“Can you follow me so I can send you a direct message?” That’s how a typical 140-character conversation that needs to go private begins if the two parties aren’t following each other. It was always annoying not being able to send private, direct messages to other people unless both parties followed each other, but now Twitter is changing that.
You can now set whether you want people to be able to send you a direct message regardless of follow status. Should you enable it, someone who wants to send you a direct message will see a button to do so when they visit your profile. You can also continue the conversation with a reply of your own even if that person has opted out of receiving direct messages from people they don’t follow.
Here’s how you go about doing it on the Android version of the Twitter app once you’ve received the update:
- In the top menu, tap on the overflow icon
- Select Settings and tap the account @username you’d like to adjust.
- Under Other, tap Receive Direct Messages from anyone to allow anyone to send you Messages.
And there you have it — no more awkward “follow me and I’ll follow you” nonsense before two people are able to converse in the private, comfy confines of their digital message box.
[via Twitter]
