out this option to all users.