Twitter announced a fresh lot of features, including DM Replies and a new emoji picker for direct messages. The social networking platform is also getting the much-awaited encrypted DMs feature, according to a separate tweet from Elon Musk.
We’re excited to launch two new features in Direct Messages today!
— Twitter Support (@TwitterSupport) May 10, 2023
📢 Introducing DM Replies! You can now reply to any message you receive in DMs, making conversations smoother and more intuitive.
🥳 We’ve also added a new Emoji Picker to DMs, allowing you to react to messages…
Elon Musk announced that the release of encrypted DMs 1.0 "should happen" by Wednesday. "The acid test is that I could not see your DMs even if there was a gun to my head," he said.
Speaking of DM replies, the feature allows users to reply to any message they receive in their DMs. For reference, this is similar to how users can respond to individual messages in apps like WhatsApp, Instagram, and iMessage. Both DM replies and the emoji picker have started rolling out, as per the official tweet.
Musk also said that Twitter will get support for voice and video chat in the coming future, allowing users to talk to others without giving their phone numbers. However, an exact release timeline is yet to be known.
With latest version of app, you can DM reply to any message in the thread (not just most recent) and use any emoji reaction.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 9, 2023
Release of encrypted DMs V1.0 should happen tomorrow. This will grow in sophistication rapidly. The acid test is that I could not see your DMs even if…
Earlier this week, Musk announced that it will start shredding older accounts that have remained inactive for "several years." In addition, Twitter admitted that a security breach allowed all users to access the tweets that were only meant for Twitter Circle users.
Backtracking on its previous decision, Twitter recently waived off its API charges for verified government or public services tweeting about emergency notifications, weather alerts, and transport notifications. This came after multiple services such as New York City Subway stopped using the platform to share transit alerts which were later resumed after Twitter"s response.